----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, April 03, 2001 12:27 AM Subject: [activistcolombia] 35 Reported Dead in Colombia Clashes 35 Reported Dead in Colombia Clashes http://news.lycos.com/headlines/world/article.asp?docid=APV1787&date=20010402 Monday, April 02, 2001 BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - Thirty-five fighters were killed over the weekend in heavy clashes in northern Colombia between guerrilla and right-wing paramilitary troops, reports said Monday. According to villagers' accounts, 20 paramilitaries and 15 guerrillas died in the fighting in northern Cordoba province, Col. Jairo Ovalle of the army's 11th Brigade based in the region, told reporters. Troops were trying to enter the area to verify the account of clashes between the rightist United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, or AUC, and the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, the country's strongest guerrilla group. Authorities in the area had recovered only three bodies by early Monday. The FARC reportedly is trying to reassert itself in the cattle-ranching province that was largely cleared of rebel influence by the paramilitaries, private armies financed by local landowners who had grown tired of guerrilla extortion. The area where the clashes were reported is also a strategic corridor for the arms and drug smuggling that has fueled the South American country's 37-year conflict.
