The Cuban Foreign Ministry denied this Sunday that Luciano Marín Arango, alias Ivan Marquez, leader of a dissident faction of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), has fled to the island. The Colombian press has speculated in recent hours with the possible march of the guerrilla to Havana after two of his closest allies: Hernán Darío Velásquez, The Paisa, Y Henry Castellanos Garzón, Romagna.
“Former high-ranking Colombian official Francisco Santos, who does not leave one scandal to enter another, spreads the politically motivated lie that Iván Márquez is in Cuba. In Miami’s disinformation environment, these falsehoods find an complicity”, wrote Eugenio Martínez, general director of Latin America and the Caribbean of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cuba, on his Twitter.
Although there has been no official denial from the Cuban Foreign Ministry so far, the message is considered the position of the Cuban Government and has also been retweeted by the Colombian ambassador to Cuba, José Luis Ponce.
The aforementioned, Francisco Santos, said in a TV show –Dossier Venezuela– that the rumors that began days ago that Iván Márquez was in Cuba were true. “Iván Márquez was in Venezuela when Santrich was killed [ex mando de las FARC, asesinado en mayo de 2021] and he immediately went to Cuba two days after he was killed, “said the former vice president and former Colombian ambassador to the United States.
“I cannot speak of speculation, but I can send a clear message: I hope that this hypothesis is not true, but if it is true, obviously Colombia will take the pertinent actions”
“Today Iván Márquez is a refugee in Cuba. This is a man who rejected the peace process of which Cuba is the guarantor. They kill two of his henchmen, he runs away and Cuba receives him,” he added later. Santos concluded by saying that this dissident faction of the extinct FARC guerrilla, known as Nueva Marquetalia, will disappear.
“Three of its top leaders were assassinated and the top leader, Iván Márquez, is asking that he be returned to Cuba, from where he will most likely never return.”
The president of Colombia, Iván Duque, denied this Saturday that there is any kind of certainty that Márquez is in Cuba and assured that so far they are only rumors, but that in the event that it is confirmed, his government would take the pertinent measures.
“I cannot speak of speculation, but I can send a clear message: I hope that this hypothesis is not true, but if it is true obviously Colombia will take the pertinent actions“said the Colombian leader.
The president assured that Colombia is investigating the possible flight of Iván Márquez, who is under an Interpol arrest warrant for terrorism and has recently been added, along with the Second Marquetalia, to the United States antiterrorist list.
Duque pointed out that if Cuba or another country were to host the dissident, they would be violating the guidelines of the UN Security Council that “prohibits countries from protecting, sponsoring or giving some kind of hiding place to anyone who is requested by another country for this bloody crime.” , and considered that such an extreme would be “a very serious situation.”
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