Colombia arrest leading rebel commander

Colombia arrest leading rebel commander

Colombian authorities announced the captured a leading rebel commander after tracking him for three months.

Regulo Leal was arrested in the northern city of Medellin. A police statement identified Leal, who goes by the alias Arley Leal, as the commander of the 32nd Front of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

The 32nd Front is part of the FARC's Southern Bloc which operates along the border with Ecuador and along Colombia's southwest coast.

Leal is wanted by authorities on charges of kidnapping and homicide.

The police statement said Leal oversaw a 1996 attack on a military base that left 28 soldiers dead and another 60 kidnapped.

The FARC have spent more than four decades fighting for a revolution in Colombia.