The ‘Second Marquetalia’ would have lost its four top members in just over a year, because as EL TIEMPO first published, the authorities verify versions that, in an attack on Venezuelan territory, His main commander Luciano Marín Arango, alias Iván Márquez, would have died.
(Also read: Attention: they investigate if Iván Márquez, head of dissidence, fell in Venezuela).
If confirmed, ‘Márquez’ would join his deceased men in 2021 ‘Jesús Santrich’, ‘el Paisa’ and ‘Romaña’.
According to versions of sources that are in that territory and who know closely the activities of that FARC dissidence, ‘Márquez’ would have fallen in an attackin the midst of the confrontation that his group is holding with other criminal networks for territorial control.
President Iván Duque referred this Saturday to the possible death of the dissident leader and said: “We are working with intelligence to verify that information.”
Defense Minister, diego molano, also pointed out: “We only know what has come out in the media and from sources that indicate that in a presumed confrontation between the different factions of the FARC dissidents, he would have lost his life. We know that he was in Venezuela and throughout these last few months he had been seeking to leave Venezuela, it was the information that we had from intelligence sources”.
(Can read: Iván Márquez: Duque says that a possible death in Venezuela is being investigated).
For now, the Colombian security agencies continue to investigate to confront these versions with their sources on the border and determine if ‘Márquez’, who before deserting the peace process was one of the most visible negotiators in Havana, was in fact murdered.
In any case, if this version is confirmed, which comes from sources that in the past told EL TIEMPO of the death of “Gentil Duarte” and alias Romaña, both on Venezuelan soil, It would be the hardest blow to the leaders of the extinct FARC who returned to crime.
assumptions about what happened
Luciano Marín knew that he was in a kind of race against the clock, because after ‘Santrich’, ‘el Paisa’ and ‘Romaña’ died in Venezuela, it was clear that he was next. TIME revealed that had tried, without luck, to move to Cuba or Nicaragua to be safebut everything indicates that he chose to remain under the protection of a wing of the Venezuelan regime, in Apure.
His situation became more complex after the death, last May, of Miguel Botache Santillana, ‘Gentil Duarte’, head of the dissidence that is at war with the ‘Márquez’ group. The dissidents that ‘Duarte’ commanded blame allies of ‘Márquez’ for having given Botache’s coordinates and were determined to facilitate the location of the head of the ‘Second Marquetalia’, which is why One of the first hypotheses explored is a possible retaliation.
(You may be interested: These are the dissident leaders of the Farc who have died in Venezuela).
“‘Márquez’ knew that if he arrived alive on August 7, he had a chance that his dissidence would enter into a peace negotiation and that is why he had already sent a couple of messages in that regard,” an informed source told EL TIEMPO. In any case, before a possible negotiation, the dissidences arrive without their main heads.
War to blood and fire between dissidents
The FARC dissidents were consolidated into two lines: that of ‘Iván Mordisco’ and ‘Gentil Duarte’ and that of ‘Iván Márquez’ and his allies, among them the Eln, a group he joined to confront the former.
According to what the authorities have said, both lines sought to take over the spaces left by the demobilized FARC and that is why they have waged a war to the death for months to control the border and drug trafficking routes, as well as other illegal activities.
That confrontation, which was transferred to Venezuela, has generated massive displacements and massacres along the border area between Colombia and Venezuela.
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