FARC vows to fight on after leader killed

Members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) say they will continue their insurgent fight despite the killing of their leader "Alfonso Cano" in an ambush by the Colombian army at the weekend.

President Juan Manuel Santos called on the FARC to disband and look for ways to seek a dialogue for peace. "Cano could have negotiated peace with me, but he lost that opportunity," Santos said in a televised address on Sunday.

"Instead there has been nothing but decades of violence, which have led to nothing but pain and death."

Cano, whose real name was Guillermo León Sáenz Vargas, was killed at dawn Friday after he was hunted down by the army in a mountainous region in the southwest Cauca department. About 7,000 soldiers bombed a rebel camp where Cano and his men were hiding out, and the troops chased the 63-year-old FARC leader for seven hours before he was gunned down in the jungle.

Soldiers confiscated seven computers, 39 pen drives, and 24 hard drives, as well as weapons and grenades at the camp. Among those killed in the raid was a rebel known as "EL Zorro," who for 14 years had been an announcer on the FARC's clandestine radio station.

Following Santos' call for surrender, the FARC issued a statement on the internet page of the Anncol news agency, which is supportive of Colombia's guerrilla insurgencies. "Peace in Colombia doesn't just come through a demobilization of the guerrilla movement but with the definite cessation of the causes that led to this rebellion. The government's policy is off course and it looks as if it will continue this way in the future," the FARC said in its cryptic statement.

The FARC secretariat is said to be holding discussions to elect a new leader. Among those names that are popping up are Rodrigo Londoño, known as "Timochenko," and Jorge Torres Victoria, known as "Pablo Catatumbo." Both are veterans of the guerrilla wars of the 1970s and 1980s. Timochenko joined the rebels in 1982 after finishing his medical studies.

However, Luciano Marín Arango, better known as "Iván Márquez," is said to be the frontrunner to become leader. A FARC veteran for 34 years, Márquez has spent most his recent years hiding out along the Colombian border with Venezuela. In 2007, he was in charge of the unsuccessful talks with Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez for an exchange of hostages with the Colombian government.

Since 2007, the FARC have been dealt a series of heavy blows, including the killings of several leaders. Cano assumed the leadership in March 2008 after the death by natural causes of FARC founder Manuel Marulanda, known as "Tirofijo" or Sureshot, in English.