COLOMBIA:A WOMAN rebel commander with a formidable reputation has surrendered to Colombian forces, delivering a fresh blow to South America's last big insurgency.
Nelly Avila Moreno (45), known as Karina, made a deal with the government to desert the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc). She was under pressure from Colombia's US-backed security forces and her own family, who reportedly pleaded with her to quit before she was killed.
As a senior rebel commander in Antioquia, a mountainous region in the northwest, Karina was implicated in numerous shootings and kidnappings and had a bounty of about $800,000 on her head.
Her surrender is a coup for the centre-right government's increasingly successful military campaign against Farc, a Marxist group whose insurgency is now funded largely through cocaine trafficking and kidnapping. "We have been after this woman who did such damage to Antioquia and the whole region of Uraba for a long time," defence minister Juan Manuel Santos told RCN Radio.
She and another guerrilla known as Michin were "nearly dying of hunger" when they handed themselves in, he added.
About a third of Farc members are women, of whom Karina was the most senior. She took command two months ago when her superior, Ivan Rios, was killed by a bodyguard, who cut off Rios's hand to claim a $1 million government reward. Other commanders have been killed in raids. But analysts say Farc remains formidable.
Another incentive for Karina to surrender was her son, according to the daily El Tiempo. President Álvaro Uribe publicly guaranteed her safety if she turned herself in.
Karina is likely to be tried for murder, extortion and terrorism.
( Guardianservice)