Iván Márquez
Márquez in 2016
Birth nameLuciano Marín Arango
Nickname(s)Iván Márquez
Born (1955-06-16) 16 June 1955
Florencia, Colombia
Allegiance FARC (until 2016)
FARC dissidents (from 2016)
Years of service1985–present
Battles/warsColombian conflict

Luciano Marín Arango (born 16 June 1955), better known as Iván Márquez, is a Colombian guerrilla leader, member of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), part of its secretariat higher command and advisor to the Northwestern and Caribbean blocs. He was part of the FARC negotiators that concluded a peace agreement with President Juan Manuel Santos.[1] On 29 August 2019, Márquez abandoned the peace process and announced a renewed armed conflict with the Colombian government.[2]

Early years

Marín Arango was born in Florencia in 1955.[3] He joined the Colombian Communist Party's youth wing in 1977. Between 1977 and 1979 Marín Arango (Marquez) was a teacher in biology at the school 'Corazón Inmaculado de María' in El Doncello, Caqueta.[4] He was described as a calm disciplined teacher and requested from his students to talk for 15 minutes on the current problems of Colombia.[4] Sometimes he also presented the students with books from Friedrich Engels, Karl Marx or Mao Tse-Tung and handouts on left wing politics.[4] He would also organize reunions where Marxist ideologies were discussed.[4] He would later move on to Cartagena de Chaira and onwards to Florencia in Caqueta.[4] In Florencia he was elected a member of the municipal council.[3]

Patriotic Union career

As a result of peace talks with the Colombian government, Marín Arango became part of the leftist Patriotic Union (UP) party, coordinating the UP's activities in department of Caquetá. Marín Arango first served as councilman and then as congressman in the Colombian Congress representing Caquetá.[5] In 1986 he became a member of the Colombian Parliament for UP, but in October 1987 he left Bogota and went to Casa Verde in La Uribe on orders from the FARC leader Jacobo Arenas.[6] According to El Tiempo, the presidential candidate of the UP Jaime Pardo Leal was murdered the same day, Márquez left Bogota.[6]

The UP party was subjected to persecution by different paramilitary groups, drug lords and death squads that saw the party as a threat as the political branch of the FARC.[7]

FARC membership

Luciano Marín Arango, adopting the alias "Iván Márquez", became a political commissar for FARC's 14th Front in 1985.[8]

FARC commander

By 1988, Márquez had left the UP and returned to FARC as bloc commander, overseeing activities in the departments of Huila, Caquetá and Putumayo.[8] By the end of the 1980s, he was a member of the secretariat of the FARC.[3]

After the 1990 death of Arenas, Márquez joined the secretariat, the highest command of the organization. During the mid-1990s, he was transferred to Colombia's northwest in order to reorganize FARC forces after paramilitary attacks.[8]

In 2008 documents obtained from the computer of slain FARC chieftain Iván Ríos revealed that Márquez also led FARC's efforts to raise support in universities and high schools though "the creation of two student federations, some academics and other secondary officials, and by the infiltration of already existing university movements" [Colombian DAS intelligence director María del Pilar] Hurtado told Spanish news agency EFE.[9]

FARC negotiator

Márquez was a FARC negotiator during the 1999–2002 failed peace process between the FARC and the government of Andrés Pastrana.

Humanitarian exchange

In November 2007 Márquez was sent to Venezuela to meet with President Hugo Chávez. At the time, Chávez was mediating between the government of Colombia and the FARC to agree on a deal to liberate the hostages held by the FARC and the liberation of some 500 guerrillas imprisoned by the government of Colombia, after years of combat in the Colombian armed conflict.[10]

Peace agreement

Since 2012, Márquez took part in peace negotiations with the Government of Juan Manuel Santos in Havana, Cuba.[11] In August 2016 he signed a peace agreement with the Colombian Government on behalf of the FARC.[1] The Colombian negotiator was Humberto de la Calle.[1][11] The peace agreement was announced in a ceremony in Cuba.[1] The agreement would have provided him with a seat in the Colombian Senate[12] but he eventually did not run in the elections.[13]

Leader of the Segunda Marquetalia

Márquez took up arms anew after his nephew was arrested and extradited to the United States.[14] In 2019, he eventually appeared as the leader of the Segunda Marquetalia, a group of FARC dissidents.[12] The group had about 1000 active members.[15] On 30 June 2022, an attack on Márquez life was made by a group suspected to be of the 'Gentil Duarte' front of the FARC dissidents.[16] Márquez was accompagnied by a security detail of about twenty militia members at the time of the attack in Caicara del Orinoco in Venezuela.[16] According to El País, Márquez shall have lost an arm during the attack.[12]

U.S. State Department allegations and bounty

According to the U.S. Department of State, Márquez oversaw loading of planes carrying 600–1200 kilograms of cocaine and the receipt of money and automatic weapons as payment. The State Department also alleged that Márquez established the FARC's policies for directing and controlling the production, manufacture, and distribution of hundreds of tons of cocaine to the United States and the world ; the "taxation" of the drug trade in Colombia to raise funds for the FARC. The U.S. Department of State is offering a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to his arrest and/or conviction[17]

Reports of death

Iván Márquez was reported dead in July 2022, by the Government of Iván Duque after an assassination attempt by a group of mercenaries in Venezuela.[12] A few days later the Segunda Marquetalia announced that Márquez was not dead but in a hospital.[12] It was reported that Márquez died on 6 July 2023 in a hospital in Caracas, Venezuela, where he was receiving medical treatment for injuries he received in an assassination attempt in June 2022.[18] However, in August 2023, Marquez denied reports of his death in an audio recording.[19][20][21]

Personal life

In the 1990s his mother and sister were abducted by colombian paramilitary forces, but were eventually released.[3] His nephew Marlon Marín became a witness to the US prosecution in an investigation on drug trafficking against the FARC leader Jesús Santrich.[22]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Colombians celebrate as peace deal is reached with Farc rebels". BBC News. 2016-08-24. Retrieved 2023-07-08.
  2. ↑ ""Más del 90 por ciento de los ex guerrilleros de las FARC siguen comprometidos con el proceso de paz"". El Mundo (in Spanish). 2019-08-29. Retrieved 2019-09-02.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "'Iván Márquez', el hombre que le falló dos veces a la paz de Colombia". El Tiempo (in Spanish). 2019-08-31. Retrieved 2023-07-08.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Jimenez Herrera, Juan Sebastian (2016-06-08). "Cuando 'Iván Márquez' era profesor en Caquetá". El Espectador (in Spanish). Retrieved 2023-07-08.
  5. ↑ Tiempo, Casa Editorial El (2007-11-11). "Ex ministro de Chávez, cerebro de la visita de las Farc a Caracas". El Tiempo (in Spanish). Retrieved 2023-07-08.
  6. 1 2 "Después de 30 años, 'Iván Márquez' volverá a ser congresista". El Tiempo (in Spanish). 2018-03-09. Retrieved 2023-07-08.
  7. ↑ (in Spanish) El Tiempo: Ex ministro de Chávez, cerebro de la visita de las Farc a Caracas
  8. 1 2 3 (in Spanish) ¿Quién es Iván Márquez?, delegado de las Farc ante el presidente Chávez
  9. ↑ "Las Farc le dicen a Chávez que sin un despeje militar en Colombia es imposible avanzar en el intercambio humanitario". Colombia Reports. September 17, 2008. Archived from the original on September 21, 2008. Retrieved 2008-09-17.
  10. ↑ "Las Farc le dicen a Chávez que sin un despeje militar en Colombia es imposible avanzar en el intercambio humanitario" (in Spanish). Semana.com. November 8, 2007. Archived from the original on April 30, 2008. Retrieved 2007-11-14.
  11. 1 2 "El arranque del proceso de paz en vivo". BBC News Mundo (in Spanish). 2012-10-18. Retrieved 2023-07-08.
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 Quesada, Juan Diego (2023-07-07). "El Gobierno de Colombia trata de confirmar la muerte de Iván Márquez, el histórico guerrillero". El País América Colombia (in Spanish). Retrieved 2023-07-08.
  13. ↑ "¿Por qué Iván Márquez no se posesionará como senador en Colombia? Estas son sus razones "insalvables"". CNN (in Spanish). 2018-07-17. Retrieved 2023-07-08.
  14. ↑ "Top FARC dissident leader Ivan Marquez dead -sources". SWI swissinfo.ch. 2023-07-07. Retrieved 2023-07-08.
  15. ↑ "Este es 'Zarco Aldinever', el narco que remplazaría a 'Iván Márquez' en 'Marquetalia'". El Tiempo (in Spanish). 2023-07-06. Retrieved 2023-07-08.
  16. 1 2 "Colombia to confirm death of FARC dissident Iván Márquez". The City Paper Bogotá. 2023-07-07. Retrieved 2023-07-08.
  17. ↑ "Luciano Marín Arango". Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs-Narcotics Rewards Program. U.S. Department of State. Retrieved 2007-11-14.
  18. ↑ Acosta, Luis Jaime (2023-07-07). "Top FARC dissident leader Ivan Marquez dead -sources". Swissinfo. Retrieved 2023-07-08.
  19. ↑ https://caracol.com.co/2023/08/02/ivan-marquez-esta-vivo-asi-lo-confirma-un-audio-en-poder-de-caracol-radio/
  20. ↑ https://www.eltiempo.com/justicia/conflicto-y-narcotrafico/canciller-alvaro-leyva-dice-que-ivan-marquez-esta-vivo-792765
  21. ↑ https://colombiareports.com/audio-would-prove-guerrilla-leader-did-not-die-as-reported/
  22. ↑ "Truth Commission details major questions over case against peace negotiator Jesús Santrich". justice for colombia. 2022-11-18. Retrieved 2023-07-08.
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