Just over a year since FARC’s former chief peace negotiator, alias Iván Marquez, was believed to be recovering from critical wounds sustained during an ambush, on Thursday, Colombian news sources affirmed that the dissident front commander of the “Second Marquetalia” has died.
Even through Márquez was rumored to have been admitted to a hospital in Caracas, Venezuela, on June 30, 2022, after he survived an attack on his rebel camp inside the neighboring country, the Venezuelan regime of Nicolás Maduro did not release information as to the whereabouts of one of Colombia’s most wanted criminals.
News that Luciano Marín Arango may have been killed by rival FARC dissidents back in 2022 could not be confirmed by Colombia’s Ministry of Defense, in contrast to other FARC dissident commanders who were killed last year by illegal armed groups operating along the Colombia-Venezuela border.
Iván Márquez was believed to have been transported by the Venezuelan army just hours after the ambush in Caicara del Orinoco. Venezuelan news sources claimed that at the time of the attack, Márquez had a security detail of 20 combatants and five guard dogs.
Márquez had been living in Venezuela for over seven months and moved easily between the states of Bolívar, Amazonas, and Apure. FARC dissident commanders Seuxis Hernández Solarte, alias “Jesús Santrich,” Hernán Darío Velásquez, alias “El Paisa,” and Henry Castellanos Garzón, alias “Romaña” – of FARC’s rebranded Second Marquetalia – also died last year in Venezuela.
Venezuelan news sources claimed the attack on Iván Márquez’s camp had been orchestrated by FARC dissidents of the “Gentil Duarte” front in retaliation over a territorial dispute involving drug trafficking and illegal gold mining.
Márquez was among the most visible FARC commanders during the peace negotiations with the government of President Juan Manuel Santos. The four-year-long negotiations in Havana, Cuba, resulted in the 2016 Final Accord. The Marxist guerrilla broke away from the peace process in 2019 and formalized the creation of the FARC dissidents front in a video statement (photo).
Without confirmation from Miraflores that Márquez had died during the attack on June 30, 2022, the fate of Iván Márquez has remained a heavily-guarded secret even after Gustavo Petro was sworn in as Colombia’s first leftist President. The CM& network claims Márquez had been in a vegetative condition for over a year and died as a result of shrapnel in his head.
According to information from military intelligence, Márquez’s “Second Marquetalia” is considered the fourth most dangerous illegal armed group operating in Colombia, surpassed by the ELN guerrilla, Gulf Clan and FARC dissidents of the “Estado Mayor Central” under command of alias Iván Mordisco. The “Second Marquetalia” has an estimated 1,650 combatants.
The official death of Márquez has yet to be confirmed by Colombian authorities despite the restoration of full diplomatic relations, and intelligence sharing, with the Venezuelan government. “Regarding what has been said about Iván Márquez, we have no confirmation,” stated Defense Minister Iván Velásquez on Thursday evening.
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