BY JENNY CAROLINA GONZALEZ AND FRANCES ROBLES

The bodyguard who killed a top member of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia turned in a severed hand as proof of the death, the Colombian Defense Minister confirmed Friday.

It was the second major blow in a week for the FARC, which on Saturday lost its No. 2 leader Raúl Reyes when the Colombian military bombed a rebel camp in Ecuador, which triggered a multi-national diplomatic crisis.

The crisis ended Friday at the Río Group presidential summit in Santo Domingo, where after a heated exchange of words, the presidents of Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela made up with a hug and a handshake.

Colombia's defense ministry said a rebel code-named ''Rojas'' turned himself in Thursday with the right hand, passport, ID card and computer belonging to Manuel Jesús Muñoz, better known as Iván Ríos or ''Commander Iván.'' He had been a member of the FARC's secretariat and head of the rebel group's northwest bloc since 2003.

Ríos' death brings the nine-member secretariat down to seven.

According to the Colombian Defense Ministry, the eighth brigade of the Colombian army had been closing in on Rios' crew since mid-February.

''According to his words, alias Rojas killed Ríos three days ago, and he added that he sought to alleviate the military pressure that they were under,'' the defense ministry said in a statement. ``He said they were surrounded, out of supplies and cut off from communications.''

The military said they have engaged in combat seven times this month with the 47th Front, which was Rios' security ring.

''This shows that the FARC are breaking apart,'' the statement said.

Rios, 45, was a former economics student in Colombia's northwest Antioquia state when he joined the rebel group 25 years ago. He was the youngest member of the FARC leadership.

''People tell us that the world is changing very rapidly, that there is new technology, globalization and new policies, that today you can find out what happens in China and its farthest reaches in seconds with the high-tech that exists,'' Ríos told The Miami Herald in a 1999 interview. ``We know all this. But in the end, what's the difference?''

He insisted that the four-decade old insurgency was a part of the Colombian fabric.

''The guerrillas are an institution in Colombia. We are part of the culture. And becoming a guerrilla is a profession,'' he said. ``This is a fact. It gives you prestige.''