Colombia's ambassador to Washington, Luis Moreno, welcomed the U.S. comments on intelligence sharing but said his government wants permission to use U.S. equipment ``to prevent acts of terrorism.''
The capture of the base outside San Vicente followed heavy bombing of rebel targets, including camps, fuel and munitions depots, bridges and roads.
In San Vicente, witnesses said a father and his 2-year-old son were killed in the air force bombing of La Ye. Another half-dozen civilians were wounded, some critically, and a teen-age girl died of her injuries overnight, they said.
Tapias had said earlier Friday that reports of civilian deaths in bombing raids were being investigated. But he also warned that some reports could be rebel propaganda.
Human rights groups urged the government and rebels to avoid civilian casualties. The groups worry that brutal right-wing paramilitaries may enter the zone on the army's heels and begin executing suspected rebel collaborators.
Defense Minister Gustavo Bell said the military is fighting all outlawed groups, including the paramilitary army known as the AUC and a smaller leftist rebel group, the ELN.
After the rebel gunfire on approach, the taking of the base at San Vicente went without incident, military officials said.
Once the area is cleared of guerrillas, National Police soldiers will arrive to patrol the streets of this town of 22,000, said National Police director Gen. Luis Ernesto Gilibert. Next week, troops from a U.S.-trained counternarcotics brigade will begin destroying coca crops and drug laboratories inside the former safe haven.
Armed forces officials said rebels were withdrawing from the townships of Mesetas, La Macarena, Vistahermosa and Uribe, and were heading into the jungle. The government says the FARC holds dozens of hostages in the vast zone, ships cocaine and has made a fortress out of what was supposed to be a safe haven.
To allay residents' fears, Colombia's army commander told the 100,000 civilians in the zone that soldiers had strict instructions to respect their rights. Citing abuses by the FARC and paramilitaries, Gen. Jorge Enrique Mora said in a radio broadcast that ``the country knows perfectly well that you have had to live under this regime of terror.''
Ecuador, however, declared a state of emergency in a province bordering Colombia, bracing for a possible influx of refugees.
In a town meeting in San Vicente's main square, Mayor Nestor Ramirez told hundreds of residents to ``maintain calm and tranquility.''
Many residents welcomed the army.
``There are fears about what might happen in the short term, but this is what the people wanted,'' said Nubia Henao, mayor of Granada, just east of the former haven. ``They were tired of having the zone.''
Others weren't so optimistic, noting the bloody civil conflicts that were precursors to the present war.
``What's going to change anyway? My father died in the violence of the 1940s, my brother in a car bomb in Medellin placed by the drug traffickers,'' said farmer Jhony Garcia as he took his cows out to pasture. ``We came here to escape, but there is no escape in Colombia.''
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