Ex-Guerrilla Leaders Return to War in Colombia
Ex-Guerrilla Leaders Return to War in Colombia
(Bloomberg) -- A group of former guerrilla commanders announced a return to arms, following what they say was the Colombian government’s “betrayal” of the 2016 peace deal.
The guerrilla chief known as “Ivan Marquez” made the announcement in a video clip from an undisclosed location. Marquez, whose real name is Luciano Marin, led the negotiating team of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, during its peace talks with the government.
Most of the ex-guerrillas, including their leader Rodrigo Londono, continue to comply with the peace accords, and some have seats in congress. But a dissidence of disgruntled former FARC members opposed to the peace accords has grown and spread across the country over the past three years.
While no one expects the renewed guerrilla force to regain the kind of strength it had two decades ago, when tens of thousands of fighters wreaked havoc with kidnappings and bomb attacks, Marquez may be able to unite dozens of FARC factions across the country, and inspire more former guerrillas to quit the peace process.
Marquez is by far the most senior former guerrilla to join the dissidents, and also expressed a willingness to forge an alliance with the National Liberation Army, or ELN, another Marxist guerrilla force that has been fighting the state since the 1960s.
Marquez was flanked by another former FARC negotiator called Seuxis Hernandez-Solarte, who is wanted by a U.S. court on cocaine trafficking charges.
Another senior FARC member known by his alias “El Paisa,” regarded as one of the FARC’s most dangerous commanders, was also with Marin when he made the announcement.
Marquez’s statement will force President Ivan Duque to “respond decisively,” and could mark a major milestone in his presidency, said Sergio Guzman, director of Colombia Risk Analysis, a Bogota-based consultancy.
“It will determine how investors look at Colombia and could affect investor confidence and the short-term outlook,” he said.
Duque, then an opposition senator, campaigned against the 2016 peace deal, and since taking office a year ago has sought the extradition of Hernandez-Solarte.
Miguel Ceballos, the government’s peace commissioner, said in a radio interview that the Duque administration is “100% committed in continuing to implement the peace accords.”
--With assistance from Oscar Medina.
To contact the reporters on this story: Matthew Bristow in Bogota at mbristow5@bloomberg.net;Ezra Fieser in Bogota at efieser@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Matthew Bristow at mbristow5@bloomberg.net, Walter Brandimarte
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