Rebel leader recovering well from stroke: doctors in Colombia

Bogota - 4 July 2017:The leader of Colombia's FARC rebel group, Rodrigo Londono, is recovering well from a slight stroke and the speech difficulty he initially suffered is gone, doctors said Monday.

Londono, 58, is "evolving in satisfactory fashion," said Lydis Herrera, director of the university hospital in the city of Villavicencio in central Colombia where he is being treated.

Doctors said the FARC leader admitted himself to the facility Sunday after having trouble speaking and moving his left arm.

This came a week after the FARC completed the surrender of their weapons to end a more than 50 year old war.

Before the medical update was released, Londono, who goes by the nom de guerre "Timochenko," wrote on Twitter, "Today I feel much better and am very grateful for the messages you have sent me."

Herrera said Londono had a good night and is in good shape. "He ate, he is conscious, he speaks with no difficulty," she said.

Nevertheless, he will remain in intensive care for at least 72 hours, she said.
Timochenko felt the first symptoms as he was preparing to visit one of 26 sites across the country where the approximately 7,000 FARC members gathered as part of the process to return to civil society.

A peace accord was narrowly rejected by Colombians in a referendum last year before it was redrafted and pushed through Congress.

Since then, the process has been blighted by ongoing violence involving other armed groups.
The conflict that began when the FARC launched its uprising in 1964 has left 260,000 people confirmed dead, more than 60,000 missing and seven million displaced.