Thirty-five people killed over the weekend in Colombia

CNN
September 3, 2000

Thirty-five people killed over the weekend in Colombia

                  BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- A surge of rebel violence left 35 people dead over
                  the weekend following President Clinton's visit to Colombia, including
                  seven police officers slain by guerrillas - some of whom were disguised as police.

                  In the latest attack, leftist guerrillas from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of
                  Colombia, or FARC, sneaked up on a police station Saturday in northern
                  Colombia, officials said Sunday.

The assault took the small town of Tomarrazon by surprise, said National Police
operations director Gen. Tobias Duran.

                  The guerrillas arrived in three trucks and a jeep, some dressed in camouflage and others as police.
                  Rebels shot to death the four officers posted at the station and ambushed reinforcements as they
                  arrived, killing three more policemen, Duran added.

Nine officers survived the attack, in which rebels also destroyed the public telephone office in the
town in Guajira State, about 475 miles from the capital, Bogota.

At least one FARC fighter died, police said.

Twenty-seven other people were killed in heavy overnight clashes that ended Saturday in western
Colombia. Twelve of them were FARC rebels.

                  Seven airmen died when their U.S.-built AC-46 gunship, which was sent to support ground
                  troops, slammed into an Andean peak. At the mountaintop communications complex they were
                  protecting, eight soldiers died in fighting with guerrillas.

The rebels were unable to take the complex, which controls cellular and other
telephone links to much of western Colombia.

                  Clinton's visit to the war-torn South American country was meant to support
                  President Andres Pastrana's fight against drug traffickers and leftist rebels who
                  protect drug crops. U.S. and Colombian officials hope the $1.3 billion
                  anti-narcotics aid package will weaken the rebels and push them toward peace
                  by cutting into a major income source: taxes the FARC levies on the cocaine
                  trade.

                  But some critics have said the aid, including helicopters and troop training, is
                  skewed toward the Colombian military, leaving police forces increasingly
                  vulnerable.

                  The FARC has stepped up attacks on rural police stations during the past two
                  months, killing dozens of officers as well as civilians. At least 231 police have
                  died in the line of duty this year.

                  FARC attacks continue nationwide despite peace talks begun with Pastrana in
                  January 1999. The negotiations to end a 36-year conflict are proceeding slowly
                  and without a cease-fire.

                  On Sunday, the Colombian navy intercepted a speedboat off its Pacific coast on
                  Sunday and seized three tons of cocaine, the navy said. Two people were
                  arrested in the operation, which turned up more than a hundred packages stuffed
                  with cocaine.