FARC provoke massive oil spill in south-western Colombia

Colombians were outraged in late June by the consequences of a 22 June guerrilla attack on a pipeline, which caused thousands of barrels of oil to pour into the river Mira in the district of Tumaco. The hashtag Environmental Holocaust was created on Twitter to show pictures of oil streaming down the river toward the Pacific coast, after two suspected fighters of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) bombed part of the Transandino pipeline. The explosion was estimated to have spilled the equivalent of some 10,000 barrels of crude into the area, as the review Semana observed on 27 June that the harm done was "irreparable" in spite of efforts by locals and the firm Ecopetrol to clean up and repair the pipeline. The spill was bad enough to prompt Colombian environmentalists, whom Semana described as usually reluctant to condemn FARC actions for their own left-wing sympathies, to publicly urge the sides in the civil conflict to leave the environment alone. President Juan Manuel Santos separately told El Tiempo newspaper that the FARC had provoked "possibly the worst" environmental disaster in Colombia's history. He visited the area on 26 June with ministers including the environment minister who reportedly wept on seeing the landscape. Separately, the army arrested eight suspected FARC fighters in the districts of Ipiales and Roberto Payán in the Nariño department, Semana reported on 28 June, citing Agence France-Presse. The report did not mention the detained as suspects in the pipeline attack.

Gang says helped reduce Medellín crime, murders increased in Cali in 2013

The Colombian city of Cali, one of the country's most violent, countered the downward trend in violent crime authorities reported for 2013, while gangs claimed in the city of Medellín that they rather than police had curbed violence there in 2013. In Medellín officials counted 920 murders for 2013, 331 less than in 2012, which reduced the murder rate per 100,000 inhabitants from 52 in 2012 to 38 in 2013, El Tiempo recently reported. The city witnessed 37 days with no murders that year, compared to 13 in 2012, El Colombiano reported on 9 January, citing a deputy-mayor Luis Fernández Vélez Suárez. The daily cited the head of a local NGO, Corporación para el Desarrollo y la Paz, as saying that one of Colombia's main criminal gangs, Los Urabeños, distributed pamphlets in parts of the city last November stating that "in spite of what officials say," the reduction was for the "efforts" made by several gangs to give residents some "peace and quiet." This was apparently a reference to a ceasefire in place since July 2013 between the Urabeños and the rival Oficina de Envigado, activists were cited as saying. Deputy-mayor Fernández said violent crime has steadily declined in Medellín since 1991, and fell sharply in 2012, regardless of any pact. Reported murders increased however in the south-western city of Cali, and officials have asked the local military to extend provisional restrictions on carrying arms, due to end on 31 January 2014. City Ombudsman Andrés Santamaria said the arms ban that began on 13 December was clearly effective as December murders had dropped from 236 in 2012 to 136, the Cali newspaper El País reported on 9 January. It observed that the local garrison, which emits arms permits, was reluctant to extend the ban, going against the trend in Bogotá and Medellín. There were 1962 reported killings in Cali in 2013 - 89 per cent being shooting deaths - 123 more than in 2012, El País reported.

President says crime dropped in Colombia over 2012-13

Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos expressed satisfaction at the apparent reduction of violent crimes in Colombia over 2013, writing on his Twitter account on 5 January. Mr Santos said that homicides dropped eight percent, from 16,033 cases in 2012 to 14,782 in 2013, while reported kidnapping cases dropped four per cent in that time. His comments, reported on the Presidential website, were likely based on figures given by the Defence and Interior ministries and the armed forces. He observed that no kidnapping was reported in 2013 in 981 municipalities of Colombia or 89 per cent of its territory. Other positive figures given included the capture of 1,087 fighters of the two guerrilla armies, the FARC and the ELN, and the dismantling of 106 extortion gangs. The Defence Ministry reported on Twitter on 5 January that it caught 2,757 suspected criminals in 2013. Colombia's last, conservative president Álvaro Uribe Vélez questioned the claims - repeatedly urging Mr Santos not to "confuse" Colombians on his Twitter account - asserting that kidnappings increased 13 per cent over 2010-13, during the Santos presidency, Caracol television reported. He wrote that thefts against shops and businesses increased 47 per cent in that period, while there was a 223 per cent increase in attacks on oil and gas pipelines. Mr Uribe's statistical sources were not immediately clear on Twitter. Separately, troops shot on 2 January three suspected guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in fighting in the southern department of Caquetá, and later destroyed a makeshift drug laboratory, El Espectador reported, citing Agence France-Presse. Locals were said to have tipped off the authorities of the presence of guerrillas, provisionally identified as from the FARC's Front 14, though reports did not specify where the fighting took place.

Troops shoot Colombian guerrilla sought for 60 killings

Colombian troops shot dead a captain of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) thought responsible for certain recent FARC attacks that have killed more than 30 soldiers in the north-eastern department of Arauca, Caracol radio reported on 10 December. The guerrilla dubbed Jainover, identified as a commander in the FARC's 10th Front, was killed in an undated gun fight at an unspecified place near the Venezuelan frontier, possibly in the Arauca department where he was active. The army was cited as saying that after a shootout troops caught up with a car that sought to take Jainover's body into Venezuela; four presumed FARC fighters were arrested in the operation. The Army also attributed to Jainover attacks in 2005 that killed 30 soldiers in the central department of Meta. He was said to have filmed the attacks he orchestrated.

Suspected gangsters, extortionists held around Colombia

Several suspects thought involved in organised crime and extortion were reported detained in Colombia in recent days, including six members of one of the main national gangs the Rastrojos, while authorities found an explosives cache thought to belong to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). In San Martín in the department of Meta south of Bogotá, police detained a suspected member of Los Rastrojos sought by Interpol and likely to be charged with criminal conspiracy, the Ministry of Defence reported on 21 June. Police anti-extortion units (Gaula) arrested five other members of this gang in Soledad, a district next to the northern port of Barranquilla, suspected of coordinating extortion in that district and elsewhere in the department of Atlántico, Caracol radio reported on 21 June. Earlier President Juan Manuel Santos ordered the head of the anti-extortion police to work from Barranquilla, in an apparent response to a surge in extortions in parts of that district. This was apparently affecting bus drivers and stall owners in particular, the Presidential office reported on 19 June. General Humberto Guatibonza Carreño "is going to come and work here in Barranquilla and in Cartagena until this problem is totally resolved," the President was cited as saying after a security meeting in Barranquilla. In southern Bogotá police arrested six or more members of an extortion gang that worked around the capital's main wholesale market Corabastos, the Defence Ministry reported on 20 June. The gang reportedly forced "more than 100" street vendors and dairy products distributors to pay every day the equivalent of between 2.5 USD and five USD to avoid being robbed or beaten. In the department of Cauca in western Colombia, Police confiscated grenades and bullets found in the locality of Cerro Manuel in the district of Timbiquí, and thought to belong to Front 29 of the FARC, Bogotá's Radio Santa Fe reported on 20 June.

Report describes recent history of kidnappings in Colombia

A report issued on 20 June by Colombia's semi-official National Centre of Historical Memory (Centro Nacional de Memoria Histórica) and the consultancy firm Cifras y Conceptos was presented as "the most solid and consistent" history of kidnapping in Colombia from 1970 to 2010 and of its geographical and human anatomy. The report entitled Una Verdad Secuestrada used 1,302,337 data pertaining to 39,058 kidnap victims, and was created with the support of bodies including the Police, the European Union and Colombia's state prosecution service (Fiscalía), Caracol radio reported. The broadcaster reported some of the highlights of its findings: it stated that Bogotá, Medellín and Cali were the cities most affected by kidnapping in that period, with 2,572 registered kidnappings in Bogotá in 1970-2010, 1,920 in Medellín and 1,241 in Cali. Tuluá, a district half-way between Bogotá and the Pacific coast, had the fewest - 153 - kidnappings. The country's two communist guerrilla armies - the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN) - were found to be the most prolific kidnappers, followed by criminal gangs who nevertheless kidnapped more in cities like Bogotá, Caracol reported. Figures showed that criminals kidnapped most in Bogotá in this period - 840 times - while the FARC had carried out their greatest number of kidnappings in the districts of Miraflores in the department of Guaviare (182 kidnappings there), and in San Vicente del Caguán (152) and Villavicencio (142), respectively in southern and in south-central Colombia. The ELN kidnapped most in Cali (353) and in Valledupar (307) in the northern department of César near the Venezuelan frontier. Graphic representaion of the history of kidnappings showed that kidnappings began to increase from 1990 and rose exponentially around 1996, at the start of what the report termed as a "massification" period. Its chart showed that kidnappings reached a peak in 2000-2002, when they began to decline during a "containment" period, Caracol reported. A decline and stagnation in kidnappings broadly coincided with the two presidencies of Álvaro Uribe Vélez (2002-2010), the conservative leader who waged war on crime and insurgencies.

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.

Colombian troops capture FARC guerrillas, gang chief

Colombian authorities caught in recent days two suspected commanders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in operations in western and south-western Colombia. One, the presumed guerrilla dubbed Arquímedes or Alquímedes, was identified as the deputy-head of the Jacobo Arenas Mobile Column whose commander was shot in early May and described as "one of the army's main targets in south-western" Colombia since then, Caracol radio reported on 24 May. Arquímedes, said to coordinate guerrillas in eight districts in the northern part of Cauca, was caught early on 24 May near a bridge on the border between the Cauca and Valle de Cauca departments. Soldiers and intelligence agents caught in the western department of Risaralda another suspected FARC member named as José Eniller Lengua Gañán, Caracol radio reported on 25 May. The detained was described as in charge of 21 fighters from the FARC's Aurelio Rodríguez Front and engaged in extortion in Risaralda. In the west-coast district of Istmina in the department of Chocó, police caught early on 24 May a suspected gangster and former paramilitary dubbed Guacharaco, described as a member or head of a gang called Águilas Negras or Renacer, Caracol radio reported on 25 May. The suspect was sought for his suspected role in crimes including killings and extortions in Chocó; his group was said to be working with the gang Los Urabeños to exclude another gang the Rastrojos from control of drug routes in Chocó, Caracol reported.

Colombian army shoots FARC captain, pipeline blown up

The Colombian army shot dead at least two guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in undated operations in the northern district of Hacarí, including one identified as a close collaborator of the FARC's supreme chief Timochenko, Bogotá's Radio Santa Fe reported on 20 May. The dead were provisionally identified as the guerrilla dubbed el negro Eliecer, head of the Antonio Santos mobile column, and his presumed partner, a female guerrilla dubbed Tatiana who acted as the column's "accountant." El negro Eliecer was also known as the "terror of Catatumbo," a reference to his presumed area of activity, the district of Catatumbo in Norte de Santander. The newspaper El Colombiano cited him as involved in the massacre in 2004 of 30 peasants in the locality of La Gabarra in Norte de Santander, but also of 17 soldiers at an unspecified date. The Ministry of Defence separately reported on 17 May that three purported members of Front 57 of the FARC surrendered to the Navy that day, in the northern and western departments of Antioquia and Chocó. Two of them were women of whom one, a 24-year-old, had joined the FARC at the age of 14. In southern Colombia, crude oil spilled into the countryside after two sections of the TransAndino pipeline were blown up in attacks attributed to the FARC, Radio Santa Fe reported on 20 May. The pipeline was blown up in one section between the districts of San Miguel and Orito in the Putumayo department, and near the district of La Hormiga in that department, near Ecuador's frontier. Operatives of the firm Ecopetrol were sent to the area to clear the mess and the firm stated it had stopped pumping into the pipe, which takes oil to the Pacific coast, the broadcaster reported.

Army reports desertions from Colombia's ELN, FARC guerrillas

The army reported a total of 20 desertions from Colombia's two guerrilla forces the National Liberation Army (ELN) and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), in the days 4 to 6 or 7 May, the most recent defections being of seven ELN fighters and two from the FARC, the broadcaster Caracol reported on 7 May. The ELN guerrillas - four of them aged between 14 and 17 years - surrendered to the army in the district of Bagadó in the west-coast department of Chocó, handing over assault rifles and ammunition; the three adults among them were identified as junior chiefs and an operator of the ELN's radio station, Occidente Rebelde. The two FARC fighters surrendered in the district of Vigía del Fuerte in the northern department of Antioquia. Authorities attributed the desertions to military "harrassment" of guerrillas and to the alleged mistreatment of the guerrilla rank-and-file by superiors. The ELN separately issued a communiqué stating conditions to hasten the release of a Canadian hostage held since 18 January, Jernoc Wobert, Caracol radio reported on 8 May. The ELN urged the government to revoke mining concessions given to firms in the south of the department of Bolívar, northern Colombia, and restore "these Titles to their legitimate owners, who are the traditional miners in that zone." The communiqué stated that five were killed on 22 April when the ELN fought a gun battle with a "paramilitary group" trying to rescue Wobert in the district of Montecristo in southern Bolívar, Caracol reported.

Colombian rebels may have massacred family, 11 surrendered to army

Members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) were alleged to have massacred a family of seven in the northern department of Antioquia on 3 May or before, Colombian media reported, citing the declarations of a 19-year-old family member who said he had survived. Authorities were trying to ascertain the veracity of the incident, said to have occurred in the countryside of the district of Tarazá and initially attributed to Front 18 of the FARC, active in that area. The victims were provisionally identified as a couple, three of their children, an uncle and his son, RCN La Radio and El Espectador reported on 3 May. It was difficult to verify the survivor's declarations that day as he was reluctant or unable to precisely locate the incident described and initially refused to board a helicopter, RCN radio reported. Separately President Juan Manuel Santos reported on 3 May that 11 fighters of Front 57 of the FARC including their chief - a guerrilla dubbed Marlon - had abandoned the FARC at an unspecified date in Acandí in the western department of Chocó. Speaking in the northern district of Apartadó, Santos said that thanks to ongoing army operations in north-western Colombia, 64 FARC fighters had been "neutralised" - 24 of them being killed - and 11 deserted. He cited a message issued by Marlon declaring that the defectors wanted a new life "as ordinary citizens" and that "this war makes no sense because the chiefs have no ideology," Colombian public radio reported. Santos said the army must maintain its "harrassment" of the FARC in spite of talks in Cuba, "every day and every week and every month." He thanked Panama for collaborating against the FARC on its frontier. Colombian officials and the FARC concluded on 3 May an eighth round of talks in Cuba, "advances" were said to have been made but talks were not progressing fast enough, Colombia's chief negotiator reportedly declared.

Colombian soldiers, guerrillas killed in fighting

Three Colombian soldiers died and three were injured on 6 or 7 April in gun battles with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in the southern department of Caquetá. Fighting was said continuing in the district of Milán on 7 April with guerrillas of fronts 15 and 49 of the FARC's Southern Block, RCN La Radio reported. The broadcaster Caracol described Milán is one of the districts of southern Colombian with the highest concentration of FARC fighters. In northern Colombia the army shot dead four FARC fighters including a local commander, during anti-drugs operations on 7 April near Panama's frontier, Europa Press reported, citing El Tiempo. The casualties included the deputy-head of Front 57 - James or el Chacal - and a veteran telecommunications operator dubbed Verónica; troops and police also detained two suspected guerrillas in the operations in the Darién section of the Chocó department, and confiscated arms, ammunition and equipment. The army considers Front 57 to be mainly engaged in arms and drug trafficking for the FARC, the agency reported. The FARC separately named in a communiqué four new members of their team negotiating a possible peace with Colombian representatives in Cuba. These were the head of the Western Block Jorge Torres Victoria or Pablo Catatumbo, and three guerrillas named or dubbed Freddy González, Lucas Carvajal and Victoria Sandino Palmera. They were allowed to fly out of Colombia with a suspension on 6 April of army operations in the southern Cauca department and perhaps elsewhere. Colombian media earlier named another possible addition to the FARC team, namely the head of the Southern Block - a guerrilla dubbed Fabián Ramírez - though this was yet to be confirmed, Europa Press reported on 6 April.

FARC guerrillas launch deadly attacks in Colombia

Two attacks attributed to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) on 4 and 5 April killed three soldiers and three civilians and injured 11, while Caracol radio reported continued fighting on 5 April between soldiers and the FARC's Sixth Front around the Corinto district, media reported. Early that day the suspected FARC guerrillas launched a bomb attack on telecommunication installations outside the town of Corinto early on 5 April, killing three soldiers and injuring seven, El Espectador reported, citing comments by the head of army's Task Apollo Force active in the zone, General Jorge Jerez. The day before the FARC fired explosives onto the locality of Guatemala in the district of Miranda, in northern Cauca, killing three including "two children" and injuring four, Caracol radio reported on 4 April. In that attack the FARC began "indiscriminately launching improvised explosive artefacts against houses," El Espectador reported locals as saying. Also on 4 April, a policeman was injured when suspected guerrillas fired on a police station in the district of San Calixto, in the Norte de Santander department, northern Colombia. The attack was attributed to Front 33 of the FARC, the broadcaster Caracol reported.

Colombian guerrilla chiefs reported killed

Venezuelan authorities reported the death at an unspecified date of a member of Colombia's National Liberation Army (ELN), a man dubbed The Butcher - El Carnicero - possibly in fighting between ELN guerrillas over a missing drug shipment, the Colombian broadcaster Caracol reported on 27 March. The guerrilla, Hermes Contreras Sánchez, was reportedly killed in the state of Zulia near Colombia. He was sought by Interpol on a range of charges relating to drug trafficking, insurrection and terrorism; Colombian authorities linked him to attacks on civilian targets and infrastructures in the Norte de Santander department. Troops killed two other members of the ELN including a captain dubbed Homero or Omar, in undated fighting in the district of la Sierra in the south-western Cauca department, El Espectador reported on 29 March. Another guerrilla captain confirmed as dead was a fighter of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) dubbed Arturo Rojas, killed in fighting in December 2012 but found only recently. Arturo Rojas was identified as a deputy-head of Front 63 of the FARC, and thought responsible for shooting dead four police and military hostages held by the FARC in November 2011, El Espectador reported on 28 March. Separately FARC negotiators issued a communiqué in Cuba, where talks are being held with the government, dismissing as "naive" the idea that the FARC would abandon arms without reforms to the Colombian polity. Colombia's chief negotiator stressed on one occasion at least in 2012 that peace talks were unrelated to the FARC's political and economic agenda. The FARC communiqué stated it was "not at all realistic" to suppose there would be a "stable peace" in Colombia without changes to the "economic model," Caracol reported on 27 March. The communiqué also indicated the FARC's reluctance to accept terms for ending the conflict that included imprisonment for FARC members involved in such activities as kidnapping, drug trafficking and extortion. Was it "naiveté or cynicism - perhaps both," the text asked, when "they tell us, an unconditional rendition of guerrillas, handover of arms, submission to [state] policies, all in exchange for two or three posts in Congress," or temporary positions for guerrilla chieftains as a "Work or Health minister...even a few years in jail for the insurgency's main leaders." Nevertheless the FARC expressed satisfaction at progress made so far in talks, in the same or another communiqué issued in Havana, Caracol reported on 26 March.

FARC rebels killed, held in Colombia

The Colombian Defence Minister said on 3 March that the army had "neutralised" - killed or detained - in "preceding hours" 21 presumed fighters of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), including eight children or teenagers who were taken from the FARC. Juan Carlos Pinzón Bueno said that in operations against Front 37 of the FARC and a smaller unit in the district of El Bagre in the northern department of Antioquia, troops killed one fighter and arrested three including a guerrilla dubbed Deisy, the niece of a member of the FARC Secretariat, the ministry website reported. Eight minors of unspecified age were among the demobilized - and they may be taken into state care in keeping with precedent - while three other guerrillas were in turn "demobilized" or surrendered. He said that troops separately killed two FARC members and injured two, and two others surrendered, in operations against fronts 48 and 58 of the FARC in the northern department of Antioquia and southern department of Putumayo. Police separately detained at unspecified dates two guerrillas presumed involved in the kidnappings and detentions in past years of policemen, soldiers and politicians. In Soacha west of Bogotá, police caught a man identified as Diego Navarrete Beltrán - Sebastián or LJ - a guerrilla said involved in the capture and detention of hostages that included the former politician Ingrid Betancourt Pulecio in 2003-2008, RCN La Radio reported on 5 March. Police caught another suspected guerrilla in Villavicencio south-east of Bogotá, a man dubbed Elkin, identified as one of the "guards" for captured policemen and soldiers in 2001-4. The authorities separately attributed to the FARC two purported bomb attacks early on 5 March in the naval district of Tumaco in the south-western department of Nariño, which damaged structures but injured nobody. The Defence Minister denounced them as indiscriminate acts of terrorism "intended to hurt the civilian population," El Tiempo reported. One of the bombs was placed by a naval base. FARC and government representatives in Havana were cited as claiming progress on 1 March in their process of talks, initiated in autumn 2012 and intended to end decades of conflict in Colombia. Talks had so far focused on rural land use and access, the broadcaster Caracol reported.

Visits to Peruvian citadel fall after travel warning

Visits to the 15th century Inca citadel at Machu Picchu reportedly plummeted after the US embassy in Lima warned US nationals on 13 February not to travel there for a "potential kidnapping threat" in the area. Peruvian officials said the warning was baseless and the local mayor asked the embassy to retract its communiqué, as it was "killing" local livelihoods. The embassy's Security Message, accessible also on the US State Department website, cited the "credible" threat of a "criminal organization" kidnapping US tourists in the Cusco and Machu Picchu area; its warning was valid at least for February. The identity of the criminal organization was not immediately clear. President Ollanta Humala was reported as saying on 15 February that there was "no substance" to the claim, while his prime minister, Juan Jiménez Mayor, told the press on 14 or 15 February that the rumoured threat was not "corroborated by the security forces," Europa Press reported. The government he said strove to protect Peru's historical sites and "of course" tourists visiting them. The foreign trade and tourism minister, José Luis Silva Martinot also said "we have referred to our sources and there is no information in that sense, so we ask for calm and that tourism continue as normal." The district mayor of Machu Picchu Elvis La Torre said in turn that visits to the citadel were almost halved after the warning, Correo reported on 18 February. He said the citadel would usually receive 1,500-2,000 visits a day this time of the year but now receives 700-800 visits. "Almost half have cancelled their tour packages," he said. Peru was overall expecting a record number of tourists in 2013, perhaps more than three million. Tourism Minister Silva said Peru hoped tourism would become its second source of foreign exchange earnings by 2016, after mining; it was currently its third source of foreign exchange, El Peruano reported on 18 February. He said American Airlines would within weeks begin "seven flights" between Houston and Lima - presumably one a day - and become an air link to Peru for travellers from Japan and South Korea. These flights could bring in 70,000-80,000 more travellers to Peru annually, he said.

Bomb kills Colombian soldiers, rebel numbers said down

A bomb attack on 15 February by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) killed three soldiers and injured three on a road in the district of Sumapaz south of the capital Bogotá, Europa Press reported. Separately a report by the Colombian defence ministry found that almost 1,500 FARC guerrillas had been "neutralised," that is killed, arrested or demobilised since the state began a negotiations process with the FARC in September 2012. This included five commanders, El Espectador reported, citing the ministry document. The ministry report stated that of the 1,475 guerrillas neutralised since 4 September 2012, 982 had been caught, 320 had surrendered and 122 were shot dead, while it cited as unprecedented the "neutralisation" of 26 regional or district Front commanders and death of the FARC's paramount leader within a 16-month period. This was the guerrilla dubbed Alfonso Cano, killed on 4 or 5 November 2011. The ministry estimated that the FARC had shrunk from some 20,000 fighters in 2002 to about 8,000 in 2012, and the other rebel force ELN, from more than 4,000 fighters in 2002 to about 1,500, El Espectador reported.

Seven hostages freed in Colombia

Colombia's two communist rebel forces, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN) freed on 15 February two policemen and five contractors they held hostage, while a mediator suggested a soldier being held by the FARC might also be released within days. The policemen were handed to over to mediators in a rural part of the district of Miranda in the south-western Cauca department, then to government envoys at a base in the district of Florida in the Valle de Cauca department, Caracol radio reported. The former senator Piedad Córdoba, to whom the policemen were initially given, was to mediate for the liberation within days of a soldier also being held by the FARC, Caracol reported. In the northern department of Bolívar, the ELN released five of six hostages they held, handing them over to the Red Cross; these were three Colombians and two Peruvians kidnapped on 18 January in the district of Norosí in the southern part of Bolívar. The ELN retained one hostage, the Canadian national Jernoc Wobert. Separately the Humanitarian Committee of Huila (Comité humanitario de Huila) affiliated to the Huila departmental government stated on 15 February that "illegal armed groups" retained 38 hostages from that department, a number it stated it had verified with relatives, Caracol reported on 15 February. They were presumably held by the FARC who are present in this part of Colombia.

Gunfight kills seven Colombian soldiers

Seven soldiers were killed fighting the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) on 13 February in the southern department of Caquetá, and four or five were reported injured; the army declared that FARC rebels had also died or been injured but the casualty number was unknown. Fighting erupted in a rural part of the district of Milán after troops moved in to prevent a suspected FARC attack on the nearby town or village of San Antonio de Getucha, RCN La Radio reported. Fighting was continuing that day and the land army commander General Alejandro Navas Ramos had moved to the area, Europa Press reported. Officials separately denied on 13 February reports issued by the National Liberation Army (ELN) that it had freed five mining employees taken hostage in northern Colombia on 18 January, and stated this could not yet be confirmed. The Defence Minister Juan Carlos Pinzón told the ELN that day to emit fewer communiqués and free all hostages. He reminded them kidnapping was a crime against humanity for which they would later be held responsible, the ministry website reported. The hostages were two Colombians, two Peruvians and a Canadian, employees of the exploration firm Geo Explorer, Europa Press reported on 14 February.

FARC rebels strike Colombian town, kill two

Suspected members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) killed a child and a policeman and injured 27 in an apparent attack on civilians in Miraflores in the southern department of Guaviare on 11 February, RCN La Radio reported. The mayor of Miraflores told RCN radio that suspected guerrillas began shooting and throwing grenades at a crowd putting out a fire in two buildings in the town; soldiers and policemen repelled the attack. Nine of the worst injured were taken to hospital in the departmental capital San José del Guaviare. President Juan Manuel Santos urged the armed  forces on 11 February to "persevere" with their defensive task until peace is attained in Colombia "one way or another," observing that "peace is the victory." He was speaking to troops at an air force base in Tolemaida south-west of Bogotá, where the armed forces took possession of six new helicopters and two planes. Santos said FARC attacks had not increased in Colombia this year but were receiving more attention. The FARC he said had reached "their maximum capacity, even the number of our fallen soldiers and policemen has decreased, but there has been more noise about this in the media," the presidential website reported. The number of FARC guerrillas demobilized increased 60 per cent in 2013 he said, compared to a similar but unspecified period in 2012. "They see less and less future [for themselves] and feel more defeated," Santos said. FARC and government negotiators were to renew peace talks in Havana on 18 February, continuing the present theme of discussions, rural land use and tenure, Colombia's public radio reported on 11 February.