Colombia kills a top rebel leader

Colombian troops backed by warplanes have killed a top guerrilla commander at his jungle camp, authorities said Thursday.

Gustavo Rueda Diaz, also known as Martin Caballero, and at least 18 other rebels were killed Wednesday when marines attacked his base near the Caribbean coast, Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos said at a news conference.

Addressing rebel commanders still at large, Santos said: “I invite you to surrender or end up in jail or in the grave.”

U.S. authorities were investigating Caballero for his involvement in a foiled guerrilla plot to assassinate President Clinton on a 2000 visit to the Caribbean city of Cartagena, the U.S. Embassy and Colombian officials said.

The assault hit at the command structure of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, which has been weakened by President Alvaro Uribe’s U.S.-backed security crackdown.

Under Uribe, violence and kidnappings related to the 40-year-old civil war have eased, but the rebels are still a potent force in remote areas.

Caballero headed FARC operations along the northern coast.

He is believed to be responsible for the 2000 kidnapping of Colombia’s current foreign minister, Fernando Araujo, who was appointed to his post after he escaped last year from rebel captivity.

“In military terms he was important,” said Alfredo Rangel at the Security and Democracy think tank in Bogota.

“This takes apart [FARC’s] structure in the north of the country.”