Rodrigo granda was scarcely a household name when in mid-December the Colombian police said they had arrested him in the city of Cucuta, close to the border with Venezuela. With his cardigan and the air of a carefully groomed, middle-aged bank manager, he looked anything but a leader of the farc, Colombia's main left-wing guerrilla group. But the farc has acknowledged that Mr Granda was indeed a roving envoy for their movement, which figures on the United States' list of terrorist organisations. The story might have ended there, as another success in the "war on terror", were it not for the details of how Mr Granda ended up in Cucuta. These have emerged in fits and starts. He was snatched from a cafe in the centre of Caracas and smuggled over the border by, it is alleged, the anti-kidnap squad of Venezuela's National Guard. It was a freelance operation, carrying a hefty reward-and perhaps with Colombian agents present.
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