FARC leader Alfonso Cano murdered

Operation with more than one thousand men killed FARC leader

In Colombia on Friday (4th), about one thousand men of the army and police killed the leader of FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia), Alfonso Cano, in an action with bombings and pursuit that the government classified as the "biggest operation" in 50 years.

Alfonso Cano lived for about two months in the Southwest, in Cauca, where he was surprised on Friday by a military operation called "Odyssey." After bombing, about a thousand men of the State security forces attacked a rural area managing to destroy the leader of FARC, said Defense Minister Juan Carlos Pinzón.

The joint operation of bombing by military forces and police had gone on for several days but "materialized only from 8:30" on Friday, advanced the minister.

Alfonso Cano, who was shot on Friday, was a middle class intellectual who came to the top as leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia after the death of its legendary co-founder, Manuel Marulanda, the Tirofijo, in 2008.

Cano, 63, whose real name is Guillermo Saenz Vargas, studied anthropology at the Universidad Nacional in Bogota before joining the Young Communist League, having been annexed to FARC in the 1970s.

He began by leading the peace negotiations with the Colombian government, held in Caracas (Venezuela) in 1991 and Tlaxcala (Mexico) in 1992.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos confirmed the death of Alfonso Cano, and ordered the demobilization of the guerrillas. "The death of Alfonso Cano was confirmed. We inflicted the greatest blow in the history of that organization," the president said in a statement on television. FARC has not yet commented.

Vermelho with agencies

Translated from the Portuguese version by:

Lisa Karpova

Pravda.Ru