Colombian rebel's surrender weakens FARC amid standoff with Venezuela

Nelly Avila Moreno's call for dialogue comes as the Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez accuses the US of stirring tension.

By Simon Montlake

posted May 20, 2008 at 10:21 am EST

A veteran Colombian rebel commander has surrendered to government troops and called for dialogue to end a decades-old revolt. Nelly Avila Moreno, who led a unit of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), gave herself up Sunday after 24 years with the left-wing movement. Colombia's Army chief urged other FARC combatants to accept a government amnesty offer and stop fighting.

Her high-profile surrender is the latest setback for one of Latin America's most tenacious rebel forces, which the US and European Union have labeled a terrorist organization. In March, Raúl Reyes, a senior FARC commander and member of its seven-member politburo died in March during an Army attack. Shortly after, another politburo member was killed by his own bodyguard.

Ms. Moreno, who is known as "Karina," spoke Monday to reporters in Colombia's capital, Bogotá, reports CNN. She said pressure from Colombian troops, who claim to have virtually dismantled the unit that she commanded, had led to her surrender along with her boyfriend's. She urged other FARC combatants to follow suit.

"I invite them to change the sensibility that is among the guerrillas," she said, seated by her companion, who said nothing during the news conference.

She also had a message for the Colombian people: "It is important to do something for peace in Colombia, and that need to do something is precisely one of my motivations."

After 24 years with the FARC, Karina said she wants to reintegrate with society. "At this moment, what I am thinking about is reuniting with my family and with all of society," she said.

Meanwhile, Venezuela accused the US of trying to stir tensions between Venezuela and Colombia after a US Navy airplane strayed into Venezuelan airspace. The Pentagon says the pilot had a navigation problem during the weekend incident and wasn't trying to provoke anyone. Venezuelan government officials claim that the US wants to stoke a conflict that would justify a US military intervention in the region, reports Bloomberg.

The plane, identified as a Navy S-3 aircraft, flew into Venezuelan airspace off the mainland coast after losing ``navigational situational awareness,'' according to a statement issued today by the U.S. Southern Command's Joint Interagency Task Force, which conducts the counter-narcotics missions.

Agence France-Presse reports that Venezuela's defense minister told a press conference Monday that the aircraft "practically flew over" two Venezuelan islands before leaving its airspace in a "deliberate action" to provoke tensions.

Behind this spat is Colombia's accusation that left-wing Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez is supporting the FARC with money and weapons. Ties between the two countries have suffered in recent months over the claim, which surfaced after Colombia seized allegedly compromising laptop computer files during a March raid on a FARC camp in Ecuador. Mr. Chávez ordered troops to the Colombia border after the raid in Ecuador, which is led by a Chávez ally.

Last week, The Christian Science Monitor reported that an international forensics team concluded that Colombia hadn't tampered with the computer files, though it didn't pronounce on their authenticity. Chávez says the laptop data is false and part of a smear campaign by Colombia and the US. Some policymakers in Washington are now convinced that Venezuela is sponsoring terrorism and should be labeled as such. Such a stance, though, could endanger oil imports from Venezuela, the fifth-largest supplier of foreign oil sold in the US.

The Washington Post reported last week that the retrieved computer data shows that Venezuelan government officials offered to procure surface-to-air missiles and to help FARC commanders travel overseas for missiles training. Colombian officials said these missiles may not have arrived, but that other weaponry was supplied by Venezuela to FARC forces in order to strengthen their hand against US-backed government troops.

In FARC correspondence, the guerrillas talk about obtaining weapons either directly from the Venezuelans or with their help. On March 1, 2007, a commander named Rodrigo Londoño Echeverry says Venezuelan intelligence operatives offer "parts to build" antiaircraft missiles.

Another letter, from a commander named Luciano Marin Arango on Jan. 20, 2007, talks of how two Venezuelan officials, identified in an earlier e-mail as Gens. [Hugo] Carvajal and [Clíver] Alcalá, provided "85mm antitank rockets." Colombian officials believe the "rockets" are grenade launchers, often used to attack police outposts.

In another message dated Sept. 6, 2007, Marin Arango tells other FARC leaders that he met with two Australian arms dealers with the help of [Amilkar] Figueroa [who organizes Venezuela's civilian militias]. The items for sale included "Chinese missiles" that are "very easy to operate and they guarantee the instruction," he wrote, speaking of antiaircraft missiles.

In exchange, FARC documents show, the Venezuelans have asked the FARC to train the Venezuelan army, in order to repel the U.S. invasion Chávez frequently warns is about to come.

Al Jazeera reports that Moreno, the FARC commander who surrendered, told reporters in the Colombia city of Medellín that the rebel army was "cracking" under pressure from Colombia's US-equipped Army and couldn't sustain its campaign.

The Associated Press says her capture is seen as a propaganda victory for Colombia President Álvaro Uribe, who appealed publicly two weeks ago for her to turn herself in. She had a $1 million bounty on her head and is wanted for murder, terrorism, kidnapping, and rebellion. Under the government's amnesty scheme, any sentencing of demobilized rebels is capped at a maximum eight years in prison.

Avila's comments gave a glimpse into how some parts of the FARC are faring under a withering U.S.-backed offensive by Colombia's military, which has recently claimed the lives of several top commanders and isolated its leadership.

Avila said she had been virtually cut off for the past two years and out of contact with the guerrillas' seven-member ruling Secretariat. She said she had fewer than 50 rebels under her command when she decided to surrender.

She admitted to being shaken by the March killing of Secretariat member Ivan Rios by one of his bodyguards, who cut off Rios' hand and delivered it with his laptop in return for a reward.

"It's a difficult situation: You have a lot of fighters by your side, but you don't know what each one is thinking," Avila said. "Some of them are thinking of their economic situation."