After Marulanda’s death, what is the future of FARC?

On 25 May 2008, Rodrigo Londoño, aka Timoleón Jiménez or Timochenko, confirmed the death last 26 March of 78-year-old Pedro Antonio Marín, aka Manuel Marulanda Vélez or Tirofijo (Sureshot), Colombian guerrilla FARC’s top leader. The confirmation came on a video broadcast by Venezuelan news network teleSUR, one day after Colombian Defence Minister told, as if it was some kind of "gossip", Semana journalist María Isabel Rueda that Tirofijo "must be in hell" during an interview.

Recently, FARC have received huge blows: its top 2 commanders, Tirofijo and Luis Édgar Devia aka Raúl Reyes died both in the same month (Reyes died in a camp in Ecuadorian soil after a bombing conducted by Colombian authorities). Another FARC Secretariat member, Iván Ríos, was killed by his own bodyguard, who cut his hand and took it to the Colombian army in order to receive a reward from the government. Other important commanders have been killed, neutralized or have surrendered to the authorities.

In this situation, what is the future of the oldest guerrilla group in the Americas? A few days after the news of Sureshot’s death, equinoXio chief editor Marsares has published his own view of the issue. We now share it with you in English:

• Alfonso Cano, peace or war ideologue?
• Sureshot’s last death
• FARC Leader Sureshot is Confirmed Dead (Global Voices)

Fatal error: Call to undefined function eqnx_enlace() in /nfs/c05/h04/mnt/79602/domains/equinoxio.org/html/wp-content/themes/eqnX2008_en/single.php on line 16