Colombia rebel's slaying boosts Uribe

[Bacchus39]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080309/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/colombia_rebels;_ylt=AouGY3vRxig8s2TU53aGcyW3IxIF



BOGOTA, Colombia - The guerrilla walked out of the jungle tired, hungry and bearing the dismembered hand of his slain commander.


The rebel, known simply as Rojas, said the Colombian troops were closing in on his guerrilla column and he wanted out of the fight. But the rebels shoot deserters — so instead he murdered his commander and fled, lopping off the dead man's right hand to present to the army.

"I did it to save my life," the mustachioed rebel told a press conference Saturday in the western city of Pereira. "Because if you're going to desert, they'll shoot you."

The morbid delivery represented an unexpected gift for President Alvaro Uribe: the death of the second top Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, leader in a week, and a severe blow to the rebel group's four-decade-long insurgency.