Who is the Government going to sit down to talk to at the negotiation table with the ‘Segu?

The ‘Second Marquetalia’ was born in 2019, when a group of former FARC combatants, led by ‘Iván Márquez’, ‘Jesús Santrich’, ‘Romaña’ and ‘Paisa’ -the latter three already deceased- abandoned the process alleging the “betrayal of the State of the peace agreements” and they returned to arms, which caused their expulsion from transitional justice.

Today it has some 1,646 members in Colombia and Venezuela, according to military intelligence figures, including men in arms (1,048) and support networks (598).which are mainly dedicated to illicit activities such as the control of illegal mining, drug trafficking, extortion and kidnapping, to a lesser extent.

The ‘Second Marquetalia’ is today divided into a hierarchical structure that has a national leadership and an intermediate leadership.

The first, which according to a report by the Ideas for Peace Foundation serves as the former FARC Secretariat, includes the aforementioned ‘Márquez’; Gener García Molina, alias ‘John 40’, who according to a report by InSight Crime, is a link between cocaine suppliers in Colombia with buyers in Venezuela; José Manuel Sierra Sabogal, alias ‘Zarco Aldinever’, who was suggested as a replacement for Marín Arango when it was thought that he was dead; José Vicente Lesmes, alias ‘Walter Mendoza’, head of the delegation; and Alberto Cruz Lobo (alias ‘Enrique Marulanda’), the latter three, members of the delegation of the defecting group at the table.

(You may be interested in: ‘Nothing justifies that the signatories of the peace agreement took up arms again’: Armando Novoa talks about the start of dialogues with the ‘Second Marquetalia’).

In the intermediate leadership, according to military intelligence reports, three more members of the ‘Second Marquetalia’ delegation appear: Allende Perilla Sandoval, alias ‘Andrés Allende’, head of the ‘Pacific Guerrilla Coordinator’; Geovanny Andrés Rojas, alias ‘Andrés Araña’, top leader of the ‘Border Commandos’; and William Danilo Malaver López, alias ‘Gersón González’, of the Vladimir Steven Mobile Column.

Along with them appear the names of Jhon Jairo Bedoya, alias ‘Rusbel’, Diógenes Medina, alias ‘Chalo’, Nelson Enrique Díaz, alias ‘Iván Alí’ and Jhurleny Guerrero (the fifth member of that group that signed the Caracas agreement) , among others.

“The Intermediate Directorate is in charge of relations between the regional structures and the National Directorate, and coordinates the political bases of the organization, such as the Colombian Clandestine Communist Party, the Bolivarian Movement for New Colombia, the Bolivarian Patriotic Council and the militia cells and commands operating in urban areas”, reads the report to the FIP published in 2022.

In the report they also point out that the focus of influence of this criminal organization is in Venezuela and that it is through alliances that have gained ground in Colombia, where, they affirm, “its presence continues to be weak and limited.”

For the analyst on peace issues and professor of Political Science at the Javeriana University, Andrés Felipe Ortega, it is important to keep in mind that structurally and hierarchically this group is very different from the dissidents of ‘Iván Mordisco’.

“It seems to be a less violent dissidence, it seems to have less presence, which does not mean that they are not dangerous, but that has to do with the leaders of the group. There are many historical leaders of the FARC, with old guerrillas and with greater political training. It is a guerrilla that has tried to expand from above, contrary to what the ‘Central General Staff’ has done, which has sought to strengthen itself from the base.”he pointed.

At the same level of intermediate management appears the communications commission, which was headed by ‘Jesús Santrich’ until his death. The organization chart is completed by about 15 structures and substructures that are present in at least 13 departments of Colombia and in the western region of Venezuela.

In the Caribbean and on the northeastern border of the country, in addition to the aforementioned communications commission, the Danilo García Commission is present (it has an impact in the Catatumbo region and in the state of Táchira, Venezuela), Commission 41 (mainly in the state of Zulia) and the Santiago Lozada Commission.

Its impact is greater in the east of the country, where structures such as the Border Commission (Vichada, in addition to the Apure state in Venezuela), the 16th Front (also present in the neighboring country, in the state of Amazonas) and the Structure Acacio Medina (Guainía).

In the southwest of the country, the structures Diomer Cortes, Ariel Aldana, Iván Ríos (Pacific Guerrilla Coordinator), Oliver Sinisterra, Commission 48 and the Western Block Alfonso Cano, the latter under the command of alias ‘Allende’, commit crimes.

(Keep reading: ‘Iván Márquez’ reappears and signs an agreement to start peace talks with the ‘Second Marquetalia’: these are the photos).

Likewise, the Border Commandos, a criminal organization attached to the Second Marquetalia since 2020, operate in this region of the country, mainly in the department of Putumayo, under the command of ‘Andrés Araña’ and which has its own general direction. .

The main activity of this organization is related to drug trafficking. In fact, they have a strong confrontation with the Carolina Ramírez front of the ‘Central General Staff’ over the drug trafficking routes that leave from Ecuador and towards Brazil.

The doubt that arises once we see how this organization works inside is the same one that has arisen in other negotiation processes, fundamentally with the dissidence of the ‘Central General Staff’: is the ‘Second Marquetalia’ really cohesive in the face of a political negotiation?

For Armando Novoa, the person designated by the president to lead this negotiation, the answer to this concern is in the document signed in Caracas.

“At the meeting that we just held, practically all the leaders of the different fronts maintained by that guerrilla were present and they presented themselves under a unified spokesperson, as a group with a presence in certain territories of the country. In such a way that the idea is to advance the negotiation with the spokespersons authorized for this purpose by the Government that represents the different fronts that make up this guerrilla and that according to some press information that would lead us to assume that some of these fronts have arrived with the possibility to the formation of the ‘Second Marquetalia,'” said the Government’s chief negotiator.

The other members of that deserter group who may participate in the negotiation are Diego Fernando Guerrero Segura, María Lizeth Moreno Cantillo, Yuvarniza Romero, Luis André Figueroa Marín (responsible for a terrorist attack in 2022 against a Police station in Bogotá), José Darley Malagón Jiménez (alias ‘Uriel’) and Henry Quiñones Angulo (alias ‘Tocayo’).