One of the leaders of the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC), a Communist terrorist group, has been shot dead in Venezuela, Colombian media reported.
According to anonymous sources in the Colombian and Venezuelan intelligence services, several newspapers report that former FARC commander Ernan Dario Velasquez, also known as “El Paisa” (“Farmer”), has run into a hideout in the Apurian state on the Colombian border.
Neither the Colombian nor the Venezuelan government has officially confirmed what happened. The Colombian army has told the media that it is not aware of the possible liquidation of the terrorist.
Velasquez, who gained the fame of a cruel man, left the FARC in 2018, two years after signing a peace agreement with the Colombian government.
He became notorious for organizing armed attacks such as the 2003 bombing in Bogotá, which killed 36 people and injured dozens.
Velasquez was one of the FARC’s representatives in peace talks with Colombian governments. After leaving the FARC in 2019, he, along with tough former FARC leaders Ivan Marche and Hessus Santrici, announced the resumption of armed struggle.
The peace agreement signed in 2016 put an end to a 52-year-long armed conflict that claimed more than 260,000 lives, according to the National Center for Historic Remembrance.
Since the signing of the peace agreement, 13,000 FARC militants have laid down their arms and the FARC has become a minor political party.
However, the violence has not subsided as more than 5,000 FARC militants have refused to lay down their arms.
Colombia has repeatedly accused the left-wing authoritarian Venezuelan government of providing asylum to militants from the FARC and another Communist terrorist group, the ELN.
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