The Colombian Defense Minister has called on FARC commander and current peace delegate “Fabian Ramirez” to expose “the reality of drug trafficking” conducted by the country’s largest rebel armed group, local media reported on Tuesday.
Five days after commander Jose Benito Cabrera, alias “Fabian Ramirez” — second-in-command of the FARC’s Southern Bloc — joined the rebel groups’ peace delegation in Cuba, Defense Minister Juan Carlos Pinzon stated that the commander needs release information of the FARC’s drug trafficking operations at the negotiating table during current discussions with the government.
In his first statement on the arrival of Ramirez to negotiations between the Colombian government and the rebel group, Pinzon stated that the commander “must tell, in Havana, the reality of the FARC’s drug trafficking,” El Tiempo newspaper reported.
Ramirez’s South Bloc is known to be one of the strongest, most politically dedicated, and most related to drug trafficking of the FARC blocs.
The FARC announced on Monday that the recent round of peace talks, which began in late February, would continue through Colombia’s upcoming Congressional elections on March 9.
MORE: Commander of the FARC’s Southern Bloc joins Colombia peace talks
MORE: Colombia peace talks to continue through congressional elections
Besides being one of the guerrilla group’s most involved in the drug trade, Ramirez is also charged with numerous crimes, including leading attacks on government troops and communities in the plains in the country’s eastern provinces, El Espectador newspaper reported.
The commander was one of the participants in the failed peace talks that the administration of former President Andres Pastrana conducted with the FARC at a demilitarized zone in the country’s south.
MORE: Fabian Ramirez Profile