BL: Colombia's FARC Rebels Confirm Leader's Death, Name Replacement
By Joshua Goodman
May 25 (Bloomberg) -- Colombia's largest rebel group today confirmed the death of its leader, Manuel Marulanda, in a video released to Venezuelan television station Telesur.
In the video, Marulanda's lieutenant Timoleon Jimenez, better known by his alias Timocheko, said the 77-year-old leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, died of a heart attack two months ago. A guerrilla known by his alias Alfonso Cano was named Marulanda's replacement as head of the FARC's seven-member Secretariat, its central governing body, Timocheko said.
``Our commander blazed the trail and now it is with immense sorrow we inform he died March 26th in the arms of his companera and surrounded by his troops,'' Timocheko said in a reference to Marulanda's girlfriend.
Marulanda's death is the latest blow to FARC following the killings of two other Secretariat members since March 1. President Alvaro Uribe yesterday said some of the 9,000 members of FARC, which has waged a half-century insurgency, may now be ready to lay down their arms and give up hostages.
Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos, in a nationally televised press conference today, presented recordings of intercepted communications in which a FARC commander known as Alberto Cancharima can be heard discussing Marulanda's death with a subordinate.
Santos challenged the FARC to surrender Marulanda's body so an autopsy could be performed to back up its claim Marulanda died of natural causes and not from an intense bombing campaign by Colombia's U.S.-backed military.
``We had him located and isolated,'' Santos said.
Santos said he hoped Cano, an academic from Bogota whose middle class background differs from the FARC's peasant base, would lead the insurgency into peace talks with the government. Until that happens, he said military operations against the group would continue.
``We're finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel of a conflict that has cost our country so much,'' Santos said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Joshua Goodman in Rio de Janeiro at Jgoodman19@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: May 25, 2008 13:18 EDT
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