The process of disintegration of the FARC dissidents, the guerrillas who deserted the peace agreement in Colombia and once again took up arms against the State, has accelerated in recent weeks. Defense Minister Diego Molano announced this Friday that the military and the police have killed Iván Mordisco, one of their main leaders. The authorities followed him for two months and, locating him precisely in a jungle area, launched a bombardment last weekend in which nine other combatants died, including Mordisco’s partner. His beret and some computers owned by him were found there. His death has been confirmed through interceptions of the dissidents’ communications. “The last great leader of the FARC falls and the final blow is given to the dissidents,” said Molano.
The death of Mordisco adds to the uncertain situation in which Iván Márquez finds himself, one of the negotiators with the government in Havana who in 2019 mistrusted the peace process and returned to arms with a handful of men. Two weeks ago, he was injured in an attack that was caused, according to security sources, by a trap set by Mordisco himself. The different factions of dissidents are, at the same time, enemies of each other. There was speculation about the death of Márquez for days, but the minister reported on Thursday that he is badly injured in a hospital in Caracas. The relationship of the Government of Nicolás Maduro with the combatants is a source of constant tension with Colombia.
None of the dissident groups has managed to unite all the former FARC combatants under one structure. Dispersed, without a clear direction, without military capacity or social enthusiasm, the combatants survive in small cells that operate clandestinely. Society perceives them as an anachronism, a hindrance that survives after the internal war that the country has waged for half a century. The dissidents are now more focused on crime and drug trafficking than on a true political struggle. The general perception is that they are men who have not read their time well and continue to cling to an armed struggle that has lost all meaning.
The chief of police, General Vargas, says that it has taken months of investigation to locate Mordisco, who took control of the group after the death of Gentil Duarte, a warlord who survived decades fighting in the mountains. Duarte was the most powerful military leader of all. Vargas said that Mordisco was moving with four escorts who died in the same attack, in San Vicente del Caguán, and that among the dead is also Lorena, his sentimental partner. Mordisco’s body, however, has not been located. The agents intercepted a message from the dissidents in which they assured that the chief was dead and that he was already resting in peace.
Unlike Márquez, Mordisco never believed in dialogue with the government. He has waged war to its ultimate consequences. For 30 years he has fought in the south of the country, in the regions of Caquetá, Guaviare, Meta, Vichada and Putumayo. His real name was Nestor Gregorio Vera Fernández. According to Insight Crime, he joined the FARC as a low-ranking guerrilla but quickly rose through the ranks as a sniper and explosives expert. In 2008, he led one of the fronts. He later dealt with forced recruitment and protecting coca crops, one of the main sources of financing for the guerrillas.
Until 2016 he obeyed the orders of his superior, at that time Timochenko, who considered that the armed path was exhausted and it was time to enter politics. That led to 13,000 combatants coming down from the mountains and Colombia ushering in a new era of peace. Not for people like Bite. He rose up and wrote a letter in which he encouraged other fighters not to give up and keep fighting. In the following years he became a criminal feared by the populations he tried to subjugate. He only believed in violence as a way of life and thus has died in middle age.
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