Tuesday 28 May 2013

Colombian troops gun down FARC guerrilla who killed minister in 2001

Troops shot dead in northern Colombia the presumed fighter of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) Cécil Rodríguez Sánchez - Amaury - sought for his suspected role in several killings of policemen and of the country's minister of culture in 2001. Amaury, described as a "finance" and extortion agent for the FARC in the northern department of La Guajira, was killed in an undated gun fight in the countryside of the district of Maicao near Venezuela, though authorities believe he was injured during shooting that followed a FARC ambush of police cars in La Guajira on 23 May, Caracol radio reported on 28 May. The guerrilla was sought for his role in the massacres of 10 policemen in Patillal in the department of César in 1995 and other unspecified killings in the César, La Guajira and Magdalena departments, Caracol reported. Another of his victims was Colombia's late minister of culture Consuelo Araújo Noguera, whom Amaury reportedly had kidnapped and later executed in 2001. In separate incidents in the south-western department of Cauca suspected FARC fighters were reported to have burned transport vehicles and shot at a lorry travelling on the Panamerican highway, and shot at a military patrol and the police station in the district of Mondomo on or just before 28 May, Bogotá's Radio Santa Fe reported. Casualties were not reported in these incidents.