Rebels’ Second in Command Has Been Killed, Colombia Says

The New York TimesSeptember 24-- Colombia’s security forces killed the second in command of Latin America’s largest rebel group in an elaborate bombing raid in the country’s remote Macarena mountain range, the government said Thursday, dealing a major blow to a four-decade insurgency that had re-emerged with new vigor in recent months.
September 24, 2010

Colombian military officials said the multiday air and ground operation, which culminated Thursday, killed the field marshal known as Mono Jojoy, the nom de guerre used by the 57-year-old military mastermind who oversaw some of the main offensives of the group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. About 20 other members of the group were also said to have been killed.

“The FARC are crumbling from within,” said Rodrigo Rivera, Colombia’s defense minister, in announcing the operation. He attributed its success to informers who knew Mono Jojoy’s location.

 
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