Fri, July 15, 2022
Colombian forces have killed FARC dissident leader Nestor Vera and nine other rebels in a raid in the country's southwest, the defense minister said on Friday.
The operation "allowed us to neutralize nine individuals on the FARC dissident frontline as well as... Ivan Mordisco," minister Diego Molano told reporters, using Vera's nom de guerre.
"The last major leader of the FARC has fallen," Molano added, and described this as the "final blow" to the renegade movement.
Hundreds of dissidents of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, have continued fighting after their comrades lay down arms under a 2016 peace accord that ended more than half a century of armed conflict.
Vera, one of Colombia's most wanted men, recently took command of a group of some 2,000 dissidents, the so-called Armando Rios front, after the presumed death of leader "Gentil Duarte" in fighting with a drug gang in neighboring Venezuela in May, according to Colombian intelligence.
A reward of $700,000 had been on offer for information on Vera's whereabouts.
Some 500 soldiers were deployed in the Colombian jungle several weeks ago on a mission to find Vera, according to General Luis Fernando Navarro.
Vera and his comrades were ultimately killed in an air force-led operation on July 8.
- 'Fundamental blow' -
Just months before the 2016 agreement was signed, Vera became the first FARC leader to renounce the peace process with several of his subordinates.
Despite the agreement, Colombia has seen a flare-up of violence due to fighting over territory and resources among the dissidents, the hold-out ELN rebel group, paramilitary forces and drug cartels.
The government says Vera and his men were engaged in a fierce dispute over drug trafficking routes with another dissident faction called Segunda Marquetalia, led by former FARC chief Ivan Marquez.
Marquez had signed the 2016 peace pact only to take up arms again, in 2019.
Bogota says Marquez was injured in a recent attack in Venezuela, and is hospitalized there, though Caracas said this was mere speculation.
"Today in Colombia there are none of the leaders, the big capos of the former FARC... it is a fundamental blow to the plans they had for regeneration," said the defense minister, Molano.
With no unified command, FARC dissident fighters are thought to number some 5,200 scattered around the country, according to the Indepaz monitoring group.
They are financed mainly by drug trafficking and illegal mining.
The majority are new recruits who were never FARC members, according to Indepaz.
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Dissident FARC leader killed in military raid in Colombia, defence ministry says
Issued on: 15/07/2022 -
Text by:NEWS WIRES
Nestor Gregorio Vera, who commanded a group of former Colombian rebels who rejected a peace deal and was best known by his alias Ivan Mordisco, died in an armed forces bombing this week, Defense Minister Diego Molano said on Friday.
Mordisco was killed along with nine other fighters last weekend in a jungle area of southwestern Caqueta province, Molano told journalists.
Mordisco's death is the latest in a series of killings of ex-FARC leaders who rejected a 2016 peace deal with the government and instead formed two dissident factions which officials say are involved in drug trafficking and illegal mining.
"The operation had as an objective the neutralization of one of the top commanders of the FARC dissidents who never entered the Havana (peace) accord and whose criminal trajectory of more than 30 years in the south of the country was a scourge of that region," Molano said.
Mordisco was the last great FARC leader, Molano said, and his death is a final stab at the dissidents. Molano said Mordisco had been planning to expand his faction.
According to security sources, Mordisco replaced Gentil Duarte as the leader of their so-called FARC-EP dissident faction after the latter was killed at the end of May in Venezuela, the site of all other recent deaths of dissident commanders.
The FARC-EP faction and its rival the Segunda Marquetalia compete against each other and other armed groups for control of criminal activities in Colombia and Venezuela.
Segunda Marquetalia commander Ivan Marquez, who was a negotiator at peace talks before rejecting the accord, survived a recent attack in Venezuela, according to Colombia's armed forces.
Dissident leaders Jesus Santrich, Romana and El Paisa have also been killed recently in Venezuela.
The Colombian government accuses Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro of sheltering Colombian armed groups, which Maduro has vehemently denied.
Issued on: 15/07/2022 -
Text by:NEWS WIRES
Nestor Gregorio Vera, who commanded a group of former Colombian rebels who rejected a peace deal and was best known by his alias Ivan Mordisco, died in an armed forces bombing this week, Defense Minister Diego Molano said on Friday.
Mordisco was killed along with nine other fighters last weekend in a jungle area of southwestern Caqueta province, Molano told journalists.
Mordisco's death is the latest in a series of killings of ex-FARC leaders who rejected a 2016 peace deal with the government and instead formed two dissident factions which officials say are involved in drug trafficking and illegal mining.
"The operation had as an objective the neutralization of one of the top commanders of the FARC dissidents who never entered the Havana (peace) accord and whose criminal trajectory of more than 30 years in the south of the country was a scourge of that region," Molano said.
Mordisco was the last great FARC leader, Molano said, and his death is a final stab at the dissidents. Molano said Mordisco had been planning to expand his faction.
According to security sources, Mordisco replaced Gentil Duarte as the leader of their so-called FARC-EP dissident faction after the latter was killed at the end of May in Venezuela, the site of all other recent deaths of dissident commanders.
The FARC-EP faction and its rival the Segunda Marquetalia compete against each other and other armed groups for control of criminal activities in Colombia and Venezuela.
Segunda Marquetalia commander Ivan Marquez, who was a negotiator at peace talks before rejecting the accord, survived a recent attack in Venezuela, according to Colombia's armed forces.
Dissident leaders Jesus Santrich, Romana and El Paisa have also been killed recently in Venezuela.
The Colombian government accuses Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro of sheltering Colombian armed groups, which Maduro has vehemently denied.
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