Presidents to confer over isolating rebels - Colombian seeks backing of Brazil

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil -- The presidents of Colombia and Brazil will meet today under heavy U.S. pressure to isolate the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the region's cocaine-financed guerrilla movement that is labeled a terrorist organization by the Bush administration.

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe wants Brazil's support for Plan Colombia, a joint U.S.-Colombian military effort to quash cocaine trafficking and the guerrilla groups funded by cocaine.

For Brazil, Latin America's largest and most influential nation, that would mean an end to years of neutrality and an unpopular yielding to Washington's will.

Brazilians are worried about cocaine trafficking in their country, however, and a leader of the FARC -- the guerrilla's group's initials in Spanish -- is alleged to have protected Brazil's top trafficker until the trafficker was captured in April 2001.

Uncomfortable with a growing U.S. presence next door in Colombia, Brazil thus far has balked at branding the FARC a terrorist organization.

"It is not convenient for Brazil to classify the FARC as terrorist or not," said a Brazilian diplomat speaking on condition of anonymity. "Brazil keeps no such list of terrorist groups, so it is not necessary to add them to a list. This could make more difficult future efforts by Brazil to mediate the conflict in Colombia."

Brazil's new president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, is already trying to broker an end to Venezuela's political turmoil, leading a Group of Friends trying to stave off a civil war. A longtime leftist, Lula and his closest foreign policy aides feel the previous Brazilian government should have worked to discourage the U.S. military buildup under Plan Colombia.

The United States has spent more than $2 billion since 2001 in military aid to curb cocaine flowing from Colombia, the largest producer of cocaine and grower of coca, the plant from which the narcotic is made. U.S. military advisers are also now training the Colombian military to protect an oil pipeline owned by the U.S. Occidental Petroleum Corp. and Colombia's Ecopetrol.

Uribe, under constant U.S. surveillance because of recent assassination attempts, took office last year promising to wage war on rebels.

A rescue worker helps onto an ambulance a man wounded by the explosion of a car bomb in a shopping center's garage in the Colombian city of Cucuta, in the northeastern border with Venezuela, Wednesday, March 5, 2003. The local police commander blamed Colombia's second largest rebel group, the National Liberation Army, ELN, for the attack that killed seven people and wounded 20 others. (AP Photo/Efrain Patino) - Mar 05 4:23 PM ET

Shopping centre bomb kills seven (Colombia) *** AT least seven people have been killed and 50 injured after a car bomb exploded in the north-eastern Colombian city of Cucuta. The bomb was believed to have been planted by National Liberation Army guerrillas, officials said. The governor of Norte de Santander province, Juan Santaella, called the attack "a real tragedy" for the city, which is near the border with Venezuela. The car bomb exploded in the parking garage of a shopping centre. Another explosion today killed one soldier and injured three others in the outskirts of Carmen de Bolivar, some 950km north of Bogota, according to military sources. Officials suspected Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels of carrying out that attack. ***

Venezuelan anti-bomb squadron officers inspect the debris of a house after a suspect car bomb exploded in Maracaibo, western Venezuela March 2, 2003. The car bomb exploded in a residential neighborhood damaging several houses. There were no reports of casualties. REUTERS/Argenis Mavarez

Hugo Chavez - Venezuela

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said March 6, 2003 that the country is lifting a force majeure on all crude and product exports that had been severely disrupted by a two-month opposition strike. Chavez holds a boot as he speaks during his weekly broadcast 'Alo President ' the at Hydroelectric Power Plant in Caruachi, in southeastern Venezuela, on March 2. (Miraflores Palace via Reuters)

FARC rebels maintain bases inside Brazil - A Terrorist Regime Waits in the Wings

Venezuelan central bank director warns against denying dollars to newspapers*** CARACAS, Venezuela - A central bank director warned President Hugo Chavez's government Thursday against using a new foreign exchange system to deprive newspapers of dollars needed to buy newsprint. Domingo Maza Zavala said the government should consider the print media a priority when deciding who can buy dollars under the new system. Chavez, who accuses Venezuela's main newspapers of supporting efforts to overthrow him, has said priority will go to importers of basics like food and medicine. "Everything else will have to wait," he said last week. ***

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