Word: pastrana
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When a Colombian as rich and powerful as President Andres Pastrana spends a night in the tiny town of Los Pozos as a guest of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), it's usually because he's been kidnapped. But while Pastrana chose to stay overnight of his own free will Thursday, he is indeed captive to a political dilemma few would wish on their worst enemies. The president began a second day of talks Friday with Manuel "Sureshot" Marulanda, the 72-year-old leader of the 17,000-strong Maoist guerrilla army that controls almost half...
...Pastrana campaigned for office three years ago on the promise of bringing peace to the war-weary country, and immediately set about pursuing unprecedented negotiations with the FARC. To that end he effectively ceded some 40 percent of the country to the rebels by ordering the military to stay out of a 16,200-square-mile "safe haven." But while there's been little progress toward a negotiated settlement, the "safe haven" has become a base for the guerrillas to mount new attacks elsewhere in the country, and to keep kidnap victims and other prisoners. That has the military pressing...
...enough to make a Colombian President wonder if he was still in charge. And for 24 hours or so, Andres Pastrana may not have been. While Pastrana was on a European tour to promote his faltering "peace process," General Javier Arias went on TV back home to reclaim the territory Pastrana had ceded to the country's biggest leftist rebel force, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. Pastrana's critics say giving the insurgents the vast swath of land in southern Colombia has failed to yield any concessions from the guerrillas. Yet he is considering ceding a smaller zone...
Last week General Arias said the southern territory's reconquest would come when--not if--the truce covering the zone failed to get renewed Jan. 31. As he spoke, the army sent 3,000 troops to reinforce positions on the zone's borders. Pastrana, who had not ordered the movements, cut short his trip. Before he got back to Bogota, however, the military declared that it recognized his authority. While it may have backed off, the military still managed to send a warning, though it came across less discreetly than planned. "The general," a military source said, "talked more than...
...Bush Challenge: During the campaign President-elect Bush spoke in favor of Clinton's policy, and one of his key advisers gave notice that a Bush administration would be happy to escalate U.S. support for a military effort to end guerrilla control over those territories ceded by Andres Pastrana's government. But expanding U.S. involvement there may run counter to the stay-at-home instincts of the Pentagon. Expect an increasing number of articles containing the words Colombia and Vietnam...