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Top Colombian drug lord, wanted by U.S., killed in combat

It is where he was killed Thursday night in a ground and air attack, authorities said.

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The deal between the Colombian government and the country’s leftist guerillas could help many nations address issues ranging from climate change to extreme poverty, President Juan Manuel Santos told the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday.

Numerous relatives of those who were killed and the a few 30,000 Colombians who have disappeared, say justice should involve a genuine apology and greater efforts to find the bodies of the missing. Timochenko, Marquez and other rebel leaders appear on the U.S. Kingpin List of major drug traffickers as a few FARC units have formed an alliance with drug cartels.

A thickly built man of medium height, Navarro was notorious for his garish jewelry.

Local media said he had a fondness for diamond-encrusted gold chains, fancy cars and young girls. In one photo police obtained in a raid, a golden pistol hangs from a necklace.

Jay Bergman, then-Andean region chief for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, told The Associated Press in 2013 that Navarro was believed to have only about 60 men under arms but that many more from his allies would come to his aid if he were under siege.

The lead government negotiator said it was premature to publish the entire 75-point agreement because a few of the wording had “some degree of ambiguity” that needed to be clarified.

The governor of Norte de Santander department, Edgar Diaz, said Navarro was killed during a joint operation by the army and police.

Defense Minister Luis Carlos Villegas did not provide details of what he called “one of the most ingenious undercover operations in Colombia in recent years”.

Santos gave no details about how or when Navarro was killed.

But in 2012 six army officers and soldiers were convicted of his forced disappearance and murder and handed down prison sentences of up to 52 years. Those officials said Navarro also gained a reputation for personally torturing and killing infiltrators.

Victor “Megateo” Navarro, a former guerrilla fighter accused of running a cocaine supply route along the Colombian-Venezuelan border, was first reported killed in August.

The USA special envoy for the peace process, Bernard Aronson, said Friday that the United States – a key ally of Colombia – is ready to accept the FARC as a political player in the South American country.

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Indeed, last week, Santos and “Timochenko” (whose real name is Rodrigo Londoño Echeverri) announced in Havana that an agreement on transitional justice, the ultimate talking point of the ongoing peace talks, das been reached and that a definitive peace agreement should be signed between the long-warring factions in March of 2016.

Farc rebels to halt military training