✅ Líder disidente de las FARC Segunda Marquetalia, ‘Iván Márquez’, fallece en Venezuela: fuentes

‘Iván Márquez’, the leader of the Second Marquetalia, a dissident group of the FARC that returned to armed struggle after a peace agreement, died in Venezuela from the serious injuries he suffered in an attack in 2022, military intelligence sources and another close to the group said on Thursday.

This is the strongest blow suffered by the dissident group of the former guerrilla group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) since they broke away from the peace agreement signed in 2016, said one of the sources who requested anonymity.

«The information within the organization is that he died in a hospital in Caracas where he was receiving medical treatment following the serious injuries he suffered in an attack in Venezuela at the end of June 2022,» said a source close to the Second Marquetalia.

Although the majority of the FARC members demobilized based on the peace agreement that ended the participation of that guerrilla group in the nearly 60-year conflict that has left over 450,000 dead, two factions rejected it, returned to armed struggle, and continue to participate in drug trafficking and illegal mining, according to security sources.

The attack against Luciano Marín Arango, better known as ‘Iván Márquez’, would have been led by Iván Mordisco, leader of the Central High Command (EMC), the other FARC dissident group, with whom he was clashing for control of drug trafficking routes on the border between Colombia and Venezuela, as well as cocaine production areas, according to security sources.

But the Second Marquetalia said days after the attack that Iván Márquez had survived an attack carried out by Colombian military allied with the DEA and the CIA.

Colombian Defense Minister Iván Velásquez told reporters that the military authorities were verifying the information of Márquez’s death.

Refuge in Venezuela

Marín, 68, for whom the United States offered a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to his location and capture, took refuge in Venezuela after he did not take office as a congressman in 2018, a position to which he was entitled based on the peace agreement.

At the end of August 2019, he announced, in a video in which he appeared armed and surrounded by other rebels, the beginning of a new stage of armed struggle against the government, alleging non-compliance with the peace agreement.

Security sources said that ‘Iván Márquez’ fled and declared himself a dissident due to his imminent capture and alleged involvement in drug trafficking after the peace agreements, denounced by his nephew Marlon Marín, who was arrested by DEA agents in 2018 and transferred to the United States.

‘Iván Márquez’, is the fifth leader of the FARC dissidents killed in Venezuelan territory in less than three years, according to security sources.

Previously, the deaths in Venezuela of Seuxis Paucias Hernández, alias ‘Jesús Santrich’; Henry Castellanos Garzón, alias ‘Romaña’; Hernán Darío Velásquez, alias ‘El Paisa’, who also belonged to the Second Marquetalia, and Miguel Botache Santillana, better known as ‘Gentil Duarte’, a leader of the EMC, the other FARC dissident group, were reported.

All of them died in armed attacks or explosive incidents carried out by small units, according to intelligence sources.

Márquez, for whom the Colombian government also offered a reward of approximately $700,000, participated in peace negotiations between the government of former President Juan Manuel Santos and the former FARC guerrilla group in Cuba.

Márquez, a veteran and influential guerrilla fighter, led a group made up of around 1,600 people, mostly fighters dedicated to illegal mining and drug trafficking, according to security sources.

Colombia previously accused the Venezuelan government of Nicolás Maduro of protecting leaders of the FARC dissidents who broke away from a peace agreement and leaders of the National Liberation Army (ELN), charges that the president of the oil-rich nation always denied.

Diplomatic and trade relations between Colombia and Venezuela were restored and improved since 2022, after Gustavo Petro assumed the presidency as the first left-wing leader in the coffee-producing country.

Petro seeks to initiate peace negotiations with the Second Marquetalia, as well as with the EMC. However, some experts argue that the government cannot establish negotiations with the group led by Iván Márquez because they abandoned the peace process, and they can only initiate a process of submission to justice.

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