FARC ‘Chancellor’ held after manhunt

THE chief of international relations for Colombia’s biggest leftist rebel group, who once sought support from Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, was arrested after a months-long manhunt, police said yesterday.

The capture of Rodrigo Granda, known as the Chancellor of the 17,000-strong Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), was a “an important blow” against the guerrilla group waging a 40-year war for socialist revolution in this Andean country, National Police Chief Jorge Daniel Castro told reporters. “He was responsible for a campaign of disinformation that hurt the international reputation of Colombia over the last 10 years, principally in Europe and Latin America,” Mr Castro told a news conference in Bogota.

The official said that the 55-year-old Granada had visited 16 countries since 1994 in an effort to bolster the reputation of the rebel group, which funds its activities with ransoms paid by the families of kidnap victims and by taxing the proceeds of Colombia’s huge cocaine trade.