MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

A founder of Colombia’s FARC dies of heart attack in the jungle

Martin Villa had a 2.5 million US dollars reward on his head

One of the historic founders of the Colombian guerrilla movement FARC (Colombian Rebel Armed Forces) died in the jungle, close to the Venezuelan border, three months ago of a heart attack, according to FARC sources quoted in the Bogotá Sunday press.

“Martin Villa”, as he was known, real name Marcelino Trujillo Bustos, was one of the farmers who along with the also deceased Pedro Antonio Marin, “Manuel Marulanda” or “Tirofijo”, founded the FARC in the sixties last century.

The United States had requested the extradition of the historic FARC leader on drug charges, and the State Department offered a reward of 2.5 million US dollars for information leading to his capture.

Two guerrillas demobilized of FARC said that “Villa” was in poor health since 2004, which was aggravated by the constant transfers because of the Colombian Army military operations in the jungles of southern and eastern Colombia.

“The last thing it was heard from him was that he was hiding in a house in the Venezuelan town of Maroa, within the limits of the Guainia, where he had been transferred for medical treatment” reported El Tiempo from Bogotá.

The sources said that he had returned to the Colombian department of Caquetá (south) and after leaving a military siege he last met with Manuel Marulanda in Yarumales.

Trujillo was born on June 16, 1939, in Tolima and came to give instruction in 1981, to “young commanders of the fronts that were born that year in La Caucha (Uribe-Meta).

The guerrilla was the founder of the Eastern bloc, which became the armed wing of the FARC and was then ‘inherited’ by the ‘Mono Jojoy’. Of the men who accompanied Tirofijo since the birth of the FARC the only one still alive is the ‘Marquetaliano’ Miguel ‘Sergeant’ Pascuas.

FARC at one point dominated 20% of Colombian territory with an army of 20.000. But lately under President Alvaro Uribe has suffered decisive defeats and is no the run, only surviving on funds from the drugs trade.