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LATIN AMERICA |
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Three FARC Guerrillas, Seven ELN Rebels
Surrender in Colombia
BOGOTA – Three FARC guerrillas and seven ELN
rebels surrendered to soldiers in different
parts of Colombia, the army’s ANE news
agency reported.
A Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or
FARC, rebel “sought help” from troops from a
counterinsurgency battalion in Tame, a city
in the eastern province of Arauca, ANE said.
A second FARC guerrilla reached a military
unit in Montañita, a city in the southern
province of Caqueta, “after managing to
escape from the terrorist organization,” ANE
said.
The rebel, who had belonged to a FARC unit
for three years, “decided to lay down his
arms because he was tired of the abuse to
which he was subjected,” the army said.
A third FARC guerrilla surrendered to an
army battalion in Palmira, a city in the
southwestern province of Valle del Cauca.
Six National Liberation Army, or ELN,
guerrillas deserted and surrendered to army
troops in the northwestern province of Choco,
the army said.
Of the six rebels, two are women, one of
whom was a squad leader, the army said.
The guerrillas “decided to surrender because
they were tired of the mistreatment they
were subjected to and due to the pressure
from operations carried out by troops” in a
rural area outside Quibdo, the capital of
Choco province, the army said.
Another ELN guerrilla, meanwhile,
surrendered to army troops in Caceres, a
city in the northwestern province of
Antioquia.
The ELN fighter deserted “with the arms
issued to him, and went looking for soldiers
... with the goal of voluntarily
surrendering and joining the demobilization
program,” the army said.
The Defense Ministry runs the PAHD
demobilization program, which was created by
the government to help members of illegal
armed groups return to civilian life.
From August 2002 to August 2009, 51,510
members of illegal armed groups demobilized
in Colombia, of whom 31,671 were
paramilitaries who surrendered under the
peace process with the government and 19,839
were guerrillas and militiamen who turned
themselves in individually, government
figures show.
The armed forces command, meanwhile, said
the son of FARC commander Arquimedes Muñoz
Villamil, one of the leaders of the
guerrilla group’s Central Command, was
killed in an airstrike in southern Colombia.
Soldiers recovered 10 bodies after the
bombing of the rebel camp in a rural area
outside Planadas, a town in Tolima province.
The ELN, which was founded in 1964 and has
some 5,000 fighters, has been engaged in an
“exploratory phase” of peace talks with the
government since December 2005.
The FARC, Colombia’s oldest and largest
leftist guerrilla group, was also founded in
1964 and today operates across a large swath
of this Andean nation.
The FARC, a Marxist rebel army that has
fought a decades-old struggle against a
succession of Colombian governments, holds
some hostages for political leverage and
others in hopes their families will pay for
their release.
The guerrilla group suffered a series of
blows last year, with the biggest coming on
July 2, when the Colombian army rescued
former presidential candidate Ingrid
Betancourt, U.S. military contractors Thomas
Howes, Keith Stansell and Marc Gonsalves,
and 11 other Colombian police officers and
soldiers.
The FARC had been trying to trade the 15
captives, along with 25 other “exchangeables,”
for hundreds of jailed guerrillas.
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