Video of slain guerrilla leader released in Colombia

Bogota, Agency
The slain military chief of Colombia's largest guerrilla insurgency gave a spirited defense of the armed struggle in a video filmed less than three weeks before his death.

The recording, posted Wednesday by recently launched online magazine Kien & Ke, was made on Sept. 3 by Colombian journalist Jorge Enrique Botero.

The reporter said he spent "nine days" walking through the jungle and "sleeping in plastic" until arriving at the rebel camp of Victor Julio Suarez Rojas - better known as Jorge Briceño Suarez or Mono Jojoy - in the south-central jungle province of Meta.

The video shows Jojoy, killed in a military air strike on Sept. 22 along with nine other rebels, addressing a large group of recent recruits who, according to the magazine, belong to the recently created "Jemerson Ruiz" unit of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

"Being a guerrilla is a great responsibility. What we do is mold, improve (people's) character, the thought process of people who come from a capitalist society, a gossipy society," Jojoy told the new recruits, whom he referred to as "infants."

Those who "make up this army do so because we never had an opportunity, not because we're violent," the guerrilla leader says on the video, which runs just over two minutes.

He added that a succession of Colombian governments "have not taken into consideration" the FARC's peace overtures.

The government wants peace that comes from total, unconditional surrender and they will not get that from us, Jojoy said, adding that "we respect (them) so that they respect us."

The magazine said it will soon release another video with Jojoy's remarks about the current Colombian government - headed since Aug. 7 by Juan Manuel Santos, a former defense minister -, the armed struggle and the possibility of negotiations.

The FARC has suffered a series of setbacks in recent years, including the dramatic rescue of its highest-profile hostages in 2008 and the deaths or slayings of several members of the group's top command, including Jojoy.

The guerrilla organization, which has fought a succession of Colombian governments for decades, is on both the U.S. and EU lists of foreign terrorist organizations.

Drug trafficking, extortion and kidnapping-for-ransom are the FARC's main means of financing its operations.

Colombian Defense Minister Rodrigo Rivera said Wednesday that the FARC's numbers have dwindled to 7,000 fighters from a high of 27,000 and that the insurgency is "crumbling" from within "due to the greed of drug trafficking" and desertions.