MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Colombia forces capture a senior member of FARC

Colombian security forces have arrested a senior member of the country's largest insurgency group and one of the most wanted rebels announced the government of President Alvaro Uribe.

Heli Mejia Mendoza, alias "Martin Sombra", who had spent 40 years as a guerrilla of the cocaine funded Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), is known to have been in charge of the unit guarding the three United States military contractors captured five years ago, said General Oscar Naranjo, Director of the Colombian National Police. He was arrested Tuesday in a rural area in the town of Saboya, some 130 kilometers north of Bogota, Naranjo said, adding, the rebel offered the officers 100 million pesos (52,000 US dollars) to let him go. The Colombian government had a 900.000 US dollars reward on his capture. Colombian authorities said Mendoza was one of the 31 most important FARC members and a veteran commander who enjoyed the trust of the group's high command. Naranjo revealed that Martin Sombra while in command of several FARC columns in 2003 and 2004 he had taught Spanish to the three US military contractors, Thomas Howes, Marc Gonsalves and Keith Stansell. The three US citizens are among the kidnapped 40 high-profile captives the FARC has been trying to exchange for hundreds of guerrillas sentenced and lodged in various government prisons. "This is a significant blow to the infrastructure of FARC", said Naranjo.