FARC commander 'Mono Jojoy' killed

Top FARC commander "Mono Jojoy" was killed by Colombian state forces. President Juan Manuel Santos confirmed the death of the rebel leader from New York City, where he is attending the U.N. General Assembly. The head of the FARC's Eastern Bloc and member of its Secretariat was killed in a massive air strike in a region called La Macarena in the central Colombian Meta department, 200 miles south of Bogota. Some 20 other guerrillas were reportedly also killed in the attack.

Mono Jojoy, also known as "Jorge Briceño Suárez," but born under the name Victor Julio Suarez Rojas, was thought to be group's second-in-command, and military leader of virtually all guerrillas in the rebels' war with the state. Mono Jojoy was considered a hardliner within the command structure of the country's largest guerrilla group. He was responsible for holding hostages including politicians, policemen, and soldiers.

The veteran guerrilla had a $1.3 million reward on his head, and 62 arrest warrants against him. The United States had requested his extradition to face drug trafficking charges. The FARC has faced serious setbacks in recent years, with high-level commander "Raul Reyes" killed by a Colombian air strike on Ecuadorean territory in March 2008. The group's founder and supreme leader "Manuel Marulanda" died of natural causes in 2008. An airstrike by the Colombian armed forces on Sunday killed FARC commander "Domingo Biojo," political leader of the organization's 48th Front, along with at least 26 other rebels. Current supreme commander "Alfonso Cano" remains at large.

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Violence Returns to Colombia

Although Colombia delivered some heavy blows in its war against the FARC guerrillas over the past decade, the country is facing violence on an entirely new front. Just three years ago, top U.S. officials were touring the city of Medellín to demonstrate how successfully then-president Alvaro Uribe had rescued the country from Marxist rebels and paramilitary drugrunners. But in August, Medellín’s mayor took to the streets to march with protesters through ghettos racked anew by gang warfare. And just last week, Colombia’s new president, Juan Manuel Santos, deployed troops to the city, where more than 1,200 murders have occurred so far this year, with 503 gang-related deaths in the first four months of 2010 alone—a 50 percent jump from the same period last year.

Alarmingly, Medellín is not alone. Across Colombia, cities that once served as symbols of the country’s turnaround, such as Bogotá and Cali, are witnessing a drastic increase in violence. In mid-August, a car bomb in Bogotá’s financial district injured nine people, and both the FARC and right-wing extremists have been blamed for the attack. The same week, three teens from the embattled Putumayo state in southern Colombia, whose names were on an online list, were shot dead, apparently the victims of gang violence. And Cali’s mayor has called on the national government to address the city’s spiking homicide rate.

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Hugo Chávez 'terrorist link' sparks diplomatic row between Spain and Venezuela

A Spanish judge yesterday accused the government of president Hugo Chavez in Venezuela of involvement with the Basque terrorist group ETA, sparking a diplomatic row between the two countries. The allegations, made in a court document by investigating magistrate Eloy Velasco, said that the Chávez government had acted as an intermediary between Eta and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrilla group. "There is evidence in this case which shows the Venezuelan government's co-operation in the illegal association between FARC and ETA," the magistrate said as he issued international arrest warrants for six alleged Eta members and seven Colombians believed to be members of FARC.

• "Profile: Hugo Chavez", BBC News, 12/5/02.
• "Basque Fatherland and Liberty (ETA), Council on Foreign Affairs, 11/17/08.
  
• "Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Global Security, 6/25/08

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Columbian FARC Rebels May Have Venezuelan Weapons

Shoulder-launched anti-tank weapons purchased by Venezuela have ended up in the hands of guerrillas, Colombian Vice President Francisco Santos said.

In an interview with Caracol Radio Monday, Santos addressed local reports of anti-tank weapons manufactured in Sweden being seized from members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, and traced to Venezuela.

"This is not the first time that this happens," Santos said. "In several operations in which we have recovered weapons from the FARC, we have found powerful munitions and powerful equipment, including anti-tank weapons, from a European country that sold them to Venezuela and that turned up in the hands of the FARC."

• "Venezuela Still Aids Colombia Rebels, New Material Shows", New York Times, 8/2/09.
• "Colombia: FARC weapons traced to Venezuela", CNN, 7/28/09.

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FARC you!

On July 8, 2008, BBC News announced that French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt and 14 other hostages had been freed after FARC rebels holding them were tricked into handing them over. Colombian soldiers - posing as members of a non-government organisation - flew them to freedom in a helicopter. Betancourt said at the time, "This is a miracle. There is no historical precedent for such a perfect operation." She had been held by the left-wing FARC rebels for more than six years.

This event was believed to have dealt a serious blow to the lifeblood of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, better known as FARC. Combined with action by the Colombian military, 2008, was said by many to signal the beginning of the end for the Marxist-Leninist guerrillas, who are listed by the U.S., Canada, the European Union and Colombia as a terrorist organisation. However, this year has seen a resurgence of their activity in an attempt to prove that they are still a force to be reckoned with.

For the International Terrorism analyst, three links are shown below. The first two are the most recent actions by FARC and the last is a detailed backgrounder.

• Colombian rebels turn to urban warfare after battlefield losses. Bloomberg. 7/8/09.
• FARC kills six soldiers in east Colombia. Colombia Reports. 7/1/09.
• FARC, ELN: Colombia's Left-Wing Guerrillas. Council on Foreign Relations. 3/11/08.
  

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