BOGOTA – A FARC guerrilla who guarded the 15 high-value hostages, including former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, rescued by the Colombian military last year has surrendered to authorities, the army said.

The guerrilla, known as “Angelo,” turned himself in to soldiers in Miraflores, a hamlet in the southern province of Guaviare, and requested protection.

The rebel “knew he was closer to death and preferred to lay down his arms instead of continuing to put up with the abuse and humiliation to which he was being subjected,” the army said.

Officials are hopeful that he will provide valuable intelligence on the whereabouts of guerrilla leaders in the area and the condition of other hostages being held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

The rebel belonged to the FARC’s 1st Front and at one time was a member of commander Gerardo Aguilar’s unit, which guarded the high-value hostages.

The army is currently hunting the FARC’s commanders in Colombia’s southern jungles.

The FARC, Colombia’s oldest and largest leftist guerrilla group, was founded in 1964 and today operates across a large swath of this Andean nation. EFE