FARC takes up arms anew

TV GRAB on Thursday shows former senior commander of the dissolved FARC rebel army group in Colombia, Ivan Marquez (left) and fugitive rebel colleague Jesus Santrich announcing that they are taking up arms again along with other guerrillas who have distanced themselves from a peace accord signed with the government in 2016. AFP

BOGOTA, Colombia (AFP) — A former senior commander of the dissolved FARC rebel army in Colombia announced Thursday he is taking up arms again along with other guerrillas who have distanced themselves from a historic peace accord signed with the government.

Marquez accused the government of betraying the hard fought accord under which most of the FARC’s 7,000 fighters had laid down their weapons after half a century of armed conflict

“We are announcing to the world that the second Marquetalia has begun,” Ivan Marquez, dressed in green military fatigues, said in a video posted on YouTube, referring to a rural enclave considered a birthplace of the FARC in the 1960s.

Colombia’s conservative President Ivan Duque responded by saying he would send a special army unit to hunt down Marquez and other holdouts, who he said were backed by Venezuela’s socialist President Nicolas Maduro.

Marquez accused the government of betraying the hard fought accord under which most of the FARC’s 7,000 fighters had laid down their weapons after half a century of armed conflict.

The whereabouts of Marquez, the Marxist FARC’s number two leader and chief negotiator of the 2016 peace agreement, had been unknown for more than a year.

“It’s a very worrying announcement,” the Colombian government’s peace commissioner Miguel Ceballos said.

“There is no surprise for the national government. Unfortunately, these people had already made clear, by their behavior, that they turned their backs on the peace accord,” Ceballos told Colombia’s Blu Radio.

In the 32-minute video, Marquez appears in the Colombian jungle flanked by 17 men and women holding rifles. Behind them is a yellow FARC banner.

Marquez said the government had cheated in the implementation of the accord, unilaterally changed its wording and failed to provide legal guarantees for former fighters, among other offenses.