The Colombian government announced the death of the most important leader of the dissent of the former FARC, Nestor Vera, killed a week ago by the army, welcoming the “final estocade” Drive to this armed group.
Le Monde with AFP
Nestor Vera, alias “Ivan Mordisco”, main chief of dissent of the former Guerilla of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), was killed a week ago by the army in the southwest of the country, announced on Friday, July 15, before the press, the Minister of Defense. “This operation allowed the neutralization of nine individuals on this first front of the dissent of the FARC and the neutralization of the one who is nicknamed Ivan Mordisco,” said Diego Molano. “The last great leader of the Farc fell and it is a final estocade brought to the dissidents,” added the minister.
For several weeks, around 500 soldiers have been deployed in the department of Caqueta to try to locate Nestor Vera, said the commander of the armed forces, General Luis Fernando Navarro. On July 8, the military launched “a strategic operation with the main aviation support,” he added. Ten rebels were killed, including Nestor Vera and four of his relatives, including his partner and two other women, he said.
The police presented the photo of a green beret adorned with a red star and the symbol of the sickle and hammer, found on the scene of the operation and which would have belonged to the rebel leader. “The structure of the nicknamed Ivan Mordisco represented one of the worst threats to Colombia and was destroyed by the heroes of our army,” said President Ivan Duque.
Nestor Vera, whose authorities did not specify the age, had recently taken the command of dissent after the alleged death of another rebel leader, nice Duarte. He had been fighting in rebellion for 35 years, according to the Minister of Defense. The Colombian government offered a reward of $ 700,000 (694,000 euros) for any information allowing its location. Informators collaborated with the army and received the promised award, assured the police director, General Jorge Luis Vargas.
“Fundamental blow”
In July 2016, four months before the signing of the historic peace agreement which had ended nearly sixty years of conflict, Nestor Vera had become the first leader of the Farc to abandon the peace process with others Rebels. He had then started to recruit new fighters to take control of forest areas in southeast Colombia, the world’s leading exporter of cocaine.
The army accused the rebel leader of organizing the sending of the drug to Venezuela and Brazil. Authorities also accuse him of having ordered dozens of attacks on security forces, forced people’s travel and assassinations of social leaders, and of having kidnapped a UN official for two months in 2017.
At the end of May, the government announced the “alleged death” of Gentil Duarte, of his real name Miguel Botache Santillana, one of the main dissident chiefs of the former Guerillary, who was allegedly killed in Venezuela in early May. According to the government, Nestor Vera was engaged in a fierce struggle for control of drug trafficking with another dissident faction, led by Ivan Marquez which had signed the peace agreement before resuming arms in 2019. Bogotá maintains that ‘Ivan Marquez was recently the victim of an attack in Venezuela where he would be hospitalized. Caracas evokes “speculation”.
“Today there are no more in Colombia any of the leaders, large commanders, which the FARC had (…) It is a fundamental blow to their refoundation project,” added Minister Molano. Without unified command, FARC dissident groups have around 5,200 men in different regions of the country, according to the NGO Indpaz, and finance themselves with drug trafficking and clandestine mines. The majority of these men (85 %) are new recruits that have never been part of the Farc, according to the same source.