A specialist army unit has killed alias “La Muerte”, second in command of the FARC’s 5th Front reported El Espectador newspaper Tuesday.
La Muerte, sometimes referred to as “Hermes”, also acted as chief financial officer for the FARC’s northwestern bloc before he was killed by the army in a battle in the northern department of Cordoba.
According to the armed forces, “La Muerte” had been a FARC member for 26 years and was heavily involved in the distribution of coca paste and the sale of arms in Colombia’s Caribbean region.
El Espectador claims “La Muerte” was also responsible for participating in a terrorist attack on the village of Saiza, Córdoba in 1987 and in an ambush of army troops in 1993 during which a several soldiers were wounded. He was also allegedly responsible for a number of executions of businessmen in the Cordoba department and the taking of a military base in the same region during which the FARC massacred 20 soldiers and kidnapped another 12.
During the offensive in Cordoba that led to the death of “La Muerte”, the armed forces recovered two M4 rifles, an AK-47 machine gun, 185 cartridges of varying calibre and various uniforms and communications equipment.
This latest military offensive against the FARC’s 5th Front follows a “black” March for the guerilla movement, which saw a number of its key figures killed and important territories captured.