BOGOTA, Colombia - (AP) -- Colombian army soldiers killed a rebel commander in fighting in mountains
                      southeast of the capital, the military said Wednesday as they displayed the corpse of the slain guerrilla.

                      Army counterinsurgency troops backed by two U.S.-made Black Hawk combat helicopters fought about 90 rebels
                      of the 54th Front of the Revolutionary Armed Forces near Fomeque, a mountain town an hour southeast of Bogotá,
                      the army said.

                      The government launched an offensive against the rebels after the collapse of peace talks on Feb. 20. The battle,
                      15 miles away over a mountainous road, marked the closest fighting has come to this Andean city of seven million
                      in several years.

                      The battle erupted on Tuesday, but it was not until Wednesday that the army announced that Salvador Vargas
                      León, who went by the nom de guerre Silverio, had died in the firefight. Silverio, 38, was the commander of the
                      54th Front, the army said.

                      His bloody corpse was shown to journalists along with those of two other rebels killed in the fight at an army base
                      in Bogotá.

                      Six hostages being held by the rebels were rescued in the operation.

                      Silverio was the first commander of the rebel group killed by the army since the peace process collapsed, and the
                      second one killed this year.

                      The army has blamed him for the torture and murder of five people found in a common grave in March 2001, as
                      well as for attacks on two electric towers and two police stations, kidnapping businessmen and extorting
                      businesses in Cundinamarca state, in which Bogotá is located, and Boyacá state to the north of the capital.

                      President Andrés Pastrana, meanwhile, insisted that the government can guarantee the security of parliamentary
                      elections in March and presidential elections in May, even though this South American country's war has escalated.

                      Pastrana met with his military advisors Tuesday evening to evaluate the security plan for the elections.

                      Soldiers will guard 88 percent of the polling stations, according to Pastrana's office. The rest of the polling stations
                      are in areas that have not traditionally had problems during elections.

                      The presidency estimated that 94 percent of potential voters in Colombia can vote safely.