Colombian Government To
Reward Killers of FARC
Leader
The Colombian government
will give a reward of
1.4 million U.S. dollars
to four rebel members
who betrayed their group
and killed one of their
leaders, Colombian Vice
Defense Minister Sergio
Jaramillo said on
Monday.
Jaramillo said the money
will be given to Pablo
Montoya and three of his
colleagues in the
Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia (FARC),
the country's biggest
rebel group.
The four killed Manuel
Munoz, alias Ivan Rios,
one of the seven main
FARC leaders, on March 4
and handed over a
computer of Munoz to the
army.
They will be also be
rewarded for offering
information that will be
useful to dismantling
the FARC group and for
opening a legal process
against FARC leaders,
Jaramillo said.
The money represents
some 48.2 percent of the
total rewards of 2.9
million dollars promised
by the government for
Munoz's head, and
Jaramillo said the rest
of the reward will be
paid to relatives of
those who also
participated in combat
against Munoz but lost
their lives.
Noting that the promised
rewards have encouraged
FARC members to desert
and betray their
leaders, the vice
minister said the
government will continue
with this policy.
Under Colombian
President Alvaro Uribe's
military onslaught, FARC
forces have been almost
halved to 8,000,
according to government
estimates.
The group acknowledged
last month that its top
leader and co-founder
Manuel "Sureshot"
Marulanda had died of a
heart attack.
The FARC's
second-in-command Raul
Reyes was killed by the
Colombian army in a
cross-border attack on a
rebel camp on March 1.
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