Unidentified Venezuelan sources confirmed to the Colombian media SEMANA that Iván Márquez died in Venezuela in the midst of “war being waged in Venezuelan territory between criminal organizations to keep control of the illicit drug trafficking business.”
A note published by WEEK, assures that in the middle of an attack, Iván Márquez, head of the Second Marquetalia and former member of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), died. According to the information known about the event, he fell in the middle of an attack.
In this sense, the media pointed out that Márquez’s death occurred in the midst of “war being waged in Venezuelan territory between criminal organizations to keep control of the illicit drug trafficking business, especially in the border area with Colombia.”
In the morning hours of this Saturday, June 2, the president of Colombia, Iván Duque, referred to the versions that indicated that Márquez had been killed in an attack registered in Venezuela.
In this sense and in statements to the Colombian media, Duque stated that intelligence from the Colombian Military Forces began the first tasks to try to verify this information and verify its veracity.
*Also read: Colombia: ELN allied with Iván Márquez and attacked FARC dissidents in Arauquita
Who was Ivan Marquez?
Iván Márquez joined the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia in 1985 and from that moment began to gain positions within the extinct guerrilla. In 1990 he became the official spokesman for the FARC, he was present at the peace talks in Caracas and Tlaxcala, as well as in the remembered demilitarized zone with former president Andrés Pastrana.
He was head of the Caribbean Bloc, Northwest Bloc and in 2008 he became the international spokesperson for the armed group after Raúl Reyes was discharged from Ecuador. It is important to point out that Luciano Marín Arango, known by his alias, Iván Márquez, was one of the leaders of the Farc for many years and chief negotiator of the Peace Dialogues that the subversive group carried out with the government of former president Juan Manuel Santos in La Havana Cuba.
Over time, a distance became evident and there were differences with Rodrigo Londoño, formerly known as Timochenko, who remained in the peace process, became a Colombian politician and is now the leader of the Comunes political party.
Dissident FARC chiefs who have died in Venezuela
The possible death of Marquéz joins an already long list of criminals and former guerrillas who have fallen in Venezuelan territory.
In May, “Gentil Duarte”, head of the dissidence that clashes with the “Márquez” group, died. The camp where Miguel Botache Santillana, “Gentil Duarte”, was located on the other side of the border was attacked with explosives on May 4, where the guerrilla died, along with a minor and an undetermined number of people.
The intelligence investigators established that Duarte was in Venezuela, recovering from a wound since November in Venezuelan territory under the protection of “Jhon Mechas”, who had his camping area in the rural area of Casigua El Cubo, a town that is part of Jesús María Semprúm, in Zulia state (Venezuela). The attack took place there, about 14 kilometers from the border with Colombia through Norte de Santander.
In May 2021, former guerrilla Seuxis Pausias Hernández Solarte, alias Jesús Santrich, died in Venezuelan territory, who left the peace process and was fleeing an extradition request from the United States that requested him on drug trafficking charges.
The dissidents confirmed his death in a combat registered in the Venezuelan part of the Perijá mountain range, between the areas known as El Chalet and the Los Laureles village.
The version of the dissidents indicates that “Santrich” would have been attacked with rifle fire and artillery when he was traveling in a truck and that the group that carried out the action, supposedly, was picked up by a helicopter.
In December of the same year, the death of Henry Castellanos, alias Romaña, and Hernán Darío Velásquez, the “Paisa”, who were considered two of the most “bloody” leaders of the disappeared guerrilla, became known.
The two deaths occurred on the other side of the border, where the former guerrillas were hiding from persecution by authorities in Colombia.
The “Paisa” died along with his trusted man, alias Lulo, when they were returning to their camp. As he passed, explosives were activated, installed on the road, which destroyed his truck, causing his immediate death.
While “Romaña” died in a confrontation with an armed group in what would have been another chapter in the war for territorial control in the neighboring country and the management of drug trafficking routes to the United States.
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