Heavy fighting in southern region

March 05, 2007

Since his first election in 2002, President Alvaro Uribe, Washington's closest ally in South America, has sent his armed forces to retake towns and villages once controlled by the FARC and forced the rebels back into jungle hide-outs. His U.S.-backed campaign has reduced violence from the four-decade-old conflict, but the guerrillas are still a potent force helped by revenues from the huge illicit drug trade that makes Colombia the world's top producer of cocaine.