Tirofijo Dead

FARC leader Pedro Antonio Marin has died, according to the Colombian minister of defence and Colombian news networks. This is a stunning success for the government and follows the capture of Nelly Avila Moreno, aka Karina, a feared guerrilla leader on Sunday. That is the leader of the organisation, and the commander of Force 47 (also a member of the seven strong Farc ruling council.) A few weeks ago second in command Raul Reyes was killed by an army raid two kilometres over the border into Ecuador, and a few days after that Ivan Rios, another hated rebel commander was assasinated by one of his bodyguards. These events are highly significant - no top rebel commander had been killed by the government until Reyes since the conflict with Farc began.
Is the Colombian government winning the war? Uribe's first four years were taken up by negotiating a deal with right-wing paramilitaries which helped end the virtual civil war in the country and cleared the guerrillas out of the major cities. Uribe was criticised for his links with the paramilitaries and for treating them softly - but the tactic worked. Striking a mortal blow at the FARC, holed up in the jungles of Colombia's Amazonian south, proved far more difficult. It seems, however, that the terrorist organisation is beginning to disintergrate in the face of sustained pressure from the army, which has not been held up by negotiations that allowed the FARC to regroup in the past, Uribe's canny policy of divide and rule - offering huge rewards for the death of rebel leaders (that was what got rid of Rios), and FARC's increasing pariah status in the international community. Their strategy of kidnapping domestic and foreign citizens hugely backfired when the images of emaciated Frenchwoman Ingrid Betancourt were displayed on news networks across the world. Colombian's have long regarded the FARC as terrorists - the hatred is painfully evident even in official circles. Asked about the death of Marin military spokesman Manuel Santos said bitterly 'I hope he goes to hell.' As I was told by a former Colombian minister of the interior nearly every family in public life (whether local or national politician, journalist or in business) has had a relative or friend kidnapped or assasinated by the FARC. Uribe's father was killed by them - Karina was supposed to have a hand in the job. They used to retain some quasi-romantic revolutionary gloss in the international media and left-wing circles in this country left over from the days of Guevara. It is pleasing to see that this bunch of murders, criminals, drug-traffickers and terrorists are regarded thus no longer.
It is true that many of the guerrillas are uneducated rural poor (none of the leaders have ever been to a major city), and Uribe has sensibly extended a new policy of amnesty towards any of those who defect from the FARC. This is the same as was extended to the paramilitaries, and has already yielded results. Over the last few weeks the victories against the FARC have been remarkable. It is still too early to say, but it may be that there is a possibility that this century old conflict is drawing to a close. If this is the case, the footsolidiers of the FARC need to be sensibly intergrated into society and not persecuted. Hurt will run deep, but the answer to heal old wounds is not to aggravate them but soothe them. Let us hope that this is the way things will precede.