The Economist

Never-ending

July 26th--The FARC is not finished yet

26 de julio de 2011

AS DEFENCE minister for almost three years under President Álvaro Uribe, Juan Manuel Santos led the crackdown on the guerrillas of the FARC. Their numbers fell from around 18,000 in 2002 to 8,000, and they were driven from areas in central Colombia that they had held for decades. Soon after Mr Santos took over as president last August, the security forces killed the FARC’s top military commander, Jorge Briceño (nom de guerre,“el Mono Jojoy”) in a ground and air operation that destroyed his headquarters.

Now there are some worrying signs that the FARC is bouncing back. Those who remain in the outfit are the radicalised hard-core, according to Rafael Guarín, the deputy defence minister. They are concentrating on attacking security forces using landmines and hit-and-run snipers. Last month the FARC kidnapped four Chinese oil workers and ambushed an army unit guarding a bridge in Caquetá department, killing two civilians. On June 29th the guerrillas erected a roadblock on the main road between Medellín and the Caribbean coast. When police arrived, they detonated a bomb, killing a police chief.
 
Read more here.

Semana International delivers news about Colombia in English. Find more in our home.