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Carrot & Stick. The basis of Ruiz' campaign is "military civil action," a program for making friends among the campesinos. Army troops show backward peasants how to build schools, highways, health centers, wells and sewers. Government agencies contribute drugs and crop seeds. Alianza funds provide many items, from mobile dispensaries to bulldozers. Army officers help out in classrooms. On Sundays, military bands tootle in village squares. And throughout the country, thousands of posters ask campesinos to help the military track down bandits.
To go with civic action, Ruiz has mounted a military offensive built around 100 mobile, twelve-man "killer" teams from the "Laceros," or Lancers, the army's crack fighting force. In some villages, the military investigates every citizen, questions unarmed strangers, shoots on sight any armed newcomers. Many of Ruiz' patrols are disguised as civilians, inviting bandit attack; army undercover men infiltrate bandit gangs, lead them into ambush. Colombian pilots, who have learned air envelopment tactics in the U.S., are equipped with scores of choppers.
The Gnat & Sure Shot. In the past few months, two of the worst bandit leaders—el Mosco, the Gnat, and el Sultan—have been killed. Between them, they accounted for 500 murders. Most of the bandits are ordinary killers, but Communist and Castroite agents are busy in the backlands. Last week Pedro Marin Marulanda, a well-known Red who calls himself "Sure Shot," destroyed an army helicopter, murdered its two crewmen and kidnaped the passengers. Bandit Frederico Arango, who was killed last year, had a five-foot bookshelf of Communist bestsellers, including Che Guevara's Guerrilla Warfare. Pedro Brincos, also killed last year, was found with Communist documents from Cuba.
The battle is far from over. A change of government could disrupt the whole military program. Disaffected Liberals have joined in a leftist opposition movement that will test the Frente Nacional's strength in congressional elections next week. But for the first time in years, the atmosphere is hopeful. Pablo Samper, a Bogota businessman, actually took his wife with him on a recent visit to his 5,000-acre finca in northern Tolima department. "I used to spend the weekends there with my family," he says. "Maybe the time will come again."