HOBO (Colombia): Rebels have told thousands of small-town officials to resign or die in a nationwide campaign to destroy the state from the ground upwards.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces, or FARC, have warned mayors in the country’s 1,048 municipalities they will be declared a “military target” if they refuse to step down. In many regions the Marxist rebels have extended the death threats to all local functionaries.

The offensive, based on tactics of Vietcong guerrillas during the Vietnam War, has closed scores of town halls. The collapsing of state authority in the countryside is a challenge to President-elect Alvaro Uribe Velez, who takes office on Wednesday. Uribe won a landslide victory in May’s elections by promising to double military spending and crack down on FARC, but the rebel strategy highlights the fragility of the Colombian state and the challenges the US-backed military faces in its campaign against the rebel army.

The 18,000-strong guerrilla group has forced 220 mayors to resign. Since the threats began in June, FARC gunmen have murdered one mayor and abducted three more. Last Thursday, FARC released the three-year old daughter of another mayor, who resigned after guerrillas abducted the child two weeks ago.

In Hobo, an Andean village in southern Huila state, the ultimatum came in late June when a rebel commander gave Mayor James Lozada 72 hours to step down. “He said it was nothing personal, but these people don’t make empty threats. We know this is serious,” said Lozada.

Colombia’s rural mayors have long been targeted by both the rebels and right-wing paramilitary groups. Over the past three years, the warring factions have killed an average of one mayor a month. Public services are grinding to a halt in towns throughout the country.b —Dawn/Guardian News Service./