Colombian president says he has FARC leader and his command on target

Friday, February 18th 2011 - 14:19 UTC

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Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos said this week that military forces know the exact hiding place and movements of the FARC guerrilla maximum leader, Alfonso Cano, and brushed aside any chance that he might escape.

“The military forces and the government know exactly in which area Cano is hiding”, said Santos during a speech countering doubts that the top rebel leader of the armed organization might have taken advantage of a “cleared area” (free of military operations) for the agreed release of hostages, to flee from where he was holed in.

“We know exactly where he and his command are moving; we would be stupid to cease operations in an area where he is, thus facilitating a possible escape”, added the Colombian president.

“We like to dialogue, but we are not stupid. We’re going to continue chasing him; we’ll be on his back, as we are now. That bandit will eventually fall into our nets as happened with Mono Jojoy”, said Santos.

Since Santos took office six months ago he has managed several significant coups against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the most recent the death during an air bombing in September 2010 of Mono Jojoy (Jorge Briceño) who was then number two and military commander of the terrorist organization.

In March 2008 when Santos was Defence minister of former President Alvaro Uribe, Raul Reyes, then number two of the organization was killed during a bombing and attack on FARC enclave in Ecuador, just across the Colombian border.

FARC originally a Marxist oriented political group that took to the mountains and guerrilla fighting, has in the last two decades turned into a military organization funded by the Colombian and Mexican narcotics barons.

Categories: Politics, Latin America.

Tags: Alfonso Cano, Colombia, FARC, guerrilla, Juan Manuel Santos.

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walterlx
I suppose this is the Colombian government's response to the FARC's releases of prisoners held by the FARC through the participation of former senator Piedad Cordoba and with the participation of the Brazilian military. Colombia's rulers succeeded in booting Cordoba from the Colombian parliament, but they haven't been able to remove her from the political scene.

It's clear that the FARC still has some cards to play politically, and a non-military solution to the Colombian conflicts would certainly be in the interests of that country if it could ever actually be brought about.

The FARC has suffered substantial blows in recent years, beginning with Marulanda's death - of natural causes - but what capitalist government has ever NOT claimed that it knows where the revolutionary opposition is and that it has them in its sights? Cubans certainly know something about that, after all.

The current Colombian president has shown himself to be far more astute politically than his predecessor, Alvaro Uribe. Colombia's decades-long struggle has experienced its ups and downs, but its prospects for a military victory seem quite remote, at best.

Santos has reduced tensions with Venezuela, where Chavez told the FARC that the days of their form of armed struggle were over quite awhile ago. The economies of Venezuela and Colombia are closely tied, and a reduction of conflicts between the two countries is clearly in the interests of both.

Millions of Colombians are living in Venezuela, and many seem to be strongly supportive of Chavez who has welcomed them into his country. Here in Havana I met - just last night - one of these Colombians who lives in Venezuela who gave me something of a sense of this.

We are living indeed in very interesting times.

Walter Lippmann
La Habana, Cuba
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/
Feb 19th, 2011 - 04:53 pm 0
Y Draig Goch
Isnt that Just Gerry Adams in the picture??
Feb 20th, 2011 - 10:45 am 0

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