By Patrick Markey
BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia's military said on Saturdaytroops had killed a top rebel commander in an attack on ajungle camp across the border in Ecuador in a severe blow toLatin America's oldest guerrilla insurgency.
Raul Reyes, one of seven members of the secretariat of theRevolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, was killed inan operation that included air strikes and fighting with rebelsacross the border, Defence Minister Juan Manuel Santos said.
Reyes was considered by analysts to be the No. 2 FARCcommander and is the most senior member of the group to bekilled in President Alvaro Uribe's U.S.-backed campaign againstthe guerrillas fighting a more than four-decade-old conflict.
"We have taken another step toward defeating the celebrityof bloody terrorism, which 50 years ago was ideological, buttoday is a terrorism of mercenaries and drug traffickers,"Uribe said in a national television broadcast.
In the operation, 17 rebels were killed, including Reyes,whose real name was Luis Edgar Devia Silva, along with seniorguerrilla Guillermo Torres, Santos said.
Colombia's El Tiempo newspaper published on its Web site aphotograph of what it said was Reyes' bloodied corpse in astained white shirt lying on a black body bag.
Violence from Colombia's conflict has ebbed under Uribe,who has sent troops to drive back the rebels. But the FARC isstill potent in remote areas, where it holds scores ofhostages, including three Americans and French-Colombianpolitician Ingrid Betancourt.
Santos said intelligence had revealed Reyes' movements nearthe border. After an air strike by the Colombian military,Colombian troops came under fire from guerrillas in Ecuadoreanterritory and they responded. Reyes' body was brought back intoColombia to prevent rebels taking it away, he said.
Uribe contacted Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa toinform him of the operation and Quito sent troops toinvestigate. Venezuela and Ecuador often complain about theguerrilla war spilling over their borders.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, whose role in negotiatingthe release of FARC hostages has fuelled tensions withColombia, accused Uribe of violating Ecuadorean territory andwarned a similar operation in Venezuela would be a declarationof war.
"It would be extremely serious and would be a causa belli,a cause for war, (if there is) a military incursion inVenezuelan territory," Chavez said.
SHIFT IN SECRETARIAT
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has made freeingBetancourt a priority, urged all sides not to let the killingupset recent efforts to broker a deal to exchange jailedguerrillas for FARC hostages held for years in jungle camps.
Reyes, bespectacled and bearded, was one of the FARC's toppolitical officers and the group's official spokesman who oftensent statements from the mountains of Colombia. He was knownfor his tough stance in past negotiations with the government.
A diminutive former union boss, Reyes joined the FARC inthe 1970s and was a close associate of aging FARC leader PedroAntonio Marin, also known as "Manuel Marulanda" or "Sureshot."He was involved with Marin's daughter.
"This ends the myth of FARC invulnerability and could causeserious doubts among its troops," said Alfredo Rangel, ananalyst at Security and Democracy Foundation in Bogota.
"It could produce a shift in the secretariat in favour ofmore pragmatic and flexible positions in terms of thehumanitarian exchange and peace negotiations given that Reyesalways maintained a hard line," he said.
The killing of Reyes follows several military successesagainst the FARC.
In October, Colombian troops backed by warplanes killedFARC commander Gustavo Rueda Diaz at a base near the Caribbeancoast. A month earlier, they killed Tomas Medina, a seniorrebel involved in arms and drug smuggling near Venezuela.
The FARC started as a peasant army fighting for a socialiststate in the 1960s. Authorities say it is now deeply engaged incocaine trafficking to fund its operations.
(Editing by Mohammad Zargham)
