Colombia’s largest rebel group FARC said Monday they executed one of their
commanders. The rebels say the commander had deserted and was in army
custody.
According to a press release on the rebels’ website, Julio Alexander ‘Olvani’ Marean Ortiz was executed in the town of Puerto Asis in the morning of May 3 by a special guerrilla commando of the guerrillas’ 48th front. The FARC say ‘Olvani’ was under permanent protection of the army and killed “under their noses.”
“The enemy guarded him as a relic and valued him as a treasure,” the guerrillas said.
‘Olvani’ was in charge of the security of ‘Raul Reyes’, the FARC commander who was killed by the Colombian army while in a rebel camp over the Ecuadorean border.
Neither the desertion nor assassination were confirmed by the Colombian army.