Word: alberto
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...radio call forces Alberto to interrupt the interview. "I'm afraid something's come up," he says when he returns. "There's a problem I have to go and deal with." An army patrol is headed in his direction. "They are about two hours away," Alberto's second-in-command says. "We're gathering intelligence, and we're going to see if we can hit them tomorrow. It's better if you leave. The army is going to seal off the area. If they find you, they'll kill you, then blame it on us." Whether or not that...
...interdiction was the professed purpose of the $5 billion U.S. Plan Colombia, launched in 2000, but its focus shifted instead to a counterinsurgency campaign to eliminate the FARC. "Most of the money that was supposedly for the war on drugs has been used for war against the guerrillas," Comandante Alberto notes. Plan Colombia, which has afforded Colombia's military U.S. hardware like Black Hawk and Huey helicopters, making it difficult for the rebels to concentrate in large units, has been successful in hobbling the FARC. But coca cultivation in Colombia rose in 2007, according to a new U.N. report...
FARC commanders dismiss the "narco-guerrilla" portrayal as government propaganda and insist they're still a viable rebel movement whose survival doesn't depend on drug income. For his part, Alberto points to his unit's spartan housing conditions - mountain and jungle shacks often without electricity or running water - as proof that they're not exactly living as sumptuously as famous cocaine kingpins like Pablo Escobar...
That campaign is likely to become more effective after Wednesday's rescue operation. But while Alberto, a government target himself, admits the FARC has been rattled, he believes it won't collapse. In fact, the unraveling of the group's central authority could end up making local bosses like him stronger. "We can't deny that we have suffered desertions of combatants who haven't understood clearly the reason for our struggle or who have let themselves be influenced by state propaganda," he says. "We have to study the situation so this doesn't keep happening." But he insists that...
...FARC's original social-justice crusade. The guerrillas dress in civilian clothes and can be hard to distinguish from local farmers, and the difficult terrain is perfect for hit-and-run guerrilla warfare. The government "could not sustain an offensive on this scale without U.S. help," says Alberto. "They use American money to set up high mountain battalions, pay informants, for training, helicopters, boats and every type of war materiel. We believe we could overthrow the Colombian state if it weren't for U.S. help...