BOGOTA, Colombia — A rebel leader who deserted the 2016 peace treaty with Colombia’s federal government and had actually been at big for 3 years was eliminated by Colombian soldiers in Venezuela, his brand-new armed group stated Tuesday.
Seuxis Hernandez — understood more typically by his nom de guerre of Jesús Santrich — was among the chief arbitrators for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia in peace talks with the Colombian federal government. But he quit on the peace offer less than 2 years following its finalizing after he was arraigned in the U.S. for supposed drug trafficking.
In a declaration published on its site, Santrich’s brand-new rebel group, the Second Marquetalia Movement, stated the 53-year-old insurgent was eliminated Monday by a Colombian task force system that unlawfully got in Venezuelan area.
The group stated Santrich was riding in a lorry in the western Venezuelan state of Zulia when he was assaulted with grenades and shooting by Colombian soldiers. The soldiers cut off Santrich’s pinky finger prior to going back to Colombia in a yellow helicopter, the declaration stated.
Colombia’s federal government did not instantly discuss the group’s claim, which would make up a significant breach of Venezuela’s sovereignty and increase stress with President Nicolas Maduro’s socialist federal government. There likewise was no remark from the Venezuelan federal government.
Earlier Tuesday, Colombia’s defense minister stated the federal government was attempting to validate reports that Santrich had actually been eliminated in a fight in between rebel groups running in Venezuela.
Several other variations of Santrich’s death were released by Colombian media, consisting of one account that stated he was eliminated by mercenaries who wished to record him and declare a $10 million benefit used by the U.S. State Department in 2015.
Santrich belonged to leftist youth groups in Colombia and got in the FARC in the early 1990s, after among his fellow trainee leaders was eliminated by a Colombian policeman in the city of Barranquilla. Santrich was going blind from a hereditary condition by the time the rebel group started peace talks with Colombia’s federal government, however had actually developed himself as one of the group’s leading ideologues.
Soon after the peace treaty in between the FARC and Colombia’s federal government was signed, Santrich faced issues with police. He was detained in April 2018 after U.S. authorities in New York charged him with conspiring to traffic 10 lots of drug to the United States. The charges were based upon videos and audio recordings gotten by undercover representatives who consulted with Santrich in 2017, district attorneys stated.
But Santrich was launched from prison prior to he might be extradited after Colombia’s peace tribunal identified that U.S. authorities had actually not offered adequate proof. Under the regards to the peace offer, previous rebels cannot be extradited for criminal activities devoted throughout the war, however can be delegated any criminal activities devoted later on.
Santrich, who implicated the Colombian federal government of trying to frame him, quickly seized a congressional seat granted to the FARC as part of the peace offer. But throughout a see to a town for previous rebels near the border with Venezuela, he deserted his security information and vanished.
In August 2018, he appeared on a Youtube video in which a group of previous FARC rebels displaying gatling gun revealed that they would continue to combat the federal government, implicating if of stopping working to meet pledges made in the peace treaty. They called their brand-new company the Second Marquetalia Movement in a nod to the peasant town that in the 1960s brought to life the initial FARC guerrilla motion.
Santrich’s group was commonly declined by previous FARC leaders who stuck to the peace offer and have actually now formed a political celebration that has 10 seats in Colombia’s congress.
Colombian authorities state Santrich’s faction of previous FARC dissidents is trying to take control of unlawful mines and drug trafficking paths along a remote stretch of Colombia’s border with Venezuela.
Colombia has actually long implicated Venezuela of supplying sanctuary to previous FARC fighters, consisting of Santrich and Ivan Marquez, the leader of the Marquetalia motion who is likewise desired by the U.S. as part of the very same drug indictment. But recently the Venezuelan army has actually likewise been participated in combating with another faction of previous FARC fighters led by Gentil Duarte, which recorded 8 Venezuelan soldiers in May.
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