Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

REVOLUTIONARY ARMED FORCES OF COLOMBIA-PEOPLE’S ARMY • 593The fortunes of FARC have been sharply declining since 2001. ByJune 2008 FARC had lost over half of its leadership through death ordesertion. Tomás Medina, the financial genius of FARC, was killedby a Colombian air strike in eastern Colombia on 1 September 2007.Gustavo Rueda Díaz, leader of FARC’s Caribbean bloc, was killedby the Colombia army on 24 October 2007. Iván Ríos was murderedon 3 March 2008 by his own security chief to collect the $5 millionbounty on him posted by the U.S. State Department Rewards forJustice program. The subordinate surrendered to the Colombianarmy with the severed hand of Ríos as proof of his death. EldaneyisMosquera, also known as Karina, the leading female commander ofFARC, surrendered herself on 18 May 2008.On 1 March 2008 the FARC second-in-command, Raúl Reyes, waskilled along with 16 other FARC soldiers by a Colombian army helicopterraid into Ecuadorian territory from Granada in Putamayo Department.During this raid the Colombian army seized computers andfiles that revealed the support of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávezfor FARC through his receiving FARC commanders Ivan Marquezand Ricardo Granda, allowing Venezuelan territory to be used as sanctuariesand staging areas for FARC, allowing the transport of foreignboughtarms and munitions through Venezuela to FARC-controlledareas on the Colombian border, and also a “loan” of $250 million toFARC. These files also revealed FARC ties to Ecuadorian PresidentRafael Correa, who had received $100,000 from FARC to supporthis 2006 presidential campaign. This incursion into Ecuadorian territoryled to official protests by both Ecuador and Venezuela. Interpolannounced on 15 May 2008 that its forensic analysis confirmed theauthenticity of the seized documents. In retaliation for Chávez’s supportof FARC, Colombia cut its meat exports to Venezuela by 98 percent,accounting for half of its needs, forcing Chávez to buy alternatesupplies of meat from Brazil using oil for payment. After Reyes waskilled, the paramount leader of FARC and its chief ideologue, ManuelMarulanda, died of a heart attack on 26 March 2002.From a peak troop strength of 16,000 in 2001, defections of troopshave averaged around 1,000 per year in the period 2003–2008, withan all-time peak of 2,500 defections in 2007. In addition to waningpopular support for the FARC, the success of the Colombian army incutting FARC’s revenues from its cocaine processing and smugglingoperations to half their size has resulted in FARC’s inability to meet