Colombian FARC leader ‘Guacho’ shot dead

Walter Patricio "Guacho" Arizala Vernaza, one of the most notorious FARC leaders, was shot dead in a joint military and police raid, Colombian President Iván Duque told a national television audience Friday.

The President thanked the police and members of the military for their "heroic" efforts.

"Colombia deserves to breathe more freedom every day. Today many communities in Colombia are going to sleep calmly because one of the most horrendous criminals that have known our country has fallen," Duque said in Medellin.

The 29-year-old Arizala Vernaza was a former member of Colombia's Farc rebel group. He is one of thousands who has refused orders to lay down arms after the guerrilla group signed a peace deal with the Colombian government in 2016.

Guacho broke away from the FARC and founded the Oliver Sinisterra Front - a dissident gang thought to have about 70 to 80 combatants operating around the Colombia-Ecuador border area.

The group came to international attention earlier this year after kidnapping two Ecuadorean journalists - 32-year-old reporter Javier Ortega and 45-year-old photographer Paúl Rivas - along with their 60-year-old driver Efraín Segarra.

Arizala Vernaza was one of the most wanted fugitives in Ecuador and Colombia.

In a joint statement, relatives of the slain journalists said they were disappointed that Airzala Vernaza was killed rather than captured.

"After his death, the chances of learning what he knew about what happened with Paúl, Javier and Efraín are now gone," they said.

"This in no way means that justice has been served in the kidnapping and murder of Diario El Comercio's journalists," their families added. "There are still many questions that have not been answered and many doubts that neither Ecuador nor Colombia has been willing to clear."

The main body of FARC disbanded after signing a peace deal with the government earlier this year.

FARC was formed in 1964 with the aim of overthrowing the government. At one point in the early 2000s, it comprised more than 16,000 troops, though that number dwindled in the next decade.

The group clashed regularly with government troops, and the United States considered FARC a terrorist organization.

FARC also carried out kidnappings. Among the most high-profile kidnappings was that of Ingrid Betancourt, a presidential candidate who was held for six years before being rescued in 2008.