IN COLOMBIA, A LOCAL PUSH FOR PEACE

Fed Up With Troubled National Effort, 15 Mayors Sign Own Deal With Guerrillas

EL PENOL, Colombia -- This town has seen its share of strife over the
years. A government-sponsored dam project submerged El Penol 30 years
ago, forcing 18,000 residents into a concrete replacement on higher
ground. Today, it is Colombia's civil war that washes over El Penol
and its neighbors.

So Alidio Hoyos Galeano, El Penol's mayor, has joined 14 angry
colleagues in a rebellion of their own. Tired of war and frustrated
with the central government's failure to stop it, the mayors have
signed a cease-fire agreement with the National Liberation Army
(ELN), Colombia's second-largest guerrilla insurgency, that calls on
the National Police to leave their towns.

The deal runs counter to federal law, and it may become more of a
symbol than a valid agreement if the mayors cannot force the police
to leave. But it reflects a deep national ambivalence toward
President Andres Pastrana's languishing three-year peace effort,
which has failed to bring significant agreements or reduce violence,
and it points to a potentially destructive avenue for disgruntled
regional officials who appear increasingly eager to go it alone.
Pastrana is scheduled to meet President Bush on Sunday, in part to
discuss efforts to end Colombia's four-decade civil war.

"We are not seeing any results here," Hoyos said, referring to
Pastrana's peace effort with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia, or FARC, the largest guerrilla insurgency in the country.
"They have moved us to the margins. This is a call to the [central]
government to help us. We, too, are a government."

News of the agreement, negotiated secretly for weeks and finalized
Oct. 26, has yet to reach El Penol's empty streets. To weary
residents, though, the concept sounds good, particularly to those
gazing up at the blown-out facade of the El Escorial apartment
building.

The apartments were rented by police officers. At 6:30 a.m. on Oct.
20, a bomb packed with 60 pounds of explosives went off, killing six
people and severely damaging many of the houses clustered nearby.
Although the foreman overseeing reconstruction of El Escorial said
the mayors' deal would "leave us in the hands of the guerrillas,"
Gilberto Alzate, an unemployed construction worker who lives three
doors down from the apartments, welcomed the idea.

"Before, I felt safe because I was close to the police," he said.
"But as bad as all this has gotten, I feel even more unprotected."

The explosion sprayed broken glass over Luz Marina's children, ages 3
and 6. Marina and her husband own a shop across from El Escorial that
sells candy, drinks and food. The bomb cracked their walls, shattered
windows and broke water pipes, causing about $6,500 of damage that
will be difficult to pay for.

"It would be much better if the police were a little farther away,"
said Rose Angelica Gallo, 77, Marina's mother-in-law, who lives
behind the shop.

How much authority the central government should exert over provinces
and villages, which are isolated by rugged geography and poor rural
infrastructure, is at the crux of a centuries-old debate in Colombia.
But the issue has never been fresher, as three armed groups -- two
Marxist-inspired guerrilla forces fighting the government and a
counter-guerrilla paramilitary group that often cooperates with the
army -- expand their influence throughout Colombia without much
resistance from government security forces stretched thin by the
expanding war.

These towns live daily with the presence of guerrillas and
paramilitary groups. So far this year, 107 people have been killed in
incidents linked to the war. The law that prohibits local officials
from meeting with the guerrillas and their paramilitary enemies has
long been interpreted here as unfair, out of touch and dangerous.

Pastrana confined negotiations to the national level to avoid a
patchwork of regional accords that, while bringing a measure of peace
to some places, could also strengthen guerrilla influence in those
areas. As a result, officials from the interior minister to the
national police chief have condemned the mayors' move, saying it will
undermine the president's peace efforts while strengthening the
guerrilla foothold in an important region.

National police officials will likely have the last word on whether
the federal police force leaves these towns, even though mayors are
legally considered the local chiefs of police.

The mayors have largely ignored the criticism, and say they will
proceed with talks to reach similar cease-fire agreements with the
FARC and the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, or AUC as the
paramilitary group is known. They hope to meet with the AUC leader,
Carlos Castano, by the end of the month and have received support
from other mayors as well as from six southern governors who have
been highly critical of Pastrana's peace efforts and the U.S.
anti-drug strategy in Colombia.

"How can they tell us not to do something with the number of deaths
we have had here this year?" said Nevardo Garcia, El Penol's
government secretary. "We have been waiting for them to do something."

In this string of towns in eastern Antioquia province about 150 miles
northwest of the capital, Bogota, it is easy to see why the mayors
would choose to evict what they describe as a heavily armed yet
ineffective police presence for a six-month moratorium on guerrilla
attacks.

All told, the towns are home to about 200,000 residents. The region
is coveted by each of the armed groups because of its location,
stretching between a key highway to the coast and the country's
largest river. A third of Colombia's hydroelectric power is generated
in eastern Antioquia.

In San Luis, a hillside town about 20 miles from El Penol, a FARC
attack two years ago destroyed the town hall and police post. Eight
police officers died, and the Colombian government withdrew all
police soon after. The mayor of Sonson has been kidnapped twice this
year by the ELN. The mayor of Cocorna works from an office in
Medellin, unable to stay in the town that elected him because of
death threats.

"All we got from the government was a condolence card," said Andrea
Cardona, the secretary of government in Marinilla, which has filed
written complaints with government human rights agencies about rising
violence in the town. In August, a bomb exploded in front of the
police station that sits a block from three schools, killing a woman
and injuring more than a dozen other people.

"I don't think the government has the moral authority to tell these
mayors not to do this," Cardona said.

An address next to the town police station, usually lodged among a
jumble of government offices, businesses and homes, is among the most
dangerous in town. Typically fortified by sandbags and covered in
wire mesh to prevent grenade attacks, the posts are prime guerrilla
targets, particularly as the National Police has become a more
heavily armed presence thanks in part to a U.S. military aid package
that is sending it helicopters and weapons.

In San Rafael, a regional police official said he believes the mayors
are negotiating in good faith. But he said moving his post, now
situated behind the town hall and next door to a pizza parlor, a
betting parlor and a pool hall topped by apartments, would jeopardize
his 20 men and the town.

"They may want us up there," he said, pointing to a tree-covered hill
behind the town. "But it would be much more complicated for us to
protect this town."

The mayors' agreement does not call for the removal of army troops
and only requires police stations to be moved outside town. The ELN
has also proposed that the National Police return to a more
community- style method by putting down its machine guns and grenades
and instead carrying only handguns and batons, an idea the mayors are
hoping to implement. In return, the guerrilla group would no longer
label police "military objectives."

National Police officials suggest that the ELN is hoping to use the
accord to achieve something it was unable to earlier this year:
control of its own demilitarized zone as a venue for peace talks.

Pastrana turned over a large stretch of southern Colombia to the FARC
to begin peace talks three years ago. He planned to withdraw security
forces from a Rhode Island-size area of southern Bolivar province
this year to begin negotiations with the ELN as well. But
paramilitary forces, unchecked by the Colombian army, confounded
those efforts.