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QUITO, Ecuador - A senior leader of neighboring Colombia's main rebel group was arrested in Ecuador, the nation's police chief said Saturday, announcing the capture of the highest-ranking official of the leftist guerrilla army during nearly four decades of war.
Ecuadorean Police Chief Jorge Poveda confirmed Simon Trinidad was detained late Friday.
Trinidad is a member of the general staff of the 16,000-member Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, the largest rebel group in Colombia. He was one of the top negotiators during peace talks with the government that began in January 1999. The talks collapsed in February 2002, and the army resumed operations against the FARC.
"Long live the FARC!" Trinidad shouted while being escorted under to an army helicopter that left for Tulcan, a city on the Colombian border.
Poveda said Trinidad was detained during a routine document check in Quito. But Colombian authorities said Ecuadorean police captured him at a medical clinic after Colombian agents notified them Trinidad was seeking treatment.
A Colombian military source said Colombian intelligence had information Trinidad was suffering from prostate cancer and went to Quito for treatment. Eight agents tracked him to a medical clinic and notified Ecuadorean authorities.
"Countrymen: The capture of a FARC leader shows that terrorism will never triumph," Colombian President Alvaro Uribe said.
Colombia Defense Minister Jorge Alberto Uribe said the United States played a part in Trinidad's capture, but declined to give details.
"It's the biggest blow the government has dealt the FARC since the organization was born 40 years ago," said Alfredo Rangel, director of the Security and Democracy Foundation, a Bogota think tank.
The FARC likely will be looking to strike back, he said.
Colombia had issued an international arrest warrant to Interpol, the international police agency, and offered a reward for Trinidad's arrest.
The capture comes after the commander of the Colombian army, Gen. Martin Orlando Carreno, made it his New Year's resolution to capture or kill at least one of FARC's seven secretariat members within a year or resign.
The 54-year-old rebel, whose real name is Ricardo Ovidio Palmera Pineda, is wanted on some 30 counts of massacres, bombings and kidnappings. It was unclear how high a bounty the Colombian government had put on Trinidad.