A newly published report states that the FARC stepped up actions in 2011, in no small part due to their alliance with rebel cousins the ELN, while despite mass arrests the new generation paramilitary groups appear relatively intact.

The Colombian government is stepping up security measures along the eastern border with Venezuela, where the head of the country's largest guerrilla group is believed to be based, in response to a series of attacks in the region in recent days.

Almost exactly a decade after peace talks collapsed, the commander-in-chief of Colombia's FARC rebels has reached out to the president and suggested that negotiations pick up again where they left off.

The defeat of the FARC, and the capture or killing of its new commander-in-chief, alias "Timochenko," will be extremely difficult without the active collaboration of Venezuela.

In his first public statement as leader of the rebel group, the FARC's new commander-in-chief, alias 'Timochenko,' labeled the Colombian government’s response to the death of 'Alfonso Cano' as arrogant.

Colombia's hopes for a peaceful solution to the 47 year civil conflict may have suffered a setback, after the FARC opted for a military, rather than a political, figure as their new commander-in-chief.

Rodrigo Londoño Echeverry, alias "Timochenko," is only the third commander-in-chief of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in the group's nearly 50-year history. Of the three commanders, Timochenko has the most mysterious past.

Some sources say he is a trained medical doctor, but there is no record of his studies. Most say he hails from the Quindio, a coffee-growing department in central Colombia which saw some of the worst political violence during a decades-long upheaval that began in the 1940s and ended just before groups like the FARC emerged in the mid-1960s.

Timochenko was trained in Cuba and Russia, which led to him taking on his nom de guerre, presumably in honor of Semyon Timoshenko, a famous Soviet General during the second world war.

Colombia's largest rebel group the FARC announced its new top commander is Rodrigo Londoño Echeverry, alias "Timochenko." The announcement follows the death of its previous leader "Alfonso Cano" on November 4.

Following the death of their leader, alias 'Alfonso Cano,' the FARC guerrilla group issued a statement refusing to surrender, but said they would continue to seek a political solution with the Colombian government.

In what is becoming an increasing trend, Colombia authorities discovered a cocaine-processing laboratory in the eastern plains of the country, which they said was run by right-wing paramilitaries and left-wing guerrillas.