The Colombian army this weekend stepped up efforts to capture or kill “Pastor Alape,” a substitute member of the FARC’s secretariat and the presumed successor to “Mono Jojoy,” who was killed last week.
According to several media, some 1,000 troops are involved in operations in the southern Bolivar department where the commander of the FARC’s Magdalena Medio Bloc is suspected to be.
The commander of the army’s 5th Brigade, General Alfredo Bocanegra, told newspaper El Espectador that the primary objective of the renewed offensive is the capture or death of Pastor Alape.
The newspaper says that intelligence sources tip the guerrilla commander as the possible replacement for Mono Jojoy, who was the FARC’s military commander before he was killed in an air raid in central Colombia last Wednesday.
The guerrilla is one of two named substitutes to the FARC’s seven-man Secretariat, who would join the Secretariat in the event of the death of one of its members.
Following combat, five alleged FARC members were arrested and three computers holding important information were seized.
United States prosecutors accuse Pastro Alape, whose real name is Felix Antonio Muñoz Lascarro, of drug trafficking.