Food Prices Soar As Rebels Block Supplies Offensive Keeps Trucks From Reaching Colombian Capital

Threats of more rebel attacks in a bloody, week-old offensive are preventing supply trucks from reaching Colombia’s capital, driving up the price of food.

Corn, yucca and other staples have risen as much as 40 percent in price since leftist rebels declared “transport strikes” and threatened to burn vehicles, suppliers said Saturday.

The guerrilla offensive, the biggest in decades, has killed dozens of police and soldiers. Authorities say the attacks are in retaliation for government efforts to wipe out coca, the plant used to make cocaine.

Insurgents have paralyzed traffic on highways in many provinces, burning buses, taxis and other vehicles whose drivers defy rebel warnings to stay off the roads.

Losses to bus companies and other businesses are estimated in the millions of dollars.

About 2,000 trucks - 500 fewer than normal - have arrived daily at Bogota’s main food supply center since guerrillas issued threats this week, officials said.

An 88-pound sack of plantain now costs the equivalent of $22, compared to $16 at the beginning of the week.

Salesman Pedro Nel Palacio said he decided to risk the trip from Granada, 95 miles south of Bogota, because plantain harvests were rotting and he had debts to pay.

The trip from Granada, usually four hours, took up to 11 hours because of guerrilla roadblocks. Rebels often search cars, demand bribes and escape into the hills before the army arrives.

“The army, cornered?” read a headline in La Prensa, an opposition newspaper. The military has shown little ability to deal with the mobile, well-armed guerrillas.

Meanwhile, rebels said Saturday they are forming a commission to manage the release of an estimated 60 soldiers they abducted in an attack on a military base last week.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the nation’s biggest rebel group, said it will name a site in 10 days for a meeting with the Red Cross and other negotiators.

Guerrillas - who say they represent Colombia’s poor - make millions of dollars from kidnapping ransoms and drug trafficking.

Rebels killed 19 soldiers in an attack Friday on a military base in a southern region dotted with huge coca plantations.