Top Colombia rebel leader seized

lmera is on FARC's 22-member general staff
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Officials said Ricardo Palmera, better known as Simon Trinidad, was arrested in Ecuador in a joint operation with the Colombian and US authorities.

Mr Palmera, the most senior FARC member to be captured, played a key role in failed talks with the Colombian Government in 2002.

Analysts say his arrest is a coup for Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.

Mr Uribe - a staunch US ally - has made the defeat of the rebels a cornerstone of his administration.

Battery of charges

Mr Palmera was captured in the jungles near the Colombian border late on Friday, Colombian officials said.

He is on the general staff of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC ).

The 22-member body is in charge of the 16,000-strong rebel army.

Mr Palmera is set to be flown from Ecuador to Colombia as soon as possible, where he faces a battery of charges, the BBC's Jeremy McDermott reports from Colombia.

If convicted, he could be jailed for at least 30 years.

FARC and a smaller rebel group, ELN, right-wing paramilitaries and the government have been fighting each other for four decades in Colombia.

In the past decade alone, more than 35,000 people are believed to have been killed in the fighting.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3365767.stm