Second FARC Leader Killed in Colombia
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
BOGOTA, Colombia — A top rebel leader was killed by his own chief of security, who gave Colombian troops the leader’s severed hand as proof, the defense minister said today.
Ivan Rios was the second top rebel killed in a week, a major blow to the FARC, Colombia’s largest guerrilla force.
Rios was a member of the ruling secretariat of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. The guerrilla force was already shaken by the death Saturday of its spokesman, Raul Reyes, in a cross-border raid by Colombian troops into Ecuador.
The U.S. State Department had a standing bounty of $5 million for Rios, whose real name is Jose Juvenal Velandia. He has been charged with drug smuggling by America, and is on a U.S. Treasury Department list of terrorists and drug traffickers.
