Top FARC Commander Killed by Colombian Army in Ecuador

[magbana]

As I mentioned in a post about Colombia a while back, Colombia is like Israel –they have nothing to gain by seeking peace and negotiations. The more they instigate and maintain hostilities, the better the US can justify larger and larger bequeaths of arms (and god knows what else.). Of course, the US is applying plenty of pressure to Uribe to help destroy Chavez and taking out FARC leader Raul Reyes on the heels of the most recent hostage release will ensure that there will not be any more hostage releases anytime soon.

Colombia says top FARC commander killed in combat
Sat Mar 1, 2008 6:31pm EST

By Patrick Markey

BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia's military said on Saturday troops had killed a top rebel commander in an attack on a jungle camp across the border in Ecuador in a severe blow to Latin America's oldest guerrilla insurgency.

Raul Reyes, one of seven members of the secretariat of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, was killed in an operation that included an air strike on a camp and fighting with rebels across the border, Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos said.

Reyes was considered by analysts to be the No. 2 FARC commander and is the most senior member of the group to be killed in President Alvaro Uribe's U.S.-backed campaign against the guerrillas fighting a four-decade-old conflict.

"As a result of this operation, 17 guerrillas were killed. Among them was FARC secretariat member Luis Edgar Devia Silva, better known as Raul Reyes," Santos told reporters.

Colombia's El Tiempo newspaper published on its Web site a photograph of what it said was Reyes' bloodied corpse in a stained white shirt lying on a black body bag.

Santos said intelligence had revealed Reyes' movements near the border. After an air strike by the Colombian military, Colombian troops came under fire from guerrillas in Ecuadorean territory and they responded. Reyes' body was brought back into Colombia to prevent rebels taking it away, he said.

Uribe contacted Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa to inform him of the operation and Quito sent troops to investigate. Venezuela and Ecuador often complain about the guerrilla war spilling over their borders.

Violence from Colombia's conflict has ebbed under Uribe, who has sent troops to retake regions under the control of armed groups. But the FARC is still potent in remote areas, where it holds scores of hostages, including three Americans and French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has made freeing Betancourt a priority, urged all sides not to let the killing upset recent efforts to broker a deal to exchange jailed guerrillas for FARC hostages held for years in jungle camps.

SHIFT IN SECRETARIAT

Reyes, bespectacled and bearded, was one of the FARC's top political officers and the group's official spokesman who often sent statements from the mountains of Colombia. He was known for his tough stance in past negotiations with the government.

A diminutive former union boss, Reyes joined the FARC in the 1970s and was a close associate of aging FARC leader Pedro Antonio Marin, also known as "Manuel Marulanda" or "Sureshot." He was involved with Marin's daughter.

"This ends the myth of FARC invulnerability and could cause serious doubts among its troops," said Alfredo Rangel, an analyst at Security and Democracy Foundation in Bogota.

"It could produce a shift in the secretariat in favor of more pragmatic and flexible positions in terms of the humanitarian exchange and peace negotiations given that Reyes always maintained a hard line," he said.

The operation against Reyes follows several military successes against the FARC.

In October, Colombian troops backed by warplanes killed FARC commander Gustavo Rueda Diaz at a base near the Caribbean coast. A month earlier, they killed Tomas Medina, a senior rebel involved in arms and drug smuggling near Venezuela.

The FARC started as a peasant army fighting for a socialist state in the 1960s. Authorities say it is now deeply engaged in cocaine trafficking to fund its operations.

(Editing by Mohammad Zargham)

http://www.reuters.com/articlePrint?articleId=USN0122624520080301

http://snipurl.com/20r2o

[Judi Lynn]

1. You're so right! The last thing in the world Uribe would EVER want is peace.

He has never had to live on just Colombia's income before. He would rather lose both arms than to live without the hundreds of millions of U.S. taxpayers' dollars he has been treated to by _{George Bush's} Puppet Maintainance Program.

I'll bet they can kiss ALL the hostages goodbye, unfortunately, before Uribe would allow anything to bring peace and slow down the truckloads of money he's getting from _Bush.

Rafael Correa is angry that Uribe killed these people inside his country. He expects an explanation. I hope Latin America teaches _Bush and Uribe the lesson they've been refusing to learn, and that is the U.S. should keep its nose in its own business, and respect the sovereignty of other countries, and that, for Uribe, he shouldn't seek to be an istrument of imperial will against his neighbors in Latin America. His neighbors are a hell of a lot closer to him physically than is his sugar daddy _Bush. He needs to consider getting along with THEM.