Archive for 2011

The Hunt for FARC Commander Alfonso Cano

The Colombian military has had numerous successes targeting high-ranking leaders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in recent years. Its two greatest successes were the killing of secretariat members Raúl Reyes in 2008 and Jorge Briceño, alias “Mono Jojoy,” last year. But the guerrilla leader that the military most wants to capture or kill is the FARC’s supreme commander Alfonso Cano. In an effort to achieve its objective, the Colombian army has deployed 5,000 troops with the sole mission of locating Cano. But the task of tracking down and targeting the FARC leader is proving to be far more challenging than the killing of Reyes and Mono Jojoy due to the high altitude and rugged mountain terrain prevalent in the department of Tolima in central Colombia, where the FARC was founded in 1964. Read more»

The Ongoing Pacification of Colombia’s Amazon Indians

Inírida is a backwater Amazonian town like many others throughout the remote reaches of eastern Colombia. Located near the Venezuelan border at the juncture of the Inírida and Guaviare Rivers, it is only accessible by river or plane. The economy of Inírida and its surrounding environs in the department of Guainía has experienced several boom and bust cycles over the past century. Initially, rubber was the driving force behind the local economy; later it was gold, and then coca. None of these boom periods benefitted the indigenous peoples, who constitute 90 percent of Guainía’s population and who have endured numerous intrusions into their territories and culture over the past century. Read more»