Thousands of Colombian soldiers backed by tanks and helicopters began moving against a Marxist rebel enclave in the country's south today.
Heavily armed paratroopers filed into a military Hercules transport plane at the Catan base in the Andes near Bogota and flew south toward the Switzerland-sized enclave Mr Pastrana granted the FARC at the start of peace talks in late 1998.
The move comes hours after President Mr Andres Pastrana broke off three years of peace talks, a military spokesmen said.
Mr Pastrana ended talks with the FARC (Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia) rebels last night after guerrillas earlier in the day hijacked a domestic airliner, landed it on a rural highway, abducted a national senator on board, and drove away toward the rebel-held enclave.
A furious Mr Pastrana said in a television address to the nation he had ordered troops to retake control of the guerrilla-held demilitarised area after midnight.
"Today the glass of indignation spilled over," he said, calling the hijacking "an international offense classified as terrorism". He said the rebels had used the sparsely populated chunk of savanna and jungle to hide kidnap victims, run a cocaine business and build its military machine.
In a statement issued by the FARC's de facto official news agency, ANNCOL, the rebels blamed the collapse of talks on the president and Colombia's "oligarchy".
"The banners of peace with social justice belong to the Colombian people and will remain in their hands," ANNCOL said.