Rebels without a chance

For many years now, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia — guerrillas who have waged civil war against the government since the 1960s — have been falling behind the times. Living as they do in Colombia's vast forests, the FARC troops, made up mostly of poor peasants who are given guns, a bit of food and a smattering of pseudo-communist ideology, are often the last to get important updates about world events. For example, several American military contractors who were held hostage by the FARC until their rescue in 2008 recounted their futile efforts to convince their captors that the Panama Canal was no longer in the possession of the United States, or that the real reason for the U.S. embargo of Cuba was not to keep Americans from fleeing there. So it's not entirely surprising that the FARC seems to have missed a big story that broke last week: the news of its own demise.
 
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