Before fleeing Colombia's biggest rebel group, Gregorio Ramos had a mission: to kill the governor of the state of Caquetá.

Mr. Ramos went undercover as a civilian, pleading for a job with the governor. He said his grandmother had died and he needed money for her funeral. But after receiving work and getting to know the governor, Ramos couldn't go through with his macabre assignment.

"He was a good person," says Ramos, who now lives in a halfway house run by the Defense ministry in a secret location in Bogotá. Ramos confessed the plan to the governor and turned himself in to the local priest. Now, the ex-guerrilla hopes to start fresh.

Ramos is part of a growing wave of weary fighters leaving their combat days behind. A little-known program to reintegrate rebels into society has taken on new life here, with record numbers surrendering to authorities. Coupled with a hard-line military effort by President Alvaro Uribe, the two-pronged approach has many, including former fighters, saying it could weaken the rebel base and help forge a path toward peace in this war-torn country.

"In this way, [Mr. Uribe] will win," says Ramos.

Earlier this month, 22 members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) surrendered in the heart of Colombia's coffee-growing region. Since January, 548 members of the FARC, right-wing paramilitaries, and the National Liberation Army (ELN) have fled, nearly double the 265 who surrendered in all of 2002. The government hopes 6,000 of the country's some 29,000 fighters will surrender this year.

Uribe didn't create the government's reinsertion program, which was started in 1998, but he has reinvented it. Government officials point to the fact that the FARC no longer has the Switzerland-sized haven given them under former President Andrés Pastrana in the late '90s. But they are also pouring $14 million into the program - four times what the Pastrana government invested - both to advertise it and to prepare for the large numbers they expect to surrender - if not this year, then the next.

"This program existed before. But no government before has ever made it a central part of their policy," says Andres Peñate, the vice-minister of defense in charge of the program.

Indeed, ex-guerrillas interviewed for this article said they knew nothing about the program until recently. They say "maltreatment" by their leaders, combined with military pressure and recent widespread radio advertisements, caused them to desert. (Paramilitaries, who weren't allowed to enter the program until 2003, also helped increase the number of participants).

"The government is hitting us. It is noticeable," says José, an ex-FARC squadron commander from Nariño, who recently transferred to Bogotá.

"[The FARC] are saying: 'If you turn yourself in, we will kill you,' " Ramos adds. But "the combat has been heavy - many guerrillas are going to leave."

The program starts by clarifying the legal status of former fighters - for example, if they have committed crimes against humanity or have outstanding arrest warrants. A small minority goes to jail if their crimes are serious enough; the majority receive official pardons.

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