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24 Colombian Troops Slain by Guerrillas

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Times Staff Writer

Guerrilla forces killed 24 Colombian soldiers who were protecting coca-eradication workers in a lawless jungle province Tuesday, the army said. It was the deadliest such attack this year.

The mass slaying occurred 10 days after rebels killed eight police officers and briefly abducted 29 in another state.

The incidents show the severe shortcomings of Colombia’s security forces despite billions in U.S. aid and President Alvaro Uribe’s efforts to beef up the police and army and end 40 years of violence.

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Analysts expect such attacks to continue in the run-up to Colombia’s presidential primary in March and national election in May. Uribe is favored to win a second term.

Since taking office in 2002, Uribe has pushed through policies that have demobilized two-thirds of the nation’s 20,000 right-wing paramilitary fighters. Analysts believe the demobilization is a prelude to a military campaign against leftist guerrilla armies, who have refused to engage in peace negotiations.

“There will be many such operations in the first trimester of the year of 2006 by guerrillas who will try to demonstrate that the government has not had total success and that they are still strong in many zones of the country,” said Alfredo Rangel, a security analyst who is running for the Colombian Senate as an independent.

The killings Tuesday occurred near the town of Vista Hermosa in Meta province, a prime area for coca cultivation about 100 miles south of the capital, Bogota. The soldiers were there to protect another team of troops pulling up the plants, which is used to make cocaine.

Although much of Colombia’s coca-eradication efforts are carried out by aerial spraying, more of the crop is being destroyed by hand to avoid herbicide damage to adjoining crops and the environment, officials say. Under Plan Colombia, the United States has given the country more than $3.4 billion in aid since 2000 to fight drugs and the extremist forces that grow, process and export them.

On Dec. 17, rebels killed eight national police officers and kidnapped 29 in Choco state in the remote northwest, a prime drug cultivation and transit area. The 29 officers were released three days later.

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The army has said that about 600 members of the uniformed security forces have been killed this year by guerrillas, mainly the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as FARC, and the National Liberation Army, known as the ELN.

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Associated Press was used in compiling this report.

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