A video reportedly recorded less than three weeks before the death of “Mono Jojoy” shows the FARC guerrilla leader defending the importance of armed struggle, news agency EFE reports.
The video, released on Wednesday by digital magazine Kienyke, was allegedly recorded on September 3 by Colombian journalist Jorge Enrique Botero. The journalist walked for nine days through the jungle to reach the FARC’s main camp.
The camp, where Mono Jojoy was killed in the army’s “Operation Sodom” on September 22, was located in the La Macarena region in the central Colombian Meta department, 120 miles south of Bogota.
The video shows a large group of guerrillas newly recruited to the “Jemerson Ruiz” troop.
Mono Jojoy tells the young people that “being a rebel is a great responsibility. We are a role model to improve the character and the thought of people coming from a capitalist society.”
The guerrilla leader adds that people join the FARC “because they have not been given a chance, not because they are violent.”
“The government wants us to give up, but not with us. We respect those who respect us,” Mono Jojoy declares in the video.
The digital magazine claims they will release another video where Mono Jojoy talks of Santos’ government and a possible deal with the government.