New FARC leader defiant over government killing

The new leader of Colombia’s main rebel army has accused president Juan Manuel Santos of gloating over the combat death of his predecessor, and said the guerrillas won’t be intimidated.

“We will all die, Santos, all of us,” Timoleon Jimenez said in his first message as commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. “But flaunting power and acting threatening and brutal can’t win anyone’s sympathies.”

Jimenez, 52, told Mr Santos in the internet statement that the killing of Alfonso Cano on 4 November, will backfire.

He said: “The FARC are thousands and thousands of revolutionaries who cope with the most difficult conditions because they believe in their cause.”

FARC recruits in regions where there is resentment over the high concentration of land ownership in the hands of the few.