Police in the eastern Colombian city of Cucuta on Monday arrested a prominent ringleader of the EPL, Colombia’s third largest leftist guerrilla movement.
Guerrilla leader Jesus Villalba Torres, alias “Carmelo,” is suspected of being head of the Libardo Mora Toro front of the Popular Liberation Army (EPL) and of being responsible for the murder of sixteen policemen who died when guerrillas blew up the truck they were in.
“Carmelo” will be charged with rebellion, the production and trafficking of cocaine, kidnapping, extortion and homicide.
The EPL, like the FARC and ELN, was founded in the 1960s by members of the Communist Party. Most members demobilized with the M-19 when Colombia got a new constitution in 1991, but several hundred remained active.