Colombia’s Navy has killed three and captured eight FARC guerrillas held responsible for an attack on electricity towers in the west of the country that has left tens of thousands without electricity, the defense minister said Sunday.
According to Minister Juan Carlos Pinzon, the armed forces’ offensive basically made an end to the guerrilla unit of the FARC’s Manuel Cepeda Vargas Front, active near the Pacific port city of Buenaventura.
In what Pinzon called an “impeccable” operation, two of the unit’s guerrillas voluntarily surrendered.
In a separate operation, army forces found a FARC weapons cache with some 150 grenades, eight rifles, five M16 rifles, three handguns and two AK47s.
Following an increase in FARC attacks in Colombia’s southwest, President Juan Manuel Santos sent Pinzon to the city of Cali to personally coordinate the armed forces’ counter-insurgency operations.