Miguel Botanche Santanilla, known as “Gentil Duarte”, and head of one of the main dissidences of the FARC He died in an attack with explosives to his camp that was in Venezuela, according to local media reported on Wednesday quoted by Eph.
The Colombian Police confirmed to the Spanish agency that the attack actually took place in Venezuela, but they did not give more information about the events nor could they verify that the dissident leader was dead.
? #EXCLUSIVOET | EL TIEMPO confirmed with sources in Colombia and Venezuela that the former guerrilla ‘Gentil Duarte’, who managed to be a representative of the FARC in Havana, was the object of an attack in his own camp. We tell you ? https://t.co/Db1wtoM5ur pic.twitter.com/6nQSXcU7QA
— THE TIME (@THETIEMPO) May 25, 2022
“Gentil Duarte”, one of the most wanted men in Colombia, came to be at the negotiating table of the peace accords in Havanabut he was one of the first leaders to leave the agreement, before it was signed in 2016, when he founded the first dissidence that has been growing and is eager to reorganize the FARC into blocs as it had before.
The murder occurred, according to the newspaper Timeafter an attack with explosives on the camp where he was hiding in the Venezuelan state of Zulia, supposedly carried out by the ELN guerrillas.
The source highlights that it is possible that “Gentil Duarte” was killed by his own men when he was crossing the border, local media reported in the face of information for which there is still no official confirmation from the Colombian government.
Botache, 58, joined the FARC when he was 14 years old and, during his more than 40-year career in its ranks, he became one of the most important commanders.
As a result of a bombing in July 2021 by the Army of a camp of its dissidents in San Vicente del Caguán, in the south of the country, where several minors died, the head of the dissidents moved, according to media, to the Venezuelan border where Since then, he has been hiding in an area where this group is in conflict with the ELN guerrillas and also with the dissidence of Luciano Marín, alias “Iván Márquez”, called “Segunda Marquetalia”.
Both the “Second Marquetalia” and the group led by “Gentil Duarte” were included last November on the black list of terrorist groups in the United States, after removing the FARC from this list.
FARC dissidents confirm the death of Jesús Santrich in Venezuelan territory
The alleged fall of “Gentil Duarte” occurs a year after the Colombian government claimed to have information on the death of Seuxis Paucias Hernández Solarte, alias “Jesús Santrich”, one of the leaders of the FARC dissidents, in a confrontation in Venezuela between groups.
Also killed in Venezuela were Henry Castellanos, alias “Romaña”, and Hernán Darío Vevásquez, alias El paisa”, considered the two bloodiest leaders of the former FARC guerrilla.
Efe/OnCuba.
