Colombian FARC leader Timochenko being treated for stroke

Colombia's Marxist FARC rebel leader Rodrigo Londono, known as Timochenko, gestures during a news conference in Bogota, Colombia, on Nov 25, 2016. PHOTO: REUTERS

BOGOTA (AFP) - The leader of Colombia's FARC rebel group, Rodrigo Londono, has suffered a stroke and been admitted to hospital in "satisfactory" condition, doctors at the clinic said on Sunday (July 3).

Londono, 58, who goes by the nom de guerre "Timochenko," is awake and alert after being admitted to a university hospital in the city of Villavicencio in central Colombia, according to doctors at the facility.

His stroke occurred just days after the FARC - short for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - declared it had finished the process of disarming, effectively dismantling Latin America's oldest armed guerrilla force after more than a half-century of civil war.

Doctors said the FARC leader admitted himself to the facility after noticing "a change in his manner of speaking" and a loss of muscle strength" - especially in his left arm.

Doctors said they will continue to monitor his condition, without saying how long they expect him to remain hospitalised.

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