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LATIN AMERICA |
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A Founder
of Colombia’s FARC Dies Of Heart Attack In
The Jungle
One of the historic founders of the
Colombian guerrilla movement FARC (Colombian
Rebel Armed Forces) died in the jungle,
close to the Venezuelan border, three months
ago of a heart attack, according to FARC
sources quoted in the Bogotá Sunday press.
“Martin Villa”, as he was known, real name
Marcelino Trujillo Bustos, was one of the
farmers who along with the also deceased
Pedro Antonio Marin, “Manuel Marulanda” or “Tirofijo”,
founded the FARC in the sixties last
century.
The United States had requested the
extradition of the historic FARC leader on
drug charges, and the State Department
offered a reward of 2.5 million US dollars
for information leading to his capture.
Two guerrillas demobilized of FARC said that
“Villa” was in poor health since 2004, which
was aggravated by the constant transfers
because of the Colombian Army military
operations in the jungles of southern and
eastern Colombia.
“The last thing it was heard from him was
that he was hiding in a house in the
Venezuelan town of Maroa, within the limits
of the Guainia, where he had been
transferred for medical treatment” reported
El Tiempo from Bogotá.
The sources said that he had returned to the
Colombian department of Caquetá (south) and
after leaving a military siege he last met
with Manuel Marulanda in Yarumales.
Trujillo was born on June 16, 1939, in
Tolima and came to give instruction in 1981,
to “young commanders of the fronts that were
born that year in La Caucha (Uribe-Meta).
The guerrilla was the founder of the Eastern
bloc, which became the armed wing of the
FARC and was then ‘inherited’ by the ‘Mono
Jojoy’. Of the men who accompanied Tirofijo
since the birth of the FARC the only one
still alive is the ‘Marquetaliano’ Miguel
‘Sergeant’ Pascuas.
FARC at one point dominated 20% of Colombian
territory with an army of 20.000. But lately
under President Alvaro Uribe has suffered
decisive defeats and is no the run, only
surviving on funds from the drugs trade.
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