Colombia asks Venezuela again to extradite top FARC guerrilla

Colombian General Prosecutor office repeats its extradition request for former leading FARC member “Julian Conrado,” to the Venezuelan government.

Guillermo Enrique Torres, alias “Julian Conrado,” was a senior rebel in charge of the political direction of the Southern Bloc, according to crime analysis site Insight Crime.

The guerrilla — who was reported to have been the right hand man of former FARC military leader Raul Reyes — was arrested last May in the west Venezuelan state of Barinas, with the help of Colombian police intelligence work.

Known as “The Singer,” the rebel has composed more than 100 protest songs including the FARC anthem “From my village to the guerrilla.”

The Colombian government want to charge Conrado with homicide, kidnapping and rebellion, but the Venezuelan government has refused the extradition on legal and human rights grounds.

The latest application will be submitted to the Supreme Court of Venezuela in the coming days.

Conrade was thought to have been killed alongside Raul Reyes in a bombing attack in 2008, but military intelligence later revealed that he had in fact been sent to Venezuela under a false Ecuadorian identity in order to do political work for the FARC.

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