FARC's highest commander killed in Colombia (Roundup)

Sep 23, 2010, 22:13 GMT

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

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

Attending the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Santos described Mono Jojoy's death Wednesday 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 Colombian attack on Ecuadorian soil in March 2008. Reyes had a more political profile, while Mono Jojoy was first and foremost a military commander.

Mono Jojoy, 57, a current member of the FARC leadership, was killed along with six other rebels 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 were 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.

The United States celebrated the killing.

'This is an important victory for Colombia,' National Security Council spokesman Mike Hammer said in a statement.

Hammer said US President Barack Obama looked forward to 'discussing this latest key development' and other issues when he meets with Santos on Friday in New York.

Colombian political and security analyst Alfredo Rangel stressed that Mono Jojoy is 'absolutely irreplaceable within the ranks of FARC. ... They are left absolutely orphaned.'

Coming from a peasant background, Mono Jojoy had been an active FARC member for at least 35 years and was regarded as the top military commander and a leading hardliner in the guerilla leadership.

Ingrid Betancourt, FARC's most celebrated prisoner in a strategy of hundreds of abductions allegedly masterminded by Mono Jojoy, described him in a Washington radio interview as 'the one who wanted the war no matter what' within FARC's leadership.

'I always thought that as long as Mono Jojoy would be alive, there would be no chance for Colombia to initiate a serious peace process,' said Betancourt, a former senator who was held for six years in jungle camps until her 2008 rescue in a daring military operation.

Some 30 planes and 27 helicopters from 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 site 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 that five members of the security forces were injured and an explosives-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.

Santos himself described the attack that claimed the life of Mono Jojoy as a 'welcome' for the rebels.

'To the rest of FARC, I want to say that we are going to get them, that we will not bring down our guard,' he said.

The Marxist FARC, founded in 1964, have been waging a civil war against Colombian authorities since the 1960s.