A document signed by Luciano Marín, alias ‘Iván Márquez’, head of the Segunda Marquetalia, published on Monday on a website of the dissidents of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), once again raised doubts about whether the guerrilla leader died in Venezuela earlier this month, as some media reported.
The text, titled ‘Ideas for a continental vision’ and dated the same Monday, he talks about international issues, independence, some local governments, the region and even Simón Bolívar. He also mentions Hugo Chávez and criticizes US policies, but never talks about his state of health.
“240 years after the birth of the liberator Simón Bolívar, as a tribute to the hero who in this hemisphere and in other latitudes fight for human dignity and respect for the free self-determination of peoples, we share these lines on continental unity and the Bolivarian geopolitical strategy,” reads the text.
So far, no official source has confirmed the death of Márquez, after on July 6, the news CM& He assured that he had died as a result of injuries suffered in an attack in Venezuela last year. For its part, the agency Reuters then assured that death had been confirmed by a military intelligence source and another close to the group.
“The information that is handled within the organization is that he died in a hospital in Caracas, where he was receiving medical attention after the serious injuries he suffered in an attack in Venezuela at the end of June 2022,” a source close to Segunda Marquetalia told the agency.
At that time, the Colombian government indicated that the military authorities were verifying the information about the death.
In September of last year, the Colombian government confirmed that Márquez was alive, but “sick, convalescing.”
Iván Márquez joined the extinct FARC, more than 40 years ago. In 2008, he replaced one of the top leaders, Raúl Reyes, after he was killed during a bombing in his camp, by the Public Force. USA offered a reward of up to 10 million dollars for his whereabouts.
Márquez was one of the guerrillas who defected from the Peace Agreement, signed in Havana, Cuba, in 2016, and resumed armed life, through the Second Marquetalia. In 2018, he took refuge in Venezuela, resigning from his seat in Congress, a right that the peace agreement had granted him.
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