Colombia Reinforces Anti-Rebel Troops
The Colombian army said Tuesday that it had airlifted about 600 counterinsurgency troops to an area near a leftist guerrilla haven as attempts to revive peace talks to end a four-decade-old civil war stalled.
The troops were reinforcing about 2,500 government soldiers based near a Switzerland-size area controlled by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.
Rebel leader Manuel Marulanda had rejected government proposals Monday to restart formal peace talks.
President Andres Pastrana has a deadline of next Wednesday to decide whether to allow the FARC to remain in the demilitarized territory in southern Colombia that he granted the rebels two years ago to start a peace dialogue.
Polls show Colombians increasingly favor a military offensive against the FARC, Latin America’s largest surviving guerrilla group, with about 17,000 members.
A government spokesperson said Tuesday that Pastrana will cut short by two days a tour of Europe taken to attract foreign aid and return to Colombia on Saturday.
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