The leader of Colombia's FARC rebels has suffered a stroke, just days after a historic handover of weapons. The left-wing rebels signed a historic peace deal in November after four years of negotiations.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/M. Duenas Castaneda
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The top commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) was hospitalized on Sunday morning after suffering a stroke and is in "satisfactory" condition, according to doctors.
Rodrigo Londono, known by his nom de guerre Timochenko, was placed in intensive day just days after Latin America's oldest armed guerrilla force declared an end to their half-century insurgency and relinquished the last of their individual weapons.
Londono checked himself into a hospital in the central Colombian city of Villavicencio shortly after 8 a.m. local time.
He had been suffering from slurred speech and numbness in his arm, doctors said in a news conference.
They said his speech and mobility had already recovered 90 percent from what they described as a temporary blockage of blood to his brain. They hoped he would be released within 48 hours.
"Of course he's conscious and making jokes," another rebel leader known by his alias Pastor Alape said at the press conference.
The stroke was the latest in a series of health scares for the 59-year-old, with FARC recently confirming that Londono suffered a heart attack during peace negotiations in Cuba in 2015. Earlier this year he had another unspecified medical setback.
"Thank you to everyone who is concerned about my health," Londono said on Twitter. "Everything is going well. I also thank the medical team for their care."
Latin America's longest-running conflict
The Marxist force had been battling Colombian governments for half a century before signing a ceasefireImage: Getty Images/AFP/L. Acosta
The historic handover of individual weapons was led by Londono along with President Juan Manuel Santos at a demobilization camp with 7,000 fighters in Colombia's eastern jungles near Villavicencio.
Hundreds of FARC caches filled with larger weapons and explosives were still being cleared out, but the United Nations has certified that all individual firearms and weapons, except for a small number needed to safeguard the soon-to-disband camps, had been collected.
The handover has helped Colombia close a chapter on Latin America's longest-running conflict, which has caused at least 250,000 deaths, left 60,000 people missing and displaced more than 7 million.
The FARC was founded as a peasant rebellion in 1964 and has fought more a dozen governments.
Londono has led FARC since 2011, when the previous leader, Guillermo Saenz, was killed by Colombian forces.
aw/cmk (AP, Reuters, AFP, dpa)
Latin America's longest armed conflict comes to an end
The Colombian government has reached a historic truce with FARC, ending over half a century of violence with the leftist group. Latin America's longest conflict claimed at least 220,000 lives.
Image: Reuters/A. Meneghini
How the insurgency started
In 1948, the assassination of populist leader Jorge Eliecer Gaitan sparked political chaos in Colombia known as "the violence." Tens of thousands died and peasant groups joined with communists to arm themselves. Later in 1964, a military attack on the insurgency's main encampment led to the creation of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia or FARC.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo
What the rebels wanted
FARC's political ideology has never been well defined. Initially, it sought to weaken the oligarchy's grip on power. The rebels also wanted land reforms in a country where more than 5 million people have been forcibly displaced, mostly by far-right militias. However, the group lost popularity as it turned to kidnapping and illegal gold mining for funds.
Image: Reuters
How the US got involved
To help the Colombian security forces fight against the insurgency and to counter drug-trafficking, the US began sending billions of dollars under Plan Colombia. The US State Department classifies the group as a terrorist organization and its leaders face US indictments.
Image: Reuters/J. Vizcaino
The human cost of the conflict
Latin America's longest-running armed conflict is responsible for the death an estimated 220,000 people, while millions of Colombians have been displaced within their country. According to Bogota’s estimates, there are 7.6 million direct and indirect victims of the conflict. The country has more landmine victims than any country except for Afghanistan.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/C. Escobar Mora
Peace accord after decades of failed attempts
Peace talks between FARC and the government collapsed in the mid 1980s after at least 3,000 allies of FARC's political wing Patriotic Union Party were killed at the hands of right-wing paramilitaries. Efforts fell short again in 2002 after the rebels hijacked an airliner to kidnap a senator. The latest round of talks started in 2012 in Havana and culminated on August 24, 2016 with a deal.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/E. Abramovich
50 years of conflict
"We have reached a final, integral and definitive agreement" to end the conflict and build a stable, lasting peace, the government of President Juan Manuel Santos and the left-wing Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia said in a joint statement. In June, the negotiators had already announced a cease-fire agreement and a blueprint for how the estimated 7,000 to 8,000 fighters will demobilize.
