Colombian Defense
Ministry: Top FARC
Leader Des Of Heart
Attack
Colombian Defense
Ministry said Saturday
that Manuel Marulanda,
the creator and top
leader of a major rebel
group FARC, has died
from heart attack.
Earlier on the day,
Colombian Defense
Minister Juan Manuel
Santos told a weekly
magazine that Marulanda
may have died on March
26, and the ministry
later announced the
information in a formal
statement.
Santos was cited as
saying that the top
leader of the
Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia (FARC)
died from a heart attack
on March 26, when he was
targeted three times by
the government forces in
bombing raids.
However, both the FARC
and the Colombian
military have not yet
commented on the
information.
Marulanda, aged 80, has
been leading the FARC in
the past 40 years. The
rebel leader was elusive
and rarely accepted
interview requests from
the media.
Since the beginning of
this year, the FARC has
received several heavy
blows. Its No.2 leader
Raul Reyes was killed in
a bombing raid on his
camp in Ecuador in
March.
His death was followed
by the assassination
days later of another
commander of the rebel
group, killed by one of
his bodyguards.
In May, a female rebel
leader who was know as "Karina"
surrendered to the
government. |
