In Colombia, there is confusion after the announcement of the death of a dissident Farc leader: Ivan Marquez. The former number 2 of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia had turned his back on the peace agreements. According to a television news, the former guerrilla died from injuries that date from an attack last year. But the government is still trying to confirm this information. Why so much confusion and what did this man represent?
Rumors had been rife since Thursday, July 6. Luciano Marin Arango, alias Iván Marquez, was the leader of the Segunda Marquetalia, one of the Farc dissident groups. Last year, in June 2022, in Venezuela, he was the victim of an attack. Seriously injured, Ivan Marquez survived the attack, but his health deteriorated and his doctors reportedly decided to put him in an artificial coma. All this information was transmitted by sources close to the dissidents, reports our correspondent in Medellin, Najet Benrabaa. Ivan Marquez would have died in a hospital in Caracas, according to the first information.
🙌 Colombia 🇨🇴 tiene una amenaza menos. Muerto otro símbolo del mal que azotó al país con massacres, violation de derechos humanos, un reclutador de menores de edad y narcotraficante.
Iván Marquez había defraudado la oportunidad de paz que le dio Colombia y por persecución de la… pic.twitter.com/ALX4fZbYzv
— Diego Molano Aponte (@Diego_Molano) July 6, 2023
Aged 68, he had taken part in the negotiations with the government of Juan Manuel Santos which led to the signing of a peace agreement in September 2016. He then took up arms again and his head had been put on a price. According to military intelligence, his dissident group Segunda Marquetaliais the fourth most dangerous in the country. Currently, it is said to have over 1,600 fighters.
Born in 1955 in Caqueta, Luciano Marin Aranga was a college biology teacher before joining the armed struggle. He had previously been an activist in the Colombian Communist Youth before joining the Patriotic Union – whose members were decimated – in 1985. He then joined the underground then the South Front of the Farc.
He quickly rose through the ranks within the guerrillas, where he became one of the trusted men of Pedro Antonio Marín, alias Manuel Marulanda Vélez or Tirofijo. During the peace dialogue with the government of Juan Manuel Santos, he is in charge with Seuxis Pausias Hernández Solarte, alias Jesús Santrich, of drawing the roadmap towards the demobilization of the Farc. From his years in the guerrilla leadership, he is notably accused of the forced recruitment of minors and the quest for new funding such as drug trafficking. Once the peace was signed, he participated in the elections alongside the new Farc party and was elected senator.
Breakage occurs when a international arrest warrant for drug trafficking is launched against Jesus Santrich in July 2019. Ivan Marquez announces shortly after that he resumes the armed struggle and founds with other dissidents of Farc the Segunda Marquetalia alongside Santrich who will be killed two years laterby Hernán Darío Velásquez, alias ElPaisa (also killed in Venezuela), and Henry Castellanos Garzón, alias Romaña.
In January 2023, the new left-wing president, Gustavo Petro, announced that he wanted total peace for his country and wanted to negotiate with all armed movements, including drug traffickers. Since then, discussions have progressed with the ELN in particular, little with the other movements.
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