FARC's highest commander killed in Colombia (2nd Lead)

Sep 23, 2010, 18:19 GMT

Bogota - The top military commander of the Colombian Marxist rebel group FARC, Luis Suarez, alias 'Mono Jojoy,' has been killed in an airstrike, Colombian authorities confirmed Thursday.

'The symbol of terror in Colombia has fallen,' Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said.

Santos, attending the United Nations General Assembly in New York, described Mono Jojoy's death in an air raid by security forces as the hardest blow ever dealt to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

For his symbolic value, Santos said, the death of Mono Jojoy is even more important that that of then FARC number two Raul Reyes, who was killed in a controversial Colombian attack on Ecuadorian soil in March 2008.

Mono Jojoy, 57, a current member of the FARC leadership, was killed in a mountainous area known as La Macarena in the central Colombian province of Meta.

Colombian authorities blamed him for the bloodiest attacks in the history of FARC, and for the FARC strategy of mass kidnappings.

More than 20 arrest warrants had been issued against Mono Jojoy, alleging terrorism, homicide, rebellion, sedition and kidnapping for ransom.

'He was an extremely bloodthirsty man, according to the collection of books written by all the kidnapped people who have regained their freedom,' said Interior Minister German Vargas Lleras.

Coming from a peasant background, Mono Jojoy had been an active FARC member for at least 35 years and was regarded as the group's top military commander. He was killed along with an as yet unspecified number of rebels.

According to media reports, at least 30 planes and 27 helicopters belonging to the Air Force, Army and Colombian police took part in the three-day bombing assault from Monday to Wednesday.

Colombian Defence Minister Rodrigo Rivera said Thursday that the place where Mono Jojoy was killed was 'the mother of all camps' used by FARC. He said the so-called Operation Sodom led to the discovery of a 300-metre-long camp with a concrete bunker, which was the leader's refuge.

Rivera said only five members of the security forces were injured, and that only an explosive-detection dog named Sasha was killed in the raid.

'Since he was the most important commander of the military wing, this blow is internally devastating for (FARC),' Vargas Lleras said.

In recent years, FARC already lost its founder and historic leader Manuel Marulanda, who died of natural causes soon after Reyes was killed. The organization has since been led by Guillermo Saenz, known by the alias 'Alfonso Cano,' 62.

Rivera addressed Cano on Thursday.

'A message for Alfonso Cano: turn yourself in, we guarantee respect for your life and a fair treatment,' the minister said.

He stressed that FARC 'are crumbling' from within, because people in structures that were very close to Mono Jojoy gave the authorities information that facilitated the raid.

'We deserve peace, and we are willing to get it by reason or by force,' Rivera said.

The Marxist FARC have been waging a civil war against Colombian authorities since the 1960s.