Members of guerrilla group “Segunda Marquetalia” said that one of Colombia’s most wanted FARC dissidents, “Ivan Marquez,” survived an assassination attempt.
In a video message that was sent to weekly Cambio, an unidentified spokesman of the guerrillas said that Marquez survived an assassination attempt on June 30.
President Ivan Duque’s suggested last week that the rearmed former political chief of now-defunct guerrilla group FARC had been killed in Venezuela.
Colombia suggests top guerrilla leader killed in Venezuela
Marquez, who rearmed and founded the Segunda Marquetalia in 2019, did not appear in the video.
According to the guerrilla spokesman, the attack on the guerrilla chief was ordered “from the military barracks and the police commands” with the help of American government agencies.
Segunda Marquetalia
Segunda Marquetalia did confirm previous government claims about the death of Oscar Montero, a.k.a. “El Paisa,” another founding member of the guerrilla group.
El Paisa was allegedly killed in an attack by a rival group in Venezuela in December last year.
Colombia claims 2 guerrilla chiefs killed in Venezuela
Marquez and his group have been at war with the “Southeastern Bloc,” a guerrilla group that refused to take part in a peace process with the FARC in 2016.
Both groups have been vying for control over rural regions that used to be controlled by the FARC until the group’s demobilization and disarmament in 2017.
The Colombian government has claimed that this war cost the lives of multiple FARC dissident leaders, which is denied by Segunda Marquetalia and the Southeastern Bloc.
The guerrillas have consistently claimed that the Colombian military is behind the killing of their leaders in alliance with their rivals.