RECLAIMING COLOMBIA FROM THE REBELS

The reconquest of Colombia has begun.

Hard-line President Alvaro Uribe has moved his country onto a war footing
and headed up to Washington to enrol Colombia in the US "war on terrorism".

And to ask President George W Bush to wade deeper into the quagmire of
Colombia's 38-year civil conflict.

Three of the Colombia's provinces have been selected as the start point for
the state's reconquest of the country.

One of them, Arauca, has been designated a "Zone of Rehabilitation and
Consolidation".

This gives the security forces unprecedented powers - to arrest without
warrant, impose curfews, search property and restrict movement.

Their orders are clear - re-establish the authority of the state and clean
out the camps of the rebels and paramilitaries.

Crucial Timing

To emphasise the permanent nature of the reconquest, Defence Minister
Martha Lucia Ramirez said that the action is not just about the military,
but involves all organs of the state.

"It is necessary to clarify that these zones will not just have military
presence, but the state will also be bringing health, education and
employment programmes," Ms Ramirez said.

And it is perhaps no coincidence that these measures have been introduced
just as Mr Uribe is in Washington to visit the White House.

Quid Pro Quo

Mr Bush, as he toughens his rhetoric over Iraq and unveils the new US
national security policy, has already indicated he is prepared the back
Colombia in its war on rebel groups, three of which are on the US terrorism
list.

But only so long as Colombia helps itself by increasing its own defence
spending and taking serious measures to improve security.

Well Mr Uribe has certainly done that. In the six weeks since he took
office he has raised taxes, sending every extra peso he can squeeze from a
squealing exchequer into the military.

He has established a civilian spy network and system of rewards for
informants, is arming peasants in vulnerable areas of the country and has
given the security forces sweeping powers.

US Interests

"The president is hoping that his tough measures in Colombia will find echo
with Mr Bush's tough rhetoric in Washington and that the US will provide
more training, hardware, intelligence and money," said a military source on
condition of anonymity.

It is also no coincidence that Arauca has been chosen as one of the first
areas to be subjected to these new conditions.

It is here that US interests are most obviously represented, not just
because the area is carpeted in coca crops, the raw material for cocaine,
of which more than 500 tons wash up on US shores every year, but because
under the soil is the equally lucrative resource of oil.

Arauca's biggest oil field, Cano Limon, is being exploited by the Los
Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum.

Financial Aid

In the last aid package announced by Mr Bush almost $100 million was given
for the training of a brigade to protect the Cano Limon pipeline which was
blown up by Marxist rebels 170 times last year.

US Green Berets arrive in Arauca next month to start the training programme.

This was the first package of US military aid designed for
counter-insurgency rather than the campaign against the drugs trade, and
the Uribe administration is hoping that this can be the first of a series
of US initiatives to help beleaguered army units across the country.

So on Wednesday Mr Uribe will tell Mr Bush that Colombia is serious about
its war on terrorism, but needs yet more help to defeat the guerrillas and
paramilitaries, and Mr Bush will be hard pushed to refuse.