Three prominent FARC commanders who were reported as killed in combat by the Colombian army are alive, newspaper El Tiempo reported Sunday.
According to the newspaper, the three guerrillas, “Albeiro Cordoba,” “El Campesino,” and “Byron Yepes,” were reported killed by the army in 2005, 2007 and 2009 respectively, but are still active in the guerrilla organization.
El Tiempo said that the national coroner’s office and the technical investigation unit of the Prosecutor General’s Office were not able to confirm army claims that the three had been killed while intelligence sources and sources within the FARC said that the three are now in charge of reorganizing the guerrillas’ Eastern Bloc after the death of the bloc’s leader, “Mono Jojoy” in December 2010.
Albeiro Cordoba is currently in charge of members of the security forces held hostages by the FARC in the Guaviare department, El Campesino is in the Meta department together with Mono Jojoy’s successor “Mauricio,” and Byron Yepes is in charge of reorganizing the FARC’s 27th and 43rd Fronts with the aim of retaking the strategically crucial rural Sumapaz region south of Bogota, El Tiempo reported.
According to the newspaper, the coroner’s office does not know the identity of the bodies that initially were said to be of the three guerrilla commanders.
The army itself wouldn’t respond to El Tiempo’s findings for “national security” reasons.