BY SIBYLLA BRODZINSKY
Special to The Miami Herald

The death of a the top military commander of Colombia's Marxist FARC rebels in a bombing raid on his camp is a devastating blow to the guerrilla army that may mark a turning point in the country's bloody conflict, analysts say.

Víctor Julio Suárez Rojas, who went by the name of Jorge Briceño and was better known as "Mono Jojoy,'' was killed along with 20 guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia in a bombing raid Wednesday on his camp in southern Colombia, the government said.

Briceño's body was identified on Thursday. Local media, citing military sources, reported Henry Castellanos, known as Romaña, who orchestrated mass kidnappings on Colombia's highways, was also killed in the operation.

"This is historic news for our country. It is the most resounding blow against the FARC in its entire history,'' said President Juan Manuel Santos, who took power last month. The FARC has been fighting the Colombian state since the mid-1960s.

"The symbol of terror in Colombia has fallen,'' Santos said from New York where he was attending the United Nations General Assembly.

Santos was to meet Friday with President Barak Obama on the sidelines of the U.N. meeting, and White House spokesman Mike Hammer said the "important victory for Colombia'' would figure prominently in the talks.

Briceño was a mythical figure within the FARC, having grown up within its ranks.

A member of the seven-member ruling secretariat, and commander of the powerful Eastern Bloc, he is believed to have been behind the FARC's strategies of frontal attacks on military installations in the early 1990s and the wave of kidnappings of politicians, as well as having a hand in the FARC's drug business.

Many former hostages of the FARC described Briceño as bloodthirsty and cruel. Gloria Polanco, who was a hostage of the FARC for more than six years, said she felt relieved at Briceño's death.

"It's a breath of fresh air for Colombians,'' she told Caracol radio.

Jose Eladio Pérez, former Colombian congressman who was kidnapped and held captive by the FARC together with former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt for seven years, told El Nuevo Herald that he had little doubt that the orders related to punishment and restrictions of the kidnapped and their execution in case there was a rescue attempt, came from Briceño.

"He was a cold man, the orders about the chains, to remove our boots and to reduce our food rations and cleaning items had the seal of Jojoy,'' Pérez said.

Conflict analyst Ariel Avila, of the Corporación Nuevo Arco Iris think tank, said Briceño's death is a blow to both the structure and culture of the guerrillas.

Briceño's Eastern Bloc was the strongest FARC unit, with an estimated 4,000 to 5,000 fighters. It will likely be in disarray after his death, he said.

"He commanded respect and affection from the troops so this will be a blow to morale,'' Avila said.

But it will also disrupt the FARC economically, he added, noting that the Eastern Bloc handles a large portion of the guerrillas' finances.

"Jojoy was a micro-manager, he was into everything, and there is no one really ready to succeed him,'' said Avila, who predicted that there would be a wave of desertions among the ranks of the Eastern Bloc.

Armando Borrero, a former security advisor, said because of the "charisma'' he had within the FARC, Briceño will be "irreplaceable.''

The military found his camp through information from FARC deserters.

"The FARC are falling apart from within,'' Defense Minister Rodrigo Rivera said at a news conference, in which he called on rebels to turn themselves in.

The FARC had stepped up attacks on the military since Santos was sworn in last month, as part of what analysts had called their expected "welcome'' to the new president.

On Thursday Santos said: "This is our welcome to the FARC.''

Dozens of Colombian families living in South Florida were victims of planned abductions, ordered and executed by Briceño.

In the late '90s, when the FARC controlled half of the country's territory and decreed war taxes, many of these Colombians who paid ransom, escaped or were threatened and were forced to leave the country and seek political asylum in South Florida.

The attack on Briceño's camp was the second raid this week. On Sunday, Colombian soldiers killed another guerrilla leader, Sixto Cabana, known as Domingo Biojo, and 26 other rebels along the southern border with Ecuador.

The rebels have lost several top commanders in the past several years, under a sustained campaign against them that pushed them back to remote jungles and mountains. FARC founder, Manuel Marulanda, died of natural causes in 2008, and the same year Raul Reyes, the organization's leader of the international front, was killed in a bomb raid on his camp in Ecuador. Another was murdered by his own bodyguard.

As devastating as Briceño's death is for the FARC, "It does not mean they are dead," Borrero said, adding that he hoped this blow would prompt some "sense'' into the FARC to sit down to peace talks.

In a communiqué issued this week, the FARC said it was willing to "talk to the current government to find a political solution to the social and armed conflict the country is living.''

However, it said, the rebels would not accept any type of conditions.

Santos responded on Wednesday that for talks to be possible, "they have to stop committing acts of terrorism.'' Otherwise, he said, "we will continue to apply military pressure.''

Avila does not see an end to the conflict anytime soon.

"This is a hard, hard blow,'' he said, "but there's a long way to go before they capitulate.''

El Nuevo Herald staff writer Gerardo Reyes contributed to this report.