The guerrillas accused the “Colombian State together with the Embassy of the United States” of having “cowardly assassinated while he slept in his bed” their top commander
“Gentil Duarte”
The FARC dissidents confirmed the death of alias “Gentil Duarte”, one of their top leaders, who took up the arms after the signing of the peace agreement and which, according to the authorities said last week, fell in a confrontation with another group of former guerrillas in a Venezuelan border state.
Miguel Botache Santanilla, known as “Gentil Duarte”, was a seasoned guerrilla who became a powerful leader of the FARC dissidents, after being the first commander of the former guerrilla who, after demobilizing, failed to fulfill his commitments and took up arms again.
Through a propaganda spread by the Central General Staff of the dissidents, the guerrillas accused the “Colombian State together with the Embassy of the United States” of having “cowardly murdered while he slept in his bed” to its top commander.
According to the dissidents, the events occurred on May 4 at 1:30 am in a place that they did not specify.
The information, whose authenticity has not been confirmed, adds that in this case “the intimidation and kidnapping of the relatives of a female guerrilla was used to make her betray her his people” and placed “an explosive charge” where “Gentil Duarte slept.”, which was activated while she was sleeping with her partner.
“We recognize that it is a severe blow to the guerrilla movement not only of the FARC-EP but of all the guerrillas to national and international level”, they indicated in the pamphlet.
Miguel Botache Santanilla, known as “Gentil Duarte”, was a seasoned guerrilla fighter who became a powerful leader of the FARC dissidence
Colombian authorities advanced the news last week after receiving information from intelligence that revealed the death of the leader of one of the largest FARC dissidents in the border state of Zulia, in Venezuela.
According to the Colombian government, the heads of the FARC dissidents and the National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrillas are taking refuge in Venezuela.
The Minister of Defense Colombian, Diego Molano, attributed the death of “Gentil Duarte” last week to the clashes that FARC dissidents maintain to gain control of the lucrative drug trafficking chain, which starts with coca crops and ends when drug shipments reach international destinations or are bought by drug cartels, mainly Mexicans.
In this sense, Molano assured that the guerrilla died due to “a confrontation between themselves, between those drug-trafficking and terrorist groups.”.
The information from the authorities indicated that it would be a confrontation between the 33rd Front, led by Alonso Veloza García, alias “John Mechas”, which sheltered “Gentil Duarte”, and the “Second Marquetalia”, commanded by Luciano Marín, alias Iván Márquez, the other large dissident group that left the peace agreement signed in November 2016.
CRIMINAL RECORD
According to information from the organized crime investigation center InSight Crime, Gentil Duarte joined the FARC in the 14th Front, from where he “began his criminal career” of more than 30 years. Due to his closeness to the then bosses “Alfonso Cano” and “Mono Jojoy”, Duarte was part of the General Staff of the Eastern Bloc of the FARC in 2009.
In 2015 he became a member of the Central General Staff of the FARC and was at the X guerrilla conference in 2016, where he supported the peace process.
After that conference he became the first dissident guerrilla chief of the peace process, which had allowed him to accumulate enough power to be the main leader of the groups that decided to take up arms again.
(With information of EFE)