COLOMBIANS, FRUSTRATED BY WAR, VOTE FOR LEGISLATURE

BOGOTA - Colombians embittered by rebel violence voted under heavy security
yesterday for a new Congress, a body which could be called on to give the
US-backed military bigger budgets and a freer hand to combat leftist
insurgents.

Three years of fruitless peace talks collapsed last month, and the
guerrillas launched a wave of attacks against the South American country's
infrastructure - boosting support for hard-line candidates for Congress and
in May's presidential elections.

Many Colombians voting yesterday said they had had enough of the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, and other illegal armed
groups.

"The violent groups had an opportunity to negotiate, without fighting, but
they didn't take it seriously," Gerardo Mota, the 33- year-old owner of a
laundry business, said after he cast his ballot in the capital.

Mota called for "a firm hand" in dealing with the insurgents.

Up for grabs were all 268 seats in the Colombian Congress, which itself has
been targeted in the civil war. The FARC has made it a policy to kidnap
lawmakers, hoping to trade them for imprisoned rebels. It currently holds
five member of Congress, some of whom were placed on the ballot anyway.

A right-wing paramilitary group known for its brutal massacres also has
cast its shadow over the election. The United Self-Defense Forces of
Colombia, or AUC, is secretly backing candidates who could support its
hard-line counterinsurgency agenda in the Congress.

Threats from both the FARC and the AUC made campaigning in rural areas too
risky for many candidates.

Election-related violence was at a minimum through mid-afternoon yesterday,
and voting proceeded peacefully across the country. The rebels burned
ballots in 15 of the nation's 1,097 municipalities, likely preventing
voting in those remote towns, said Interior Minister Armando Estrada.

The rebels had urged Colombians to boycott the elections, saying only those
who would pursue the interests of the rich would be elected.

About 150,000 troops and police provided security - the biggest force ever
deployed, authorities said.

Rebels in the eastern state of Arauca, which is being fought over by the
FARC and a paramilitary group, had warned voters not to travel to the
polls. But no bloodshed specifically related to the elections was reported.

In one of the few cases of violence yesterday, army troops killed five
rebels who were trying to blow up a bridge in northwest Antioquia state,
the military reported. Three other FARC rebels died in clashes in the
southern states of Huila, Caqueta, and Meta.

President Andres Pastrana cast his ballot in Bogota's colonial central
plaza, less than a month after he ended the peace process and ordered the
army to retake a rebel-controlled zone. His decision came after the
guerrillas hijacked an airliner and kidnapped a senator aboard it.

"By voting, Colombians are going to defeat terrorism and show the violent
ones and the intolerant that what we want is to strengthen our democracy,"
Pastrana said.

Voters in the southern Colombian city of Florencia, which has suffered
blackouts and food shortages due to FARC bombings, lined up to cast ballots
as soldiers in combat gear patrolled the streets.

"I want to support democracy," said Maria Paula Toledo, a cook at a
hospital. "It's time for us to leave our fears behind, and to move ahead."

Since the collapse of peace talks on Feb. 20, the FARC has stepped up
attacks, bombing reservoirs, bridges, and energy installations. Vast areas
of the country, which is the size of Spain, France, and Portugal combined,
have been left isolated and in darkness.

The attacks are helping solidify support in Washington for expanded US
military aid.

The Bush administration has said it is reviewing a policy that currently
limits aid to counternarcotics purposes.

Pastrana's Conservative Party, battered by the failure of peace talks and a
weak economy during Pastrana's term, was struggling to retain its political
influence yesterday.