Thursday 6 June 2013

Colombian police detain guerrilla captain, crime gang held in northern Bogotá

Colombian police declared on 6 June they had detained a field commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), as he headed to a meeting with another FARC chief in the locality of Páramo de Sumapaz south of the capital Bogotá. The guerrilla dubbed Jaime was associated with the kidnap in 2000 of the journalist Guillermo Cortés and identified as a 25-year veteran of the FARC; he was to face sedition-related charges, Radio Santa Fe reported on 6 June. Police also caught a suspected paramilitary or former paramilitary, a man dubbed Farid, in the district of Puerto Concordia south-east of Bogotá, Radio Santa Fe reported. The detained, a suspected member of a group called Libertadores del Vichada, was thought involved in killings and extortions from traders and livestock formers in the departments of Casanare and Meta south of Bogotá. In the district of Suba north-west of Bogotá, police reported the arrests of 14 members of a local gang called the Boyacos, involved in extortion and drug dealing among other "selective" activities, Radio Santa Fe reported on 6 June.