Colombia’s infamous rebel leader “Ivan Marquez” dead: reports
The iconic leader of FARC dissident group Segunda Marquetalia succumbed to wounds from an assassination attempt last year
This week we are happy to welcome back occasional guest contributor Adriaan Alsema from Colombia Reports.
Colombia’s infamous rebel leader “Ivan Marquez” dead: reports
The iconic leader of FARC dissident group Segunda Marquetalia succumbed to wounds from an assassination attempt last year
On Thursday, a prominent television news channel reported the death of one of Colombia’s most prominent rebel leaders, “Ivan Marquez,” in Venezuela.
Sources close to Marquez, whose real name was Luciano Marin, confirmed the death of the founder of the “Segunda Marquetalia” dissident FARC guerrilla group to other news media.
Defense Minister Ivan Velasquez said that the security forces were trying to verify the claim that Marquez had died of injuries he sustained during an assassination attempt by unknown assailants in Venezuela in July last year.
Local media initially misreported last year that the former peace negotiator of the now-defunct FARC rebels had died in the attack.
These reports were denied by Marquez’s subordinates and Peace Commissioner Danilo Rueda, who met with the former FARC commander to negotiate a new peace deal.
Marquez was believed to have been seriously injured as the rebel leader has not appeared in public since the assassination attempt.
Unidentified sources also confirmed to the media company Cambio that recent complications caused by a splinter that was left in Marquez’s brain caused his death.
Segunda Marquetalia is currently engaged in peace negotiations with the Colombian government as part of President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” plans for the country.
Who was Ivan Marquez?
Marquez was born in southern Colombia in 1955 and joined the guerrilla group FARC and the clandestine Communist Party in the late 1970s.
He was elected into Congress in 1986 after a tentative peace agreement between the FARC and the government of late President Belisario Betancur.
Marquez left his position and became a major leader of the FARC after the military and paramilitary forces embarked on an extermination campaign of the Patriotic Union party.
The FARC division commander led the guerrillas’ successful peace talks with former President Juan Manuel Santos in 2012 and demobilized in 2017. He assumed a senator position after the talks as part of the peace deal.
Marquez abandoned politics again in 2018 after attempts by the US Government and the Prosecutor General’s Office to extradite late FARC commander “Jesus Santrich” on fabricated drug trafficking charges.
The two announced the formation of the Segunda Marquetalia in 2019 and began an offensive to regain control over territories that had been abandoned by the FARC.
This offensive was violently opposed by the Colombian military as well as the rival guerrilla group Estado Mayor Central (EMC).
Jesus Santrich was reported killed by unknown assailants in Venezuela in 2021.
What does this mean for the peace and Segunda Marquetalia?
After Marquez was severely wounded in the 2022 assassination attempt, leadership of the group was allegedly taken over by veteran FARC commander, José Vicente Lesmes, alias “Walter Mendoza.”
Segunda Marquetalia has often clashed with another FARC splinter group, the 10th Front, in regions near the Venezuela-Colombia border. Those clashes have also led to the deaths of two other senior leaders of the organization, Hernán Darío Velásquez, alias “El Paisa,” and Henry Castellanos Garzón, alias “Romaña.
It is unclear what the possible death of Marquez may mean for Segunda Marquetalia moving forward. Though the death of the last original senior member of the rebel group is certainly a strong symbolic blow to the organization, they appear to have been operating largely via other leadership since the assassination attempt last year.
The group has largely operated in the Venezuelan state of Apure in recent years, with apparent cooperation from corrupt elements in Venezuelan security forces.
Some analysts have theorized that if Marquez is truly dead it is unlikely to affect a group that has been operating with only his figurehead leadership for over a year.
Insight Crime, however, speculated that “Should it be confirmed that Iván Márquez has been killed, then the group may rapidly fragment into disparate, smaller criminal gangs with little to no connections to the FARC's former political ideology.”
Colombia’s Ministry of Defense, in public statements urged patience as they investigate the ongoing situation.
The Big Headlines in LATAM
In Guatemala, political elites suspended the ratification of recent elections in what some observers have described as a “last desperate chance to remain in power”. A court-ordered review of presidential election ballots has so far largely upheld the results of presidential elections on June 25 in which former first lady Sandra Torres for the conservative UNE party had 15.7% and Bernardo Arévalo for the leftist Seed Movement had 11.8%.
The two candidates will likely head to a run-off barring any interference by the court. The pause on suspension of election results has been criticized by Human Rights Groups, the Organization of American States (OAS), the U.S, and the Brazilian government.
In Colombia, rebel group ELN ordered a cessation of hostilities against Colombian security forces as the official deadline for the government-negotiated ceasefire approaches. Just hours before orders were set to go into effect, members of the rebel group in Arauca abducted a police sergeant and her children, leading some to fear that hard-line elements within the group might be trying to sabotage peace negotiations.
However, after a widespread outcry, they were released Friday.
Spanish Word of the Week
La gota que colmó el vaso
Meaning: the straw that breaks the camel’s back
Literal translation: “the drop that overfilled the glass”
The last drop refers to that moment when things are already in a bad place, but calm, and a comment or an action makes the whole thing explode. That one mean comment that turned an apparent quiet dinner into a Latin telenovela, with screams and plates crashing against the wall — well, that might be too much, but you know what I mean. You don’t wanna be that drop!
Thanks for reading, friends! Hasta pronto!