HomeNewsAnalysisFARC Leader Turns Back on Congress, Further Jeopardizing Peace
ANALYSIS

FARC Leader Turns Back on Congress, Further Jeopardizing Peace

COLOMBIA / 25 APR 2018 BY TRISTAN CLAVEL* EN

The announcement by a FARC party heavyweight that he would not take a senatorial seat he was offered as part of a 2016 peace agreement may further jeopardize an already shaky peace deal.

Luciano Marín Arango, who still uses his nom de guerre "Iván Márquez" and is currently the number two of the Common Alternative Revolutionary Force (Fuerza Alternativa Revolucionaria del Común – FARC) political party, announced during an April 24 interview with Canal 1 that he would renounce the seat he was offered in the Senate.

A former high-ranking member of the now largely demobilized Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia – FARC), Márquez had been chosen by the FARC political party to take up one of the ten congressional seats -- five in the house of representatives and five in the Senate -- reserved to demobilized guerrilla fighters, as agreed under the 2016 peace accords.

Márquez's decision to steer clear of public office came after the arrest on drug trafficking charges of former FARC commander Seuxis Paucis Hernández Solarte, who also still uses his nom de guerre “Jesús Santrich."

“How can I try and become a senator when they’ll come and accuse me of being a drug trafficker,” Márquez argued, in line with previous claims that the case against Santrich is a political set up meant to bar him from public office.

Colombia's Attorney General Néstor Humberto Martínez said that no other former FARC member apart from Santrich was in the authorities’ crosshairs. Still, Márquez may feel additional pressure from the arrest of his nephew, Marlon Marín, who has been accused of participating in Santrich’s alleged drug scheme, reported Semana.

As Márquez made his decision public, the FARC party heavyweight was carrying out implementation work for the peace accords in a so-called concentration zone in Miravalle, in eastern Colombia, where former guerrilla fighters have been grouped during the demobilization process.

Earlier this week, Márquez announced that Hernán Darío Velásquez, alias “El Paisa,” formerly the head of one of the FARC guerrilla’s most powerful military wings, left the Miravalle concentration zone in protest of Santrich’s arrest.

While blaming the government for the lack of implementation of the peace accords, Márquez insisted that El Paisa remained involved in the peace process.

“[El Paisa] isn’t thinking about war, he’s not thinking about the dissidence, he’s thinking that they [should] release Santrich and that they [should] come with resources to finance the productive projects, because those [funds] are yet to arrive …. Here [in the concentration zone], not a single peso has arrived,” Márquez said.

InSight Crime Analysis

Santrich’s capture and the US extradition request that hangs over him threaten a peace agreement already weakened by allegations of corruption and flawed implementation.

The Santrich case has split the FARC leadership. Heavyweights such as Márquez and El Paisa are calling for Santrich's release from prison. However, Rodrigo Londoño, the FARC's top leader who goes by the nom de guerre “Timochenko,” has tried to ease tensions and preserve the accords.

SEE ALSO: Coverage of FARC peace

In the meantime, it is uncertain what will become of Santrich's and Márquez's senatorial seats. The National Electoral Council (Consejo Nacional Electoral) is navigating in unchartered waters.

Even if the FARC retain both seats, the party’s rift may tear it apart for good, and the consequences for Colombia’s criminal landscape could be dire.

Despite Márquez’s assurances that El Paisa remains attached to the peace process after having left the concentration zone, he may lose the benefits that came with the accord.

That would accelerate his drift towards ex-FARC mafia, who may be eagerly waiting to feed on the FARC’s steady disintegration.

* Angela Olaya contributed to reporting for this article.

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

COLOMBIA / 13 SEP 2022

President Petro's Total Peace Plan offers high reward but carries equally high risk for criminal groups and for all of…

COLOMBIA / 3 OCT 2022

Colombian rebels had long been welcome in Venezuela but now, they have arrived in force, bringing conflict with them.

BRAZIL / 8 AUG 2023

The tri-border where Colombia, Brazil, and Venezuela meet has long served as a transit corridor for cocaine.

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Rights Watch Draws on InSight Crime's Haiti Coverage

18 AUG 2023

Non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch relied on InSight Crime's coverage this week, citing six articles and one of our criminal profiles in its latest report on the humanitarian…