While attention was focused on the delayed flights to the United States and the new Bin Laden tape, there were a number of important stories in the war on terror that received less attention. One was a major victory in the war on terror - the recent capture of FARC finance chief Simon Trinidad.

Simon Trinidad, the nomme de guerre of Ricardo Ovidio Palmora Pineda, was a member of the seven-person governing Secretariat of the FARC. With 16,000 fighters the Columbia-based FARC is the Western hemisphere’s largest and most formidable terrorist organization. They have been waging war against the Columbian government for the past four decades. They are responsible for innumerable massacres, assassinations, and kidnappings, and are heavily involved with narcotics trafficking. The capture of Trinidad, a former banker and economics professor, is being described as the biggest single blow to the FARC in its 37-year history. He was captured in Ecuador where he was undergoing medical treatment.

His capture is a big boost to Columbia’s President Alvaro Uribe, who was elected with a mandate to end Columbia’s “peace process” and defeat the FARC militarily. Columbian Army chief Gen. Martin Orlando Carreno had made a public New Year’s Resolution to kill or capture a member of the FARC Secretariat.

His arrest is also an important victory for the United States. In and of itself the FARC is a major strategic problem: undermining Columbia, allying with Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and Cuba’s Castro, exporting violence to neighboring Latin American countries, and supporting it all by selling drugs. But the FARC has longstanding links to far-left terrorist groups around the world – as evidenced by the arrest of IRA operatives in Columbia two years ago. These links also extend to far-left groups of the Middle East such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – groups that have since allied closely with Islamist terrorists. There are important Islamist networks in South America, including in the tri-border region of Argentine, Paraguay, and Brazil, and in a free trade zone in nearby Venezuela. There is growing evidence of FARC-Islamist collaboration. The FARC condemned the 9/11 terror attacks, but claimed it was American imperialism that brought them on.

An ideological opponent of the United States, the FARC has also targeted Americans. In September 2001 a top FARC leader instructed FARC commanders to attack “North Americans”. This rhetoric has been followed by action. In November 2003 there was a grenade attack against bars in Bogotá frequented by Americans. One person was killed and 72 were injured.

Trinidad’s capture is a major blow to the FARC. But specifically his knowledge of FARC finances will hopefully help authorities roll up the smuggling networks used to bring drugs into the United States. A major law enforcement challenge, these networks could also be used to smuggle personnel and equipment into the U.S. It is a major American vulnerability and Trinidad’s capture should make Americans feel safer.