Dutch guerrilla Tanja Nijmeijer is commanding FARC forces in territory once under the oversight of the organization’s killed second-in-command, “Mono Jojoy,” a Dutch anti-FARC activist said Sunday.
Liduine Zumpolle told Caracol Radio that Nijmeijer, who joined the FARC in 2002, has risen through the ranks of the guerrilla organization’s command structure and will now run operations in territory once under the control of Mono Jojoy, who was killed during a government raid in September 2010.
Nijmeijer reportedly served as Jojoy’s personal assistant prior to his death.
Zumpolle said that the FARC is eager to take advantage of the media attention that Nijmeijer, who has been working with the organization for nearly 10 years, generates.
According to a book based on interviews with Nijmeijer, the Dutch guerrilla has admitted to taking part in a Bogota bombing against a merchant that refused to pay money to the FARC. The bombing left one child dead.
In December 2010, a U.S. federal grand jury indicted Nijmeijer on terrorism charges for her participation in the detention of three American contractors who were captured by the FARC in 2003, and later rescued in the same operation as Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, in 2008.
Nijmeijer could face as much as 60 years in prison if she is ever caught and extradited to the U.S.
