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Death of FARC rebel a boost to Colombia

The guerrilla walked out of the jungle tired, hungry and bearing the dismembered hand of his slain commander.

The rebel, known simply as Rojas, said the Colombian troops were closing in on his guerrilla column and he wanted out of the fight. But the rebels shoot deserters -- so instead he shot his commander and fled, lopping off the dead man's right hand to present to the army.

"I did it to save my life," said the mustachioed rebel, who appeared to be in his 40s, during a press conference on Saturday in the western city of Pereira.

"Because if you're going to desert, they'll shoot you," he said.

The morbid delivery represented an unexpected gift for Colombian President Alvaro Uribe: The death of the second top Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) leader in a week and a severe blow to the rebel group's four-decade-long insurgency.

Colombian officials proudly displayed his body wrapped in a white plastic sheet -- with a small bullet hole in the middle of his forehead.

"The death of Ivan Rios, at the hands of one of his own fellow guerrillas, definitely has to represent the interior implosion" of the rebels, said General Mario Montoya, the army's top commander.

Analysts say the deaths of Reyes and Rios represent a domestic triumph for Uribe well worth the fallout with Ecuador and Venezuela.

Meanwhile, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called the US the "big loser" at a meeting in the Dominican Republic, saying Venezuela's allies undermined alleged US efforts to divide the region.

Chavez praised Correa and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega on Saturday for joining him a day earlier in "standing up" to Washington at the Rio Group summit.

"Yesterday, there was a big loser: the North American empire," Chavez said during a televised speech.
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