FARC leader is dead, Colombia says

FARC leader is dead, Colombia saysStory Highlights
Colombian official says source confirms that Manuel Marulanda Vilez is dead

Marulanda, believed to be in his 70s, led the leftist rebel group for decades

U.S. State Department says Marulanda expanded FARC's drug-trafficking efforts

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(CNN) -- The leader of Colombia's largest leftist rebel group is dead, a spokesman for the nation's defense ministry said Saturday.


Manuel Marulanda Velez, leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, in 2000.

Pedro Antonio Marin, known as Manuel Marulanda Vilez and nicknamed Tirofijo, is believed to have died of a heart attack, ministry spokesman Juan Manuel Santos said.

"He must be in hell," Santos told a reporter from Semana magazine.

Marulanda, who was believed to be in his late 70s, has led the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, for decades.

"The information that we have is that he has gone already," he added. Asked whether he was saying that Marulanda had died, Santos said, "That's what a source who has never failed us tells us."

Speaking later, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe stopped short of saying Marulanda is dead, but he also said that the news comes from a reliable source.

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"I hope so," he said of Marulanda's reported death.

Santos said that the Colombian military had bombed three areas where Marulanda was believed to be around the time of his death but that the fighting was not believed to have killed him.

Established as the military wing of the Colombian Communist Party in 1964, FARC is Colombia's oldest, largest and best-equipped Marxist rebel group, according to the U.S. Department of State. Several nations, including the United States, classify it as a terrorist group.

FARC has long justified hostage-taking as a legitimate military tactic in a drawn-out, complex civil war that has involved right-wing paramilitary groups, government forces and drug trafficking.

As the group's leader, Marulanda was the ultimate decision maker who decided to approve the FARC's expanded efforts into cocaine trafficking, according to the U.S. State Department.