Central General Staff – FARC Dissidents

The Central General Staff (Estado Mayor Central – EMC) is a federation of dissident fronts of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia – FARC) that decided not to embrace the peace process signed in 2016 between that guerrilla group and the Colombian government.  

The EMC has significant armed power that allows it to maintain control of different criminal economies across the country. Depending on the region and the associated front, revenues vary, but its criminal portfolio is mainly based on drug trafficking revenues in the south of the country, illegal mining, and extortion.

Since its creation, it has expanded throughout Colombia and Venezuela. 

What is the EMC’s History?

The EMC was born in the midst of peace negotiations in Havana, Cuba, between the Colombian government and the FARC in 2016. Through a communiqué issued that year, the First Front “Armando Ríos” announced that it would continue underground. The leader of the First Front, Néstor Gregorio Vera Fernández, alias “Iván Mordisco,” had at least 400 members under his command and control of drug trafficking routes in the Colombian departments of Guaviare, Guainía, and Vaupés.

In response to Mordisco’s defection, FARC commander Rodrigo Londoño Echeverri, alias “Timochenko,” and other commanders decided to send Miguel Botache Santillana, alias “Gentil Duarte,” a guerrilla with more than 30 years of experience and great political leadership, to Colombia to reestablish discipline in the First Front.  

However, Gentil Duarte also betrayed the peace talks and left the process with $1.35 million and several members of the Seventh Front who joined the Mordisco structure.  

Already in hiding, Mordisco and Duarte sent emissaries to different regions of Colombia to convince other commanders to join their dissident project. The strategy was effective. In April 2017, the faction issued a communiqué signed by nine dissident fronts, a mobile column, and seven urban militias in which they claimed to be the continuation of the FARC.

In the years following its creation, the EMC began a process of expansion into Venezuela. Thanks to the support of fronts with a historical presence in that country, such as the 10th and part of the 33rd fronts, the EMC consolidated its presence on the Colombia-Venezuela border.  

The EMC enjoyed its power on the border until 2019, when Luciano Marin Arango, alias “Ivan Marquez,” the FARC’s second-in-command, announced the creation of the Second Marquetalia, another group composed of former FARC fighters, which also proclaimed itself the successor to the guerrilla project.  

The Second Marquetalia tried to incorporate into its structure different fronts that were part of the EMC network. However, the EMC labeled them as traitors, and they became enemies. The rivalry between both FARC dissidents was evident in the border territory between Apure, Venezuela, and Arauca, Colombia.

The disputes between the two structures, in addition to pressure from the security forces in Colombia and Venezuela, also resulted in the death of several of the EMC’s most important commanders, among them Gentil Duarte, and caused the withdrawal of its members to Colombia.

When Gustavo Petro assumed the presidency in 2022, the EMC began peace talks with the government under the “Total Peace” policy. However, those negotiations saw more obstacles than progress. In 2024, after an attack carried out by a faction of the group that killed an Indigenous leader in the western part of the country, the government suspended the ceasefire it had maintained with the dissidents.

The EMC fractured internally after this. One faction, led by Iván Mordisco, abandoned the peace process, while a smaller group led by commander Alexander Díaz, alias “Calarcá Córdoba,” continued negotiations under the State Command of the Blocs and Front (Estado Mayor de los Bloques y Frente – EMBF).

Who Are the EMC’s Leaders?

Nestor Gregorio Vera Fernandez, alias “Ivan Mordisco,” has been the leader of the EMC since 2022. Until 2016, he was the commander of the FARC’s First Front. Today, thanks to more than 20 years of experience in the guerrilla, he is one of the main criminal actors in southern Colombia. 

The Amazonas Bloc, the Central Isaías Pardo Bloc, the Eastern Joint Command, and the Western Jacobo Arenas Bloc all abandoned peace talks with the Colombian government in 2024 and operate under his leadership. Together, they make up 21 fronts or substructures.

The second-in-command is Ebimelec Eregua Torres, alias “Alonso 45” or “Alonso 40,” the top commander of the Carolina Ramírez Front of the Amazonas Bloc, which operates in the departments of Putumayo and Caquetá.

Another key figure is Iván Jacobo Arredondo, alias “Marlon Vásquez,” former commander of the Jaime Martínez Front of the Western Coordinating Command, a structure that brought together the fronts operating in the departments of Nariño, Cauca, and Valle del Cauca. He is currently part of the Central Isaías Pardo Bloc.

Until 2024, the EMC’s second-most influential commander was Calarcá Córdoba, a former commander of the FARC’s 40th Front. Calarcá Córdoba led an internal split within the EMC and formed the EMBF together with Javier Alfonso Velosa, alias “Jhon Mechas,” commander of the 33rd Front, and Carlos Eduardo García Téllez, alias “Andrey Avendaño.”

Where Does the EMC Operate?

The dissident factions that respond to the EMC have a presence in the south, east, and west of Colombia. The main strongholds of this dissident group are the departments of Guaviare, Meta, Caquetá, Vaupés, and Guainía. From there, the structure has expanded to Amazonas, on the border with Brazil and Peru; Putumayo, on the border with Ecuador; as well as Casanare, Arauca, and Norte de Santander, on the border with Venezuela.

The EMC also has a presence in the departments of Cauca, Valle del Cauca, and Nariño, in the west of the country along the Pacific coast.  

Colombia’s Ombudsman Office has also reported the EMC’s presence in several municipalities in the departments of Chocó and Antioquia. However, constant military operations targeting the EMC, primiarily in Antioquia, have made it difficult for the EMC to expand further.

Still, thanks to the presence they have established in the Colombian departments that share a border with Venezuela, the EMC’s territorial influence has also expanded into that country, especially in the states of Apure and Zulia. However, following disputes with the ELN in that area, it is unclear whether they still maintain a presence in the region.

Who Are the EMC’s Allies and Enemies?

One of the EMC’s main rival is the National Liberation Army (Ejército de Liberación Nacional –ELN). Although the EMC has reached agreements with the guerrillas in some parts of the country, such as southern Bolívar, these pacts are unstable. The ELN confronted the 10th Front in Arauca and Apure and the 33rd Front in Norte de Santander, Colombia.

Another enemy of the EMC is the Second Marquetalia and allied dissident structures. In Putumayo and Caqueta, in southern Colombia, the Carolina Ramirez Front, under the umbrella of the EMC, is fighting the Border Command (Comandos de la Frontera), which is allied with the Second Marquetalia, for control of one of the most important drug trafficking enclaves in the country.   

Since its internal split in 2024, the EMC has battled another dissident faction led by Calarcá Córdoba in territories such as Guaviare and Caquetá.

The EMC has also fought with the Gaitanist Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (Autodefensas Gaitanistas de Colombia –AGC), also known as the Gaitanistas or the Gulf Clan, in areas including southern Bolívar, southern Córdoba, and Bajo Cauca in Antioquia. However, it is believed that both groups maintain an alliance in Chocó to push back against the ELN’s operations in the area.

On the other hand, before his death, Gentil Duarte established alliances with Brazilian and Mexican criminal groups to supply them with cocaine.

What is the EMC’s Outlook?

Despite multiple internal splits, the EMC remains the dissident faction of the now-defunct FARC with the largest territorial reach, the most fighters, and the broadest control over a wide range of criminal economies.

Although the EMC initially joined Petro’s “Total Peace” policy, only a handful of its fronts remained at the negotiating table after the group fractured in 2024. The formal withdrawal of most of the EMC marked a decisive blow to the possibility of disarmament and demobilization under this administration.

The organization’s fragmentation recently has led to a process of criminal atomization across different regions of the country. This splintering has fueled rising levels of violence and clashes between rival factions over control of strategic territories tied to drug trafficking, illegal mining, and other criminal economies in Guaviare, Huila, Putumayo, Caquetá, Amazonas, Meta, and Cauca.

After the EMC left peace talks with the government in 2024 as part of the “Total Peace” plan, the group and its primary leader, Iván Mordisco, became the main target of Colombian security forces.

However, the fragmented nature of the EMC, as well as its deep-seated social and territorial control in various communities, will likely allow the group to withstand the capture or killing of its top leader.