Colombian Marxist guerrillas bombed power lines and clashed with the army today as a senior rebel called the collapse of peace talks a disaster and warned that thousands will die in the coming total war.
At a secret mountain camp in southern Colombia, rebel commander Pablo Catatumbo blamed the Colombia's upper classes and the United States for President Andres Pastrana's decision to break off 3-year-old peace talks last week with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia -known by the Spanish initials FARC.
"I think this is an historic mistake. Not only by President Pastrana, but also by the Colombian ruling classes, the establishment, who have pushed Colombia into total war," FARC rebel commander Pablo Catatumbo told Reuters in an interview.
Mr Pastrana abandoned talks after the FARC hijacked a commercial plane and kidnapped a senator aboard. Talks did little to stem the bloodshed in a 38-year-old war which has claimed about 40,000 lives in the last decade. It pits leftist rebels including the FARC against the Colombian army and far-right paramilitary outlaws.
"We have to sit down and talk again. The terrible thing is that there are going to be 5,000 or 10,000 deaths. Whether they be guerrillas, police, soldiers or civilians, it's terrible for Colombia. We don't want that," he added.
Since Monday, FARC rebels have killed eight soldiers and police, as well as a young boy, in firefights and bombings in three southern Colombian provinces. The attacks all occurred in and around the thinly populated region of jungle and cattle pasture the size of Switzerland Pastrana gave the FARC as a safe haven for peace talks in late 1998.