By Cesar Garcia, Associated Press, 5/19/2003 22:35

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) President Alvaro Uribe's attempt to control a violence-plagued state bordering Venezuela by giving authorities special powers has failed, two top officials concluded Monday in separate reports.

The reports by Inspector General Edgardo Maya and government Human Rights Ombudsman Eduardo Cifuentes found that violence was increasing in oil-rich Arauca state, which is being fought over by two leftist rebel armies, a right-wing militia and government troops.

Uribe created the special security zones in September, giving military and civilian authorities special powers, including to search and detain suspects.

But there have been 13 bombing attacks this year alone in Saravena, one of three towns covered in Arauca state by the security zone, Cifuentes noted. Another town, Arauquita, has suffered eight attacks this year. And the police have only arrested 69 suspected rebels and seized 17 arms since the security zones which expired this month were created.

''The central objective of re-establishing security was not achieved,'' Cifuentes said.

Even after the zones were decreed, the governor of Arauca state a former military commander appointed by Uribe himself resigned for his safety. The president of Arauquita's city council was murdered and the town's mayor resigned because of rebel threats.

Maya pointed out that in the five months before the special zones were created, there were 23 homicides in Saravena. In the first five months of the zone, there were 30.

Uribe, a hard-liner who took office in August on a law-and-order ticket, did not immediately respond to the findings.

Also Monday, leftist rebels in northern Colombia kidnapped dozens of workers from the El Cerrejon mine one of the world's biggest coal mines but were forced to let them go when army troops backed by warplanes converged on the scene.

The rebels, who have waged war in this South American country for almost four decades, kidnap thousands of people each year for ransom. They also capture politicians, police and soldiers in hopes of exchanging them with the government for jailed rebels.

Also Monday, Colombian authorities charged 147 soldiers with stealing money they seized from a rebel hideout, the president's office announced.

Officials have arrested 40 soldiers, including three officers, and arrest warrants have been issued for another 107 soldiers, the presidency said.

19 May 2003 18:17:04 GMT

BOGOTA, Colombia, May 19 (Reuters) - An emergency war zone declared in eastern Colombia to crack down on Marxist rebels has failed to restore order or stop political killings, Colombian human rights and legal officials said on Monday.

Selective assasinations continue, and violence has flared in towns adjacent to the Arauca region where military reinforcements were sent in by President Alvaro Uribe last year, Colombia's ombudsman Eduardo Cifuentes and inspector general Edgardo Maya said at a news conference.

The presence of military reinforcements has reduced the death rate in the area, they said, but added that municipal officials live in fear for their lives and death threats have forced journalists to flee the oil-rich area on the border with Venezuela.

"Today the civilian population lives in fear and the authorities themselves have no security," said Cifuentes, Colombia's top human rights official.

Shortly after he took office in August Uribe decreed the "rehabilitation zone" in an area long under seige from Marxist rebels and sent extra troops and police armed with broad emergency powers to detain suspects.

Until the reinforcements arrived, police in the Arauca town of Saravena had lived as virtual prisoners in their sandbagged barracks, under constant threat of bomb or mortar attack.

Colombia's constitutional court has recently declared most the emergency powers illegal, although the rehabilitation zone in Arauca, and another created in Bolivar and Sucre provinces, were due to expire anyway.

The continued presence of the military and police reinforcements has become the highest profile test of Uribe's promises to crack down on illegal armed groups fighting in a four-decade-old war.

Cifuentes and Maya said Arauca needed more public investment as well as troops and better protection for officials working to build institutions in the long almost lawless province.

A group of U.S. Special Forces are stationed near Arauca training Colombian troops to protect the Cano Limon oil pipeline from rebel bombing.

BW5699 MAY 14,2003 12:07 PACIFIC 15:07 EASTERN     Business Editors

    NEW YORK & LONDON--(<a href=www.businesswire.com>BUSINESS WIRE)--May 14, 2003--Fitch Ratings has today affirmed the Republic of Colombia's long-term foreign and local currency ratings of 'BB' and 'BBB-', respectively. The Rating Outlook remains Negative. The short-term foreign currency rating is 'B'.     Colombia's sovereign credit fundamentals have been deteriorating since the recession of 1997/1998, yet the strong leadership and ambitious agenda of President Alvaro Uribe, who took office in August 2002, have helped to stem further weakness. The president successfully advanced several key fiscal, labor, and pension reforms which helped to improve public finances and domestic confidence. Even though several of the fiscal adjustments have begun to dampen household purchasing power through new taxes and public sector wage freezes, and although unemployment remains high, the president has generally sustained his initial popularity and is now pushing for a constitutional referendum for spending freezes and political reform. The outcome of the referendum, and the government's ability to deliver stronger sustained economic growth and improved security will be key factors in determining whether Colombia has truly reached the nadir of its credit deterioration and is repositioned for a rebound, or whether its mounting vulnerabilities will outweigh the considerable progress from the first five months of the president's term.     The risks to a scenario for government debt stabilization are considerable. Even under the government's base case scenario, debt would continue to rise in 2003, and remain stable in 2004 before declining in 2005. Lower than expected growth and higher than expected spending could impact fiscal outturns, however, as they have in recent years. Declining projections for U.S. and world growth could weigh on expectations for Colombia in the months to come. The new course of the Colombian internal conflict also raises new uncertainties about domestic confidence this year and next. The dramatic contraction of the economy in Venezuela, Colombia's second trading partner after the U.S., is another source of potential pressure on exports and investment levels. Finally, should the referendum fail, confidence in the fiscal position of the government could weaken, dampening the current mood of cautious optimism. In light of these uncertainties, many of which will be resolved over the course of the year, Fitch affirmed its Negative Outlook.

--30--AM/sf*

CONTACT: Fitch Ratings, New York
         Morgan C. Harting, 212/908-0820 (CFA)  
         Roger M. Scher, 212/908-0240
         Matt Burkhard, 212/908-0540 (Media Relations)

KEYWORD: NEW YORK
INDUSTRY KEYWORD: BANKING BOND/STOCK RATINGS
SOURCE: Fitch Ratings

Bogota, May 13 (<a href=quote.bloomberg.com>Bloomberg) -- The Andean Development Corp., a regional multilateral lender, plans to disburse a $300 million loan for Colombia by July to help fund state cutbacks and social spending, President Alvaro Uribe's office said.

Enrique Garcia, president of the development bank, said the bank planned to disburse as much as $800 million to Colombia this year to spur economic growth, generate jobs and boost export competitiveness, according to the presidential Web site.

The CAF, as the bank is known, has agreed to provide Colombia with $3.5 billion in loans and loan guarantees over the next four years to close the budget deficit and boost growth. Garcia said the funds would also help finance state cutbacks, spending on the poor and plans to boost exports.

``We want to motivate companies so they take advantage of the new Andean Trade Preferences Act that will be in effect until 2006,'' Garcia was quoted as saying.

The U.S. last year renewed and broadened trade benefits for a range of Colombian exports, including canned tuna and shoes, to help generate legal alternatives to drug crop production.

The CAF last year approved $748 million in loans for Colombia, of which $83 million served as a partial guarantee of a $250 million syndicated loan, the agency said in December.

The corporation approved $705 million for Venezuela, $500 million in lending for Bolivia, $497 million for Peru, $400 million for Ecuador, $110 million for Brazil and $25 million for Uruguay last year.

The development corporation, set up in 1970, serves as a lending agency for Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela and Peru. Members now also include Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Jamaica, Mexico, Paraguay, Spain, Trinidad and Tobago and Uruguay.

themilwaukeechannel.com POSTED: 8:48 a.m. EDT May 9, 2003 UPDATED: 10:12 a.m. EDT May 9, 2003

SHAWANO, Wis. -- A Wisconsin mother is heartened to learn that a man accused of killing her daughter has become the first leftist Colombian rebel extradited to the United States.

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe ordered Nelson Vargas Rueda Wednesday to face murder charges in the 1999 slaying of three American activists in Colombia, including Ingrid Washinawatok, 41. She's a Keshena native and member of the Menominee Tribe.

Ingrid's mother, Gwen Washinawatok, says it's good news for the family because she didn't think anything more was going to happen, other than to get her home.

Vargas is one of six members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, indicted in April 2002 in federal court in Washington.

The three killed were in northeastern Colombia to help set up a school system for the 5,000-member Uwa Indian tribe when FARC rebels kidnapped them in February 1999.

Days later, the kidnappers shot the victims. Their bullet-riddled bodies were found across the border in Venezuela.