At the installation table of the peace talks with the Petro Government, the image of Iván Márquez generated impact. The leader of the dissidents can see the ravages of the attack he experienced in Venezuela. He has a prosthesis on his right arm and the vision problems that afflict him are evident.
Márquez, one of the most fearsome commanders of the FARC and one of the senior leaders of that guerrilla that put a damper on the peace process, today leads the dissidents, known as Second Marquetalia, in the talks with the Petro government. This Monday, that cycle was installed in Caracas.
The issue generates controversy and indignation, since it is a deserter of the Havana Agreement who has been inflicting terror in the country for years from Venezuela. These negotiations generate resistance as they are detractors of the peace agreement with that guerrilla in 2016.
“They had their chance. I believe that the path left for them is that of submission,” said Senator Humberto de la Calle, chief negotiator of the government of Nobel Peace Prize winner Juan Manuel Santos in the 2016 agreement.
Seven government delegates and another seven from the insurgent organization led by Márquez will participate in this first process, which runs until Saturday.
“We intend to develop the specific topics of the peace dialogue agenda, define the negotiation protocols and announce the first decisions on measures and actions to contribute to advancing the de-escalation of the conflict and territorial sightings for peace,” indicated a joint statement read at the opening ceremony.
Petro, who also negotiates with the National Liberation Army (ELN), began talks last October with the Central General Staff (EMC), truncated by internal divisions within that bloc of dissidents.
The negotiation begins after the signing, also in Caracas on June 5, of a founding document focused on “promoting democratic changes and reforms for peace in which populations and territories are the priority, strengthening social mobilization,” according to government.
The document speaks of the establishment of negotiating commissions to achieve “the de-escalation of the conflict, the construction of territories of peace,” as well as the care of victims.
“It is not identified that alias Iván Márquez or the Second Marquetalia are looking for a clue towards politics,” Francisco Javier Daza, researcher at the Peace and Reconciliation Foundation (PARES), explained to AFP. “It seeks a de-escalation of violence in the territories where they operate: the idea of coming to power, of state power, is not on the agenda of what is going to be negotiated.”
Before starting the talks, the commander of the Colombian Military Forces, General Helder Giraldo, announced that “there are approaches” to reach a bilateral ceasefire.
“Old guard”
The Caracas document has the signature of Iván Márquez, who was the second most important man in the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) when that guerrilla signed peace to become a political party.
Luciano Marín, his real name, was the chief negotiator for the rebels and remained in the process for a few years after the signing, but he defected and in 2019 he reappeared in a video announcing a new armed rebellion. In 2023, local media speculated about his death in Venezuela after suffering an attack. Later, Petro’s government assured that he was in that country recovering from his injuries.
On May 11, Márquez reappeared in a video expressing his support for Petro, with whom he agreed in February to enter into negotiations.
Márquez is “one of the few old guard heads left” with “strong ideological bases,” Daza added. And that “has a weight” and “may contribute to making a negotiation much faster, much more effective” than those that the government has open with the ELN and the EMC.
The Second Marquetalia has about 1,660 combatants, according to military intelligence calculations. Analysts consider that it is a weak guerrilla compared to the EMC led by alias Iván Mordisco, a leader who did not sign peace in 2016, and with the National Liberation Army.
Petro has been talking to EMC since October last year, before the group split in two in April. Half of the guerrillas under Mordisco’s command left, while the other 50% remain in dialogue.
