Colombia Must Declare War on Rebels, Official Says

Andean nation's main guerrilla group is out to destroy the state, adds Otto J. Reich, the U.S. point man on Latin America

by Paul Richter
Los Angeles Times

July 3, 2002

WASHINGTON -- The State Department's senior official for Latin America said Tuesday that the administration of Colombian President-elect Alvaro Uribe needs to move aggressively to "take the war to the guerrillas" who are trying to drive out the country's mayors and lower-court judges.

Otto J. Reich, assistant secretary of State for Western Hemisphere affairs, said in an interview that the new Colombian government will need to intensify military action against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia rebels, who have adopted a "perverse strategy ... of trying to destroy the government from the lowest level up."

In recent days, the group, known by its Spanish initials as the FARC, has threatened to kill or kidnap Colombia's municipal judges and more than 1,000 mayors if they do not resign. Several dozen mayors have quit. The offensive is a direct challenge to Uribe, who won a landslide victory in May after campaigning on a promise to increase military pressure on the FARC and the other main insurgent group, the National Liberation Army, or ELN. Uribe, who takes office next month, has promised to sharply increase military spending and double the size of Colombia's professional army.

The Bush administration is backing Uribe's plans to intensify the battle and is asking Congress to increase U.S. aid to Colombia, which has totaled nearly $2 billion since 2000.

Reich said the FARC's goal is to kill "just enough to get the others to resign." If the mayors resign, "then they'll do the same with the governors," he said, "and who'll run the government? ...These people are out to destroy the Colombian state."

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