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Colombia's FARC leader dies
26/05/2008 12:13 - (SA)
Bogota - Colombia's leftwing FARC guerrilla army on Sunday confirmed that its founder and long-time chief, Manuel Marulanda, has died after leading a bloody, four-decade long campaign against Bogota.
The announcement by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia came a day after the Colombian government said Marulanda, nicknamed "Sureshot" by his comrades, had died on the evening of March 26.
"The great leader has gone," a member of FARC's secretariat, Timoleon "Timochenco" Jimenez, told Venezuela's Telesur, which was picked up by Colombian television.
Marulanda, 80, died after from an apparent heart attack and Jimenez said he would be succeeded by Alfonso Cano, the group's ideological chief who is seen as more of a moderate and intellectual.
The death of FARC's leader represented a major setback for the rebels, already struggling from battlefield defeats at the hands of the US-backed Colombian government forces, and prompted speculation the guerrillas might release hostages.
Bogota's report on Saturday of Marulanda's death had been followed by an announcement by President Alvaro Uribe, who said that some FARC leaders were ready to free high-profile hostages such as French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt.
- AFP
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