Venezuela has started the process of sending a captured leading member of rebel group the FARC back to Colombia, from where he may be extradited to the U.S.
Guillermo Enrique Torres Cueter, alias "El Cantante" or "Julian Conrado," was a senior rebel in charge of the political direction of the Southern Bloc of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia - FARC).
Torres was captured Tuesday in the west Venezuelan state of Barinas, with the help of Colombian police intelligence work, according to reports.
Colombia has not ruled out sending Torres to stand trial in the U.S., where he is wanted on drug trafficking charges.
The captured rebel earned his nickname "El Cantante" or "The Singer" by writing proganda song for the guerrilla group.
Torres was reported to be the right hand man of "Raul Reyes" and was thought to have been killed alongside the FARC's military head in a bombing attack in 2008. Military intelligence later revealed that, Torres was not killed, and was sent to Venezuela under a false Ecuadorian identity in order to do political work for the FARC.
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