Colombian forces kill FARC leader

[Belleraphone]

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2011/11/201111534939129641.html


Government forces have killed Alfonso Cano, the leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia [FARC], during combat operations, the country’s defence ministry has said.

Juan Carlos Pinzon, the defence minister, said on Saturday that Cano was killed after government forces bombed a FARC jungle hideout in the southwestern Cauca region on Friday.


The death of Cano, 63, who took over leadership of the rebels after their founder died in 2008, would be a strategic victory for President Juan Manuel Santos, who came to office last year promising to keep up a hardline stance against the rebels.

[RedSonRising]

This is likely the beginning of the end for the FARC, IMO. Not that I'm exactly torn over it or that I believe everything the bourgeois media of Colombia claims its armed forces are doing or that this victory for the Colombian working class is positive, but the group has taken consistent and heavy hits over the last decade.

[TheGodlessUtopian]

I'm no expert on FARC but it seems unlikely that this will do a whole lot to impede them.I remember a while ago a news story where Colombian forces killed another farc leader and many said that it was the beginning of the end when the leader killed was a marginalized one.

I'm not sure what this latest event will cause to happen but killing individual leaders never does a whole lot to affect a group.

[Blackscare]

This is likely the beginning of the end for the FARC, IMO. Not that I'm exactly torn over it or that I believe everything the bourgeois media of Colombia claims its armed forces are doing or that this victory for the Colombian working class is positive, but the group has taken consistent and heavy hits over the last decade.

FARC actually has a history of taking losses of high-ranking members pretty well actually. I doubt that this will have much of an effect at all, really. It doesn't change the fact that FARC control about a third of the country (granted that's mostly jungle). FARC leaders in general seem to be like shark's teeth.

[mrmikhail]

FARC actually has a history of taking losses of high-ranking members pretty well actually. I doubt that this will have much of an effect at all, really. It doesn't change the fact that FARC control about a third of the country (granted that's mostly jungle). FARC leaders in general seem to be like shark's teeth.

Yeah, they have been saying FARC has been on the decline for the better part of a decade or more, and yet FARC is still there, still controlling much of Colombia, and still quite a strong guerrilla force....leaders dying has never set them back before, I doubt it will now.

[Seth]

The most likely outcome:

For a while in Colombian and American media there will be a collective prophesy that FARC is in super deep water or about to come to an end, then in a few Novembers we may very well have a scare in some circles like the one circa 1998 that FARC is going to take power in 5 years, which will prompt a whole new round of military aid to America's favorite Latin pet. Then some bigshot in FARC will die, the media will praise it to the heavens and herald a new age of peace, some lower member of FARC's command structure will take the position, their leadership will shuffle around, and the status quo in Colombia will continue to go on for god knows how many years. This isn't the first time FARC has had some head honcho killed, nor is it the biggest blow ever.

Alternatively, this assassination might actually be the super special silver bullet that causes the rebellion to unravel.

That's not likely though, because the FARC is one of those groups that goes through leaders like the Romans went through emperors.

[cheguvera]

I don't care if I fall as long as someone else picks up my gun and keeps on shooting.
Che Guevara (http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/c/cheguevara197267.html)

[cheguvera]

any struggle should not depend on leaders or rely on leaders.

I am not a liberator. Liberators do not exist. The people liberate themselves~cheguevara

[Seth]

I'm not sure what this latest event will cause to happen but killing individual leaders never does a whole lot to affect a group.

It does, and this definitely could cause serious problems, but the thing is, FARC has a lot of capable people standing in line. The media already mentioned two names that I don't remember.