Colombia Shares the Spotlight in the "War on Terror"

  
With the Colombian presidential elections approaching, a May 13 Washington Post article predicts that the armed conflict in that country "is about to escalate to an agenda-altering level," requiring the Bush administration's attention.

Post reporter Jackson Diehl calls Alvaro Uribe Vélez, the leading presidential candidate, Colombia's Ariel Sharon. Like his Israeli counterpart, Diehl points out, Uribe has linked the violence plaguing his country to Bush's self-declared "War on Terrorism."

Uribe's running mate, Francisco Santos, pushed this message during a visit to Washington in early May, Diehl reports. He points out that in the months since the September 11 attacks, foreign governments that were tolerant of the FARC-Colombia's largest guerrilla army-have taken a harder line toward the group. And the US seems poised to extend its aid beyond anti-drug efforts to the military campaign against the guerrillas.

For the full text of the article, including statements by Francisco Santos, see the May 13, 2002 edition of the Washington Post or www.washingtonpost.com.