Alfonso Cano

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Alfonso Cano (1990)

Alfonso Cano , actually Guillermo León Sáenz Vargas (born July 22, 1948 in Bogotá , † November 4, 2011 in Suárez ) was the leader of the Colombian rebel group FARC from 2008 until his death .

Life

youth

Sáenz Vargas, alias Cano, grew up as the fifth of seven children of a teacher and an agricultural engineer in a medium-sized family in the Colombian capital Bogotá. The visit to the Colegio Fray Cristóbal de Torres aroused his interest in politics and history. From 1968 he studied anthropology for ten semesters at the Universidad Nacional in Bogotá .

During his student days, Sáenz was an active leader in the Juventudes Comunistas (JC - Young Communists), the youth association of the Partido Comunista Columbiano (PCC - Communist Party of Colombia). In the 1970s, Sáenz, already known then as a sympathizer of the Marxist -oriented rebel group FARC , was arrested by the police several times during protests. He once spent six months in prison. In 1981 his apartment, where he lived with his wife and son, was searched. 50,000 US dollars , some of which were counterfeit , were found. Sáenz was arrested again and spent a year and a half in prison, where he was released after an amnesty by President Belisario Betancur .

FARC

A short time after his stay in prison, he joined the FARC, in whose leadership he rose quickly thanks to his proximity to the then chief ideologist of the FARC, Jacobo Arenas .

When Jacobo Arenas died in August 1990, Sáenz, now called “Alfonso Cano”, succeeded him. It is believed that during the last years of the elderly Manuel Marulanda's life he had in fact taken on the role of leader of the FARC, which Marulanda nominally still occupied. When Marulanda died in March 2008, Sáenz officially followed him as leader of the FARC. He was also the leader of the Movimiento Bolivariano por la Nueva Colombia (Bolivarian Movement for a New Colombia) , also a project of the FARC, and the Partido Comunista Clandestino Colombiano ( Communist Party of Colombia in the Underground - PC3.11).

Because of his many years of work in an illegal organization, Cano was searched internationally. Around 190 arrest warrants were issued against him. In 2003 he was responsible for the bomb attack on the “El Nogal” club . 36 people were killed and 158 injured. In 2008 he had 40 guerrillas shot for minor offenses. On the basis of these and other allegations, Cano was sentenced several times to long imprisonment in his absence.

death

He was killed on November 4, 2011 during an operation against the rebel group by Colombian soldiers . In a communiqué by the FARC, in which they confirmed the death of their commander in chief, the rebel organization declared that Alfonso Cano was "one of the most sincere supporters of a political and peaceful solution" to the conflict in Colombia. Timoleón Jiménez was announced as his successor on November 15 .

Web links

Commons : Alfonso Cano  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 'Alfonso Cano', el último comandante de las Farc , Tierra.com.co of November 4, 2011
  2. ↑ a b ¿Quién era Alfonso 'Cano'? , Semana.com dated November 4, 2011
  3. ↑ Alias ​​'Alfonso Cano', el sucesor de Tirofijo , Radio Caracol from November 4, 2011
  4. ↑ Cano's death hits the Farc hard , Zeit Online from November 5, 2011
  5. ^ Farc guerrilla chief Cano killed in military action , Welt Online from November 5, 2011
  6. ↑ FARC: Fight continues even after Alfonso Cano's death. In: amerika21. November 6, 2011, accessed November 6, 2011 .
  7. ↑ Colombian FARC rebels appoint new leaders. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . November 16, 2011, accessed November 16, 2011 .
personal data
SURNAME Cano, Alfonso
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sáenz Vargas, Guillermo León (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Colombian guerrilla leader
DATE OF BIRTH July 22, 1948
PLACE OF BIRTH Bogotá
DATE OF DEATH November 4, 2011
Place of death Suarez , Colombia