After Marulanda’s death, what is the future of FARC?
Featured articlesBy equinoXio
Tuesday 10 June 2008 0:02 COT
Pedro Antonio Marín (Manuel Marulanda Vélez, Tirofijo or Sureshot) and Guillermo León Sáenz (Alfonso Cano)
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)
Tags: Alfonso Cano, Álvaro Uribe Vélez, Colombia, Colombian politics, FARC, FARC Secretariat, guerrilla, Guillermo León Sáenz, Juan Manuel Santos, Manuel Marulanda Vélez, Pedro Antonio Marín, Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, Sureshot, terrorism, Tirofijo
thursday 12 june 2008, 8:58 COT
The Guerrilla is a form of life and will remain an attractive way of living for as long as there is nothing more attractive to do in Colombia than that.
When you have a country where 23 million people live below the poverty line and in the most precarious and deplorable conditions it is a miracle that the guerrilla is not larger than what it is.
As I said earlier this year, Colombia is a time bomb about to explode. The US and Plan Colombia is just the fire that lights the fuse.
sunday 13 july 2008, 23:42 COT
[…] with the Secretariat, the context also provided credibility. First, the command change. Being MarulandaCano appointed to substitute him dead and , it didn’t turn out suspicious a change on the treatment of the kidnapped, as well […]
tuesday 29 july 2008, 23:39 COT
Tequendamia:
NO is more than a vile offender devoted to drug trafficking, terrorism and called bazofia FARC.
After the February 4 more than 12 million publicly rejected it and that the July 20 another handful of Colombians (around 6 million) do so again, this is stupid to say that the brazen “guerrillas is a way of life “.
Equinox to make these comments is making an apologia for terrorism indirectly.