Patient X could be another FARCer

The Miami Herald reports this morning that there’s a mystery man in a Venezuelan hospital near the Colombian frontier with a bullet wound in his head who could be another FARC big wig;

The Venezuelan military is investigating the identity of a man who showed up Sunday at a medical clinic near the Colombian border with fake names, a phony ID and a bullet wound to the jaw. National Guard troops surrounded the clinic because they believed the man was a leftist Colombian rebel or right-wing paramilitary fighter, the Venezuelan military said.

But when the media got wind of the heavy military presence at the La Colonia clinic in the city of Rubio, rumors spread that the injured man was top FARC leader Joaquín Gómez.

Gómez, who has a $2.5 million U.S. bounty on his head, replaced Raúl Reyes last week on the seven-member FARC secretariat after Reyes died in a Colombian attack on a FARC camp in Ecuador.

However, Venezuelan television footage showed that the patient is much darker-skinned than Gómez.

I guess, if this is Gomez, it’s getting more dangerous to be a terrorist than before.

UPDATED: Geez, I barely pushed the “Save” button and the Miami Herald changed the story;

Venezuelan state TV confirmed Tuesday afternoon that the ailing man is not Gómez. They just don’t know who he is.

The man has given two names — Luis Antonio Garai Calderón and José Antonio Ortiz Barrera — according to the media reports.

News footage showed the La Colonia clinic in the town of Rubio, in the Venezuelan state of Táchira, surrounded by military officers — and reporters. The latest footage by the state channel showed an ailing man — much darker skinned than Gómez — in his hospital bed.

Not that I’d trust the Chavez government to admit they had a FARC big wig under their protection. The Miami Herald says that they’ve sent his fingerprints to Colombia, but the Colombians deny that. They give a little bio of Gomez;

Gómez, who turns 61 next week, is considered one of the FARC’s most devout ideologues. He ran the FARC’s Southern bloc, its historic stronghold — on the opposite end of the country from the border where this hospital is located.

He studied for a dozen years in the Soviet Union and has a doctorate in agronomy. His thesis was on artificial insemination methods for the Ceibu cattle that roam Colombia’s pastures, he once told The Washington Post.

According to a profile published by Semana magazine last week, Gómez first moved to the Soviet Union fleeing violence. He came back in 1981 to join the insurgency.

So Gomez is a cattle-FARCer (sorry couldn’t resist – I’ve been spending too much time at Ace of Spades, I guess).

As usual, the Gateway Pundit has more links and photos and beat me to it.

Category: Terror War