Bogota, Dec 23 (IANS): Walter Patricio "Guacho" Arizala Vernaza, one of the most notorious FARC leaders, has been eliminated in a joint military and police raid, Colombian President Ivan Duque has the media.
The President thanked the police and members of the military for their "heroic" efforts, the CNN reported.
"Colombia deserves to breathe more freedom every day. Today many communities in Colombia are going to sleep calm because one of the most horrendous criminals that has known our country has fallen," Duque said in Medellin on Friday.
Arizala Vernaza was a leader of a rogue offshoot of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
In June his group was blamed for the killings of two journalists from Ecuador's El Comercio newspaper -- Javier Ortega and Paul Rivas, and their driver, Efrain Segarra. The three were abducted in March.