Colombia says FARC rebel leader killed

BOGOTA, (Reuters) – Colombian forces killed top FARC  rebel leader Alfonso Cano yesterday in the biggest blow yet to  Latin America’s longest insurgency and a triumph for President  Juan Manuel Santos, the Defense Ministry said.
While unlikely to bring a swift end to nearly five decades  of war in the Andean nation, his death will further damage the  rebels’ ability to regroup and coordinate the high profile  attacks that have brought it worldwide notoriety.
There were few immediate details of the killing, which  occurred during combat, according to a ministry official.
“It’s true he’s dead,” he told Reuters.
Even prior to its decapitation, the FARC, or Revolutionary  Armed Forces of Colombia, had been battered by a U.S.-backed  military campaign that began in 2002, and the waning insurgency  has lost several other key commanders in the past four years.
“This brings us closer to victory and peace so that we can  stop killing each other,” said Jorge Cordero, a 19-year-old  soldier in the north of Bogota
The death of Cano, 63, who took over leadership of the  rebels after their founder died in 2008, was a major strategic  victory for Santos, who came to office last year promising to  keep up a hard-line stance against the guerrillas.
The government had offered up to $3.7 million for  information that would lead to his capture.
The death of the bespectacled and bearded rebel commander,  a former student activist and communist youth member, followed  the killing late last year of one of his main henchmen, Mono  Jojoy, in a bombardment and assault on his camp.
REBELS WEAKEST IN DECADES
“It’s going to be more and more hard for them to get  through the next years,” said Alfredo Rangel, an independent  security analyst.
“There’s no leader with the intensity that Cano has and it  will be hard to get someone to replace him. In the short term  there will be a lack of leadership. The end won’t be automatic  or immediate but we are coming to the end of the FARC.”
Cano went from being a middle-class youth in the capital  Bogota to the top FARC leader after taking part in peace talks  in neighboring Venezuela and Mexico during the 1990s.
The strike that killed him underscored how Colombia’s  military can now attack rebel leaders deep in the mountains and  jungles. Once a powerful force controlling large swaths of  Colombia, the FARC is at its weakest in decades.
Violence, bombings and kidnapping from the conflict have  eased sharply as Colombian troops use better intelligence, U.S.  training and technology to take the fight to the rebels.
Foreign investment in Colombia has surged since the  military crackdown began in 2002, especially in oil and mining.  But the FARC and other armed groups have continued to pose a  threat in rural areas where the state’s presence is weak and  cocaine trafficking lets the rebels finance their operations.
Desertions and military operations have whittled down rebel  ranks to about 7,000 fighters, but the FARC has survived for  more than 40 years, and still has a cadre of experienced  mid-level commanders. Rebels rely increasingly on hit-and-run  tactics and ambushes in rural areas.
The FARC, whose rebels have made incursions into Venezuela  and Ecuador at times to elude Colombia’s army, are on the U.S.  list of terrorist organizations.