The story behind the killing of FARC leader Ivan Rios has become more interesting - and even more indicative that the FARC is on the verge of collapes. Colombia's Defense Minister now states that Rios was killed by his unit's security chief. Closely pursued by Colombian Security Forces, the security chief, "Rojas" killed Rios and gave his hand, his ID papers, and his computer to the Colombian military.
Wow! The FARC is beginning to turn on itself. The FARC may in fact be on the verge of dissolution.
It is difficult to believe that the assassination of Reyes did not influence these events (they may also get to collect a $5 million reward from the U.S. Department of Justice.) Now the Colombian government has the computer of another top commander. More dominoes will fall.
Other Updates
Initial rumors are apparently false. Ecuador's Correa denies that Betancourt is about to be released.
Also, the OAS hearings on the Colombia-Venezuela spat has ended amicably. Uribe was subject to harsh criticism but gave as good as he got. It ended with a handshake between Correa, Chavez, and Uribe. This might be a good moment for the United States to make an offer to Ecuador (cutting back on aerial spraying of drug fields near the Ecuador-Colombia border might be a good opening gambit) - the disclosures about Correa's links to the FARC are certainly embarrassing.
Meanwhile, a Venezuelan National Guard vehicle crossed into Colombian territory and shots were fired. It was probably just a dumb accident - but these are the sorts of things that happen when leaders looking for a distraction from other troubles take diplomatic spats and turn them into full-scale donnybrooks.
4 comments:
Now that they have two computers, it could get very interesting. Tracing where these computers linked to and how they linked could provide much more information on some of the ways terrorist groups are trying to secure communications.This could be a global intelligence gem.
matt
Apparently they have 4 computers. I think the FARC is in big trouble now - and it will be a window into a much larger, unseemly world.
computers, pen drives, external hard drives ... the works.
a comment on the first comment: "secure communications" is where Farc has shown to be tottaly inept. Raul Reyes opsec very poor. There is a long history of compromised sat phon es going back a decade. Weeks before Reyes fell, another Farc crew was popped because of compromised sat phones. Also, all digital content was not encrypted. Today, open source and commercial versions of AES 256 are available and require no expertise.
Raul Reyes was ultimately responsible for operational security and he was delusional thinking he was safe a mere 1,850 meters from the Colombian border.
GWEH
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