Colombia Inaugurates New Leader

Promising peace, Andres Pastrana on Friday became president of his country, which is still in shock from one of the most violent guerrilla offensives in three decades of civil war.

Colombians flew flags from balconies for the double celebration of the presidential inauguration and Independence Day in a cautious attempt to recover hopes that have been shattered by three days of guerrilla attacks.

The coordinated attacks throughout half the nation may have left as many as 300 police officers and soldiers dead, military officials said.

Until the offensive, Pastrana, 43, appeared to be making good on his campaign promises to negotiate peace with the rebels, improve dismal relations with the United States and revive the economy--even before taking office.

After his election in June, Pastrana had met with the country’s two major guerrilla groups, and both agreed to peace talks. Nevertheless, the rebels launched this week’s pre-inaugural attacks, a show of strength that has become a macabre election tradition throughout Colombia’s prolonged guerrilla war.

In his inaugural address in the historic Bolivar Plaza, the new president encouraged his countrymen to keep working toward peace.

“Peace is the most urgent task on our national agenda,” he said.

He proposed the creation of a Great Peace Fund, with contributions from the government, the international community and wealthy Colombians, to pay for improvements in infrastructure that are a must to make--and keep--peace in impoverished regions now under rebel control.

Dressed in the same suit his father, Misael, wore when he was inaugurated 28 years ago, Pastrana began a half-hour speech that emphasized hope with the words: “This is not my day, but the day of all Colombians. . . . We are not just inaugurating a new president but starting down a new road.”

Still, the near euphoria that could be felt in Colombia last week has turned to tension and grief.

Reflecting the national mood, an editorial cartoon in the respected newspaper El Tiempo showed former President Ernesto Samper handing Pastrana an inert, battered body labeled “Colombia.”

“We are overcome by the magnitude of misery, the cruelty of war, the pain of the survivors, the helplessness of the refugees and the adversity that so many of our countrymen face,” said Fabio Valencia Cossio, president of Congress, in a speech pledging the legislature’s loyalty to the new president.

Members of the official U.S. delegation attending the inauguration, led by Thomas “Mack” McLarty, former White House advisor on Latin America, expressed dismay at the guerrilla offensive and support for the Pastrana government.

President Clinton sent Pastrana a letter of condolence for the lives lost during the rebel attacks, delegates said. That is a sharp departure from the outright scorn for Samper, whose U.S. visa was revoked because $6 million in contribution from drug traffickers helped finance his 1994 campaign.

“The offensive was a tremendous shock to all of us,” said Barry R. McCaffrey, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy and a member of the delegation. “It was a blow to all of our high expectations.”

McLarty said the United States is committed to a “broader relationship” with Colombia that will focus more attention on the $10 billion in trade between the two nations as well as mutual concerns about narcotics. Colombia produces about 80% of the world’s cocaine and 60% of the heroin consumed in the United States.

“I foresee a proud Colombia, with enough [moral] authority to challenge other countries to control their demand for drugs because we were able to battle the supply and our own internal demand,” Pastrana predicted.

The new president also promised to wipe out corruption in his administration, balance the national budget and conduct an inclusive government that takes into account the views of all sectors of Colombian society.

“Change does not come about in a day or a week or a month,” he said. “But change has started today.”