FARC's Collapsing?

Hot Air notes that one of the leaders of the terrorist group FARC has surrendered to Colombian officials and urged the remaining FARC members to surrender. That's not good news for [T]hugo Chavez and Venezuela, whose largesse found its way into FARC's coffers and computers.

The commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia’s Force 47 told reporters in Bogota Monday — a day after surrendering — that “the solution is not through war. There must be dialogue.”

Nelly Avila Moreno, 45, whose nom de guerre was Karina, said she and her longtime male companion made the decision jointly to abandon the FARC group, based in the jungle, at 5 a.m. Sunday.

She said pressure from Colombian soldiers had been key to their decision, and she called on her fellow rebels to follow her example.

“I invite them to change the sensibility that is among the guerrillas,” she said, seated by her companion, who said nothing during the news conference.

Colombia has not only taken the fight to FARC, but has taken the fight from FARC - killing, capturing, and forcing the surrender of terrorist group leaders has a way of doing that. Even more importantly, the capture of intel, such as those computer files, provides even more intel to be used to capture still more terrorist cells and shut down FARC operations. Each success breeds even more success.

No wonder Chavez is braying loudly that the computers don't show anything and is trying to make hay over the claim that a US aircraft entered Venezuelan airspace without permission. He's trying to take the heat off his regime.

Meanwhile, the LA Times reports that Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN) wants to hold hearings on the computer files. The LAT curiously claims that the computer files have not been independently confirmed. That's curious given that Interpol has certified the more than 37,000 records as being authentic.

Last week, Interpol -- the world's top police agency -- issued a report certifying the authenticity of 37,872 computer files from Colombia's FARC guerrillas containing hundreds of references to Venezuela's and Ecuador's active support for the armed rebel group. Chávez and Correa reacted as they always do, with insults and accusations against the United States. As he did a few months ago when a Venezuelan delegation was caught trying to smuggle $800,000 in cash into Argentina for his political allies there, Chávez claimed the Interpol investigation into the three laptops and two external drives seized by Colombia's armed forces in a March 1 raid into a FARC camp in Ecuador was "a circus." He called Interpol Secretary General Ronald Noble a "mafioso" and a "vagabond."

Why would the LAT make that claim or are they simply playing semantics over confirmation and authenticity, unless they were shilling for Chavez?