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Politics : WAR on Terror. Will it engulf the Entire Middle East? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (1465)	1/30/2002 9:07:54 PM
From: Scoobah	Respond to of 32591

Colombia: Rebel Attacks Shaping Economy, Elections 30 January 2002 Summary Colombia's main guerrilla group has intensified attacks against the nation's infrastructure, damaging public utilities and roadways in several central departments in recent weeks. The rapid pace of attacks and the increased targeting of urban populations will continue up to national elections in April and May, sapping the country's economy and the public's will. Analysis Bogota Mayor Antanas Mockus announced Jan. 23 that the city's main water supply was jeopardized days earlier by a dynamite attack on a major valve at the Chingaza reservoir, 30 miles east of the capital. Meanwhile, neighboring Meta department has begun strict electricity rationing in its capital city of Villavicencio and 14 municipalities due to a string of attacks on key electricity towers in the region. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) have launched a new offensive against the country's infrastructure. The offensive is meant to disrupt basic public services and inflict increasing pain on cities in the central part of the country. The FARC will continue its offensive through the first half of the year in order to gain greater leverage in peace negotiations, pressure the military and affect regional and national elections in April and May. The offensive -- which was launched Jan. 15, the same day the FARC agreed to restart peace negotiations with the government -- will severely weaken public faith in the government as a provider of basic services, and it could cripple the Colombian economy. This will shape both the peace negotiations and coming elections. The FARC and the country's other leftist guerrilla group, the National Liberation Army (ELN), have sought for years to undermine governmental power by attacking infrastructure targets -- mainly electricity towers and oil pipelines in Colombia's hard-to-defend countryside. But the intensity and focus of those attacks have changed since mid-January.