Monday, March 10, 2008

Colombia is winning their battle against the FARC

It was a bad week for the FARC. First Paul Reyes was killed in his Ecuadorian sanctuary (just like on "The Wire", his cell phone gave him away). Second, even though Chavez rattled sabers, mobilized troops and got his pals to do the same, the Colombians pretty much got away with it. Sure, they apologized and said they'd not do it again, but there was also anti-harboring language in the agreement and then there was this too:



Third, FARC honcho, Ivan Rios was killed by his own people and his body (or parts of it) turned over the the Colombian Government. Fourth, FARC topdog Manuel Marulanda is reported to be gravely ill and under medical care somewhere in Venezuela. Fifth, the info on the laptops found at Reyes' camp in Ecuador show the FARC admitting to atrocities they'd denied publically. Sixth, arms dealing pariah Viktor Bout (what a great name; it's like a wrestling ring name) was arrested in Thailand in a sting operation and stands accused of supplying weapons to the FARC.

So after over 40 years of fighting the FARC, two top leaders are killed in a week, international repercussions from the cross-border raid were minimal, the FARC supreme commander is gravely ill, more damaging info about the FARC is coming to light, and one of their main arms dealers is well and truly busted. Ouch.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The general theme of the operation looks very American. This is the technical intelligence and precision air strike model perfected in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Anonymous said...

FARC won't die until someone else takes the drug trade from them or cocaine prohibition is ended. FARC almost died in the 80s, when the Red Brigades died, but the crackdown on the cocaine cartels handed them a new revenue source on a silver platter.