Colombia rebel group says it won't enter Brazil

CNN
September 3, 2000

Colombia rebel group says it won't enter Brazil

                  SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) -- Colombia's largest rebel group said it wants to
                  isolate its conflict with the Colombian government and will not allow the fighting
                  to spill over to Brazil and other neighboring countries, local media reported
                  Sunday.

                  "We want to calm our neighbors," the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
                  commander Ivan Rios told the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper. "The territory of
                  our struggle is Colombia. It is our position that our popular struggle should be
                  carried out within our country."

                  Rios said the rebels are preparing to send a document to Brazil and four other
                  countries that share borders with Colombia -- Venezuela, Peru, Ecuador and
                  Panama -- to calm regional fears that rebels will cross frontiers if their
                  36-year-old conflict with government forces escalates.

                  Colombia is expected to step up attacks on drug smugglers and the leftist
                  guerillas believed to protect them as the United States begins doling out 1.3 billion
                  dollars in anti-drug aid approved last month by U.S. President Bill Clinton.

                  Brazil has reportedly started beefing up security and reinforcing troops along its
                  960-mile (1,550 kilometer) frontier with Colombia, amid fears the anti-drug
                  offensive could send Colombian guerrillas fleeing into Brazil or prompt
                  coca-growers to move their operations.

                  The Colombian rebel group, called by their Spanish acronym, FARC, said they
                  did not want the conflict to cross beyond Colombia's borders because that could
                  lead international troops getting involved on behalf of the Colombian government.

Despite the aid, U.S. troops are barred from engaging in combat.