Colombia Kills Second Top FARC Commander
CNN:
CUCUTA, Colombia (CNN) — As South American officials tried to ease tensions sparked by Colombia’s killing of a rebel leader inside Ecuador, the Colombian army announced the death of another top militant Friday.
Ivan Rios, whose real name was Manuel de Jesus Munoz, was one of six remaining members of the leadership council of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.
“The FARC has suffered a new, major blow,” Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos said, according to The Associated Press.
Rios was killed by his own chief of security, who offered items including the rebel leader’s severed right hand as proof of his death, the AP quoted Santos as saying.
On Saturday, Luis Edgar Devia Silva, known as Raul Reyes, was killed in a raid into Ecuador.
He was FARC’s second-in-command — and the first member of the leftist rebel group’s general secretariat killed by Colombia in the 40 years that it has been fighting to overthrow the Colombian government.
Twenty-one other people were also killed in the attack.
The raid sparked protests from the left-leaning leaders of Ecuador, Venezuela and Nicaragua, all of whom cut diplomatic ties with Colombia, and Ecuador and Venezuela moved troops to their borders with Colombia. See a map of the region »
Colombian officials apologized for taking their attack against FARC into Ecuador, but Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa has said that the apology wasn’t enough and protested to the Organization of American States this week.
On Wednesday, the OAS ordered a commission to investigate Colombia’s attack. See a timeline of the tensions »
The commission plans to visit Colombia and Ecuador and “propose formulas for bringing the two nations closer together.”
The organization also adopted a statement referring to the Colombian attack as “a violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ecuador and of principles of international law.”
Correa, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez joined other Latin American leaders at a scheduled meeting of the Rio Group in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, where they hoped to find a way to defuse the crisis.
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So, was THIS before or after Colombian President Alvaro Uribe went around the room and kissed the asses of all the Commie S.A. leaders today?
I got a growing freaky spider sense about this …
March 7th, 2008 at 8:43 pmGood riddance to that sorry sack of shit. It is a good thing when selfish men who kidnap and kill innocent Columbian civilians to further their own political goals. The world will be a much better place when the FARC is fertilizer for the rain forest.
March 7th, 2008 at 8:55 pmKind of like Michael Corleone going to a baptism while having his enemies whacked.
March 7th, 2008 at 9:10 pmBoy, will Chavez, Sean Penn and Danny Glover be pissed.
March 7th, 2008 at 10:01 pmAnother one bites the dust. An another one gone, another one gone, another one bites the dust, hey gonna get you too, another one bites the dust.
March 8th, 2008 at 7:49 am