2nd death a severe blow to Colombia’s reb

[Gunny]

Associated Press
updated 1:13 a.m. CT, Sun., March. 9, 2008

BOGOTA, Colombia - The guerrilla walked out of the jungle tired, hungry and bearing the dismembered hand of his slain commander.

The rebel, known simply as Rojas, said the Colombian troops were closing in on his guerrilla column and he wanted out of the fight. But the rebels shoot deserters — so instead he murdered his commander and fled, lopping off the dead man's right hand to present to the army.

"I did it to save my life," the mustachioed rebel told a press conference Saturday in the western city of Pereira. "Because if you're going to desert, they'll shoot you."

The morbid delivery represented an unexpected gift for President Alvaro Uribe: the death of the second top Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, leader in a week, and a severe blow to the rebel group's four-decade-long insurgency.

The slaying of Ivan Rios, leader of the FARC's central region, came less than a week after Colombian troops crossed the border into Ecuador on March 1 and killed senior rebel commander Raul Reyes and 24 others. The raid sparked a diplomatic crisis that saw Ecuador and its ally Venezuela both pull their ambassadors from Bogota and order troops to their borders with Colombia.

more ... http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23541790/

Not a good week to be a bad guy in South America.

 

[Annie]

Not a good week to be a bad guy in South America.

Good news indeed! I hope FARC is imploding, that would be a break.

 

[Gunny]

Good news indeed! I hope FARC is imploding, that would be a break.

I think Chavez will prop them up before that happens.

 

[Annie]

I think Chavez will prop them up before that happens.

He's given them money already, supposedly they may have gotten some uranium.

 

[Gunny]

He's given them money already, supposedly they may have gotten some uranium.

Haven't heard the uranium bit. Not that it would surprise me. But you should know better than to say that without a picture of it being handed to them, a signed document admitting they have it, and a crater where a village used to be.