Timoleón Jiménez | |
---|---|
Birth name | Rodrigo Londoño Echeverri |
Nickname(s) | "Timoleón Jiménez" "Timochenko" |
Born |
Calarcá, Quindío Colombia |
January 22, 1959
Allegiance | |
Rank | Supreme leader, Secretariat member, Bloc commander |
Rodrigo Londoño Echeverri (born January 22, 1959 in Calarcá, Quindío), most known under the nom de guerre Timoleón Jiménez and the nickname Timochenko or Timochenco, is the current Commander in Chief of the rebel group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.
After finishing high school, Timochenko joined the Young Communists League. He studied at Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow. Timochenko received military training in Yugoslavia. He completed his studies in Cuba.
'Timochenko' took over the FARC leadership in November 2011 from Alfonso Cano after the leader was killed by the Colombian army.
With more than 30 years of experience and a reputation of being a military commander he "has widespread respect among the rank-and-file, particularly the hardliners that form the core of the rural fighters". According to the Colombian Air Force his alias is referring to Soviet Marshal Semyon Timoshenko.
Before also assuming the leadership of the guerrilla group, Timochenko was one of the commanders of the Middle Magdalena Bloc of the FARC-EP and was thought to have some 800 men under his command.
Timochenko has been a member of the seven-member ruling guerrilla secretariat since the early 1990s. He is believed to operate in the Norte de Santander province on the border with Venezuela. Colombian authorities have frequently said that the FARC leader was hiding in Venezuela, but in April 2010, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos stated that the Colombian government's most recent intelligence said that Timochenko was on the Colombian side of the border. According to Colombian intelligence sources Timochenko is currently located in the Serranía del Perijá, northeastern Colombia.