Colombia says FARC will have 3,000 men in 2009

Presidential adviser Frank Pearl revealed that in the first five months of 2008, 1500 fighters from the FARC surrendered and expects that number to reach the 3,000 by the end of the year.”If the trend continues, the FARC will have less than 3,000 armed soldiers in December,” he told Colombian newspaper El Espectador.The Colombian Army calculates that the present number of armed FARC members is 8,000, 2,000 higher than Pearl’s estimate. International estimates are even higher.