Colombian President Alvaro Uribe announced that his country’s authorities know the whereabouts of notorious FARC commander Luciano Marin Arango, alias “Ivan Marquez,” following a massive military operation in which twelve guerrillas were killed and six captured.
Speaking publicly, the president revealed that Colombian air and naval forces collaborated to mount an attack in the Montes de Maria region on the Atlantic Coast in the early hours of Tuesday morning
Among those killed were two lieutenants described as “terrorism ambassadors” for Ivan Marquez; an insurgent known as “Ciro,” and Jaime Manuel Lara Hernandez, alias “Canaguaro.”
Speaking publicly, Uribe said “We know where ‘Ivan Marquez’ is”
“An operation was undertaken to defeat the paramilitaries and the guerrillas in the Montes de Maria … however, some managed to escape.”
“‘Canaguaro’ and another bandit known as ‘Ciro’ were sent by ‘Ivan Marquez’ – one of the chief drug traffickers and terrorists involved in the [FARC occupation] of Montes de Maria. We know the whereabouts of this bandit Ivan Marquez.”
The president warned Ivan Marquez that the Colombian government is “not as naïve as he thinks.”
Marquez, a 55-year-old former Patriotic Union MP, joined the FARC in 1985, and is a member of its secretariat. His name is linked to failed attempts on the president’s life in April 2002. In May, new intelligence came to light on the rebel’s whereabouts in the jungle region between the Venezuelan and Colombian borders.
