“Operation Sodoma”

I seem to have a habit of arriving in countries right around the time of semi-major but non-threatening unrest. I moved to Thailand within a month of the peaceful coup that ousted Thaksin, I landed in India at the very beginning of the struggle to split the state of Andhra Pradesh in two, and I arrived in Colombia the day after the guerrilla leader of the FARC was killed.

Mono Jojoy, the top FARC commander, was killed in an airstrike of immense proportions, carried out under the somewhat distasteful name “Operation Sodoma.” Jojoy was held responsible for a number of charges related to drug trafficking and holding hostages. He had tens of arrest warrants against him, a price on his head, and an extradition request from the US. No surprise then that all of Colombia seems to be rejoicing at his death. Video footage of the bomb raid and constant updates on how it was carried out have been playing on the news for the past couple days.

Federico described the importance of this event by comparing it to if the US found and killed Osama Bin Laden. I don’t know enough yet about Colombian politics and FARC to know what the further reaching results of this event will be, but considering the other options, I’m glad that this was the FARC-related news accompanying my arrival.