COLOMBIA'S WAR BLEEDS NORTH ACROSS BORDER

JAQUE, Panama -- Arriving in helicopters and carrying machine guns, police
are beefing up patrols in the remote villages of Panama's southern border
amid reports that Colombian rebels and paramilitary gunmen are hiding there.

National Chief of Police Carlos Bares said officials don't want to clash
with the Colombians -- just to make sure the area is secure.

"We want them to take the problems of their country and leave us in peace,"
he said.

Panamanians living along the frontier are nervous. Teachers in Biroquera,
with more than 300 residents, abandoned their classrooms for a while, and
farmers are afraid to leave their houses.

In the late 1990s, a right-wing paramilitary group from Colombia killed
several people in the village of Bongo. Guerrillas from Colombia's leftist
rebels are suspected to have been behind a nighttime attack last year on
Nazaret that killed a little girl and wounded several people.

In Biroquera, residents have been worried since police reported finding a
guerrilla camp a few miles away. Messages have been found scribbled on tree
trunks: "Panamanian police, come and get us," one challenged.

Panama's government, which has no army, has sent more than 200 police
officers to Jaque and its surrounding villages. About 40 officers are
reinforcing Biroquera.

The added police encouraged teachers to return to schools in Biroquera on
Nov. 26 to finish out the school year.

Officers recently searched Jaque looking for undocumented residents, a
difficult task because the region is home to hundreds of Colombian refugees
from their country's 37-year-old civil war, which causes thousands of
deaths each year.