Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos on Sunday thanked his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez for the Venezuelan arrest of Joaquin Perez Becerra, accused of being a member of the FARC’s international front.
According to Santos, he had personally asked Chavez to arrest the suspected guerrilla.
“I called President Chavez to help me catch this FARC guerrilla that was coming from Frankfurt to Caracas. He did not hesitate and will hand him over tomorrow to Colombia,” the Colombian president said in Bogota.
“This is another example of how our cooperation is increasing and is being effective,” the Colombian head of state said.
According to Santos, Perez Becerra is known within the FARC as “alias Alejandro Martinez, the leader of the international front of the FARC in Europe.”
Some Colombian media said Perez Becerra is the director of Anncol, a Sweden-based website that regularly posts press releases of the Colombian guerrilla group. Colombia Reports emailed Anncol director Roberto Gutierrez to verify this, but received no response.