Colombia’s armed forces on Tuesday announced they designated 4,000 troops for the sole task of finding and arresting the FARC’s supreme commander “Alfonso Cano.”
According to army intelligence, the FARC leader and some of his closest aides are located in the mountains on the border of the Tolima and Cauca departments. Aremed forces have been looking for “Cano” in these remote parts for years.
The newly formed unit “has as a pimary mission to make an end to the terrorist threat the Central Command of the FARC represents,” the army said in a statement.
The so-called Southern Task Force will consist of a number of battalions, a platoon of engineers and three airplanes, the army said.
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe personally appointed general Fernando Joya Duarte to lead the operation.
“Alfonso Cano” has been leading the FARC since May 2008 when founder “Manuel Marulanda” died.