Karina tells other FARC to surrender

AP/Miami Herald:

A day after surrendering to the army, a one-eyed, battle-hardened female rebel commander urged other guerrillas Monday to follow her example and abandon their decades-long struggle.

Nelly Avila Moreno, better known as "Karina," denied her bloody reputation during a news conference. She said she surrendered because she was encircled, had a bounty on her head and was spooked by the recent murder of a fellow rebel leader by one of his bodyguards.

Avila, 40, nevertheless expressed admiration for Venezuela's socialist president, Hugo Chavez, who has been implicated in seeking to arm and finance the rebels in documents the Colombian government says it found on the computer of a different slain guerrilla.

Her surrender Sunday was a major propaganda victory for President Alvaro Uribe, who has made defeating the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, the cornerstone of his administration.

In recent months, the army had been closing in on Avila, who had a US$1 million (euro640,000) bounty on her head. Just two weeks ago, Uribe appealed directly for her to turn herself in. She had been on the government's most wanted list since 2002.

"To my comrades: Change this life that you are leading in the guerrilla group and re-enter society with the government's reinsertion plan," Avila told reporters Monday, saying she had spent 24 years with the FARC.

She said she was not sure of her legal status, but she should be able to apply for leniency under a law designed to encourage demobilization that caps prison terms at eight years.

Avila had commanded a contingent operating in northwest Colombia's coffee-growing zone, where she said the rebels are now "breaking up."

"The decision (to surrender) was made because of the pressure by the army in the area," she said almost matter-of-factly, standing alongside her boyfriend, who surrendered with her and her daughter.

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Avila said she had been virtually cut off for the past two years and out of contact with the guerrillas' seven-member ruling Secretariat. She said she had fewer than 50 rebels under her command when she decided to surrender.

She admitted to being shaken by the March killing of Secretariat member Ivan Rios by one of his bodyguards, who cut off Rios' hand and delivered it with his laptop in return for a reward.

"It's a difficult situation: You have a lot of fighters by your side, but you don't know what each one is thinking," Avila said. "Some of them are thinking of their economic situation."

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It appears that FARC command and control has been gutted. Its units cannot communicate without risking discovery. It also appears that the turning of other members has led all of the remaining members to distrust those around them. This makes it very hard to conduct operations when you are afraid to tell your own people what is going on. Her surrender will only add to the paranoia of those remaining. The disintegration of the narco terrorist group continues.