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Caribbean-Latin America
Colombia kills rebel accused of leading attacks on U.S.-owned oil pipeline
2007-10-27
BOGOTA, Colombia: A senior rebel commander, accused of leading attacks on a U.S.-owned oil pipeline and terrorizing residents along Colombia's Caribbean coast, was killed in combat, the defense minister said Thursday. Gustavo Rueda, head of the 37th Front of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, was killed Wednesday night in the isolated Montes de Maria mountain range, defense minister Juan Manuel Santos said.
And no virgins, either!
At least 18 other guerrillas were killed and four more captured during the fighting, which capped more than six months of intelligence work, Santos said. There were no reports of military casualties.

Rueda, better known by his nom de guerre Martin Caballero, was notorious for having ordered the kidnapping of Colombia's current foreign minister, who escaped in December after six years in rebel captivity.

The rebel leader is the third high-priority target taken out by the U.S.-backed military in the past two months. On Sept. 1 troops killed in combat Tomas Medina Caracas, a FARC member who was responsible for collecting a "war tax" on cocaine shipments that passed through eastern Colombia. A week later, the military captured cartel boss Diego Montoya, who was listed on the FBI's 10 most wanted list.
"Say allo to our leetle friend!"
Rueda's 37th front has been one of the most battered since President Alvaro Uribe took office in 2002. After increasing troop levels by 25 percent, government forces cut the guerrilla unit off from the FARC's main base in southern Colombia.

Santos said that at the front's height in 2002, some 500 troops under Rueda's command carried out dozens of bombings of the 780-kilometer (480-mile) Cano Limon pipeline, which is jointly owned by state oil firm Ecopetrol and U.S. company Occidental Petroleum Inc. Rueda is also believed to have masterminded dozens of kidnappings for ransom used by the FARC to finance its half-century-old insurgency.

"This is a clear demonstration that the guerrillas can indeed be defeated militarily," said Foreign Minister Fernando Araujo, who was kidnapped on Rueda's orders in Cartagena in 2000. Araujo said he was held in the guerrilla chief's jungle camp for the final two years of his kidnapping before taking advantage of a surprise raid last Christmas to flee his captors.

In March, authorities announced a US$310,000 (€216,000) bounty for information leading to Rueda's capture or elimination.

Rueda joined the FARC 25 years ago after having joined the Communist party as a student in the northern town of Barrancabermeja, Santos said. From his base in the Montes de Maria, he planned attacks against the coastal cities of Barranquilla and Cartagena.
Posted by:Steve White

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