Jesus Sandric, one of the most prominent rebel leaders of the former Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces-People’s Army (FARC-EP) rejecting the 2016 peace agreement, was killed on Venezuelan soil, in an operation by the Colombian Army Special Forces, according to his comrades.
Jesus Sandric was riding in a car when Colombian Special Forces men attacked, the rebel group, which calls itself Segunda Marquetalia (“Second Marketing”), said in a statement.
Jesus Sandric, who was initially in favor of the peace deal, was wanted by the United States, which accused him of drug trafficking. It was considered for a long time that he had taken refuge in Venezuela.
The Second Market stated in the announcement that it published “with pain in our hearts (…) we inform Colombia and the whole world that Commander Jesούςs Sandri,, a member of the FARC-EP military administration, fell dead (…) in an ambush set by the Colombian army on May 17». The car that “transported the commander was attacked with rifles and grenades”, according to the text, which clarifies that the team of Special Forces that set the ambush was taken by helicopter after the operation.
The Colombian Ministry of Defense did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters.
Earlier in the day, Defense Minister Diego Molano announced that his services were working to “verify” whether Sandric was killed in Venezuela.
«This information is verified. If confirmed, they prove that Venezuela offers safe haven to drug offenders“, Said Mr. Molano via Twitter, undertaking a neologism in Spanish that Bogota always uses when referring to the apostates.
The Venezuelan government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Colombian government has often accused Venezuelan Socialist President Nicolas Maduro of offering refuge to rebels and insurgents. Venezuela, whose armed forces have been embroiled in bloody battles with Colombian “rioters” in the border area since April, says criminals and “terrorists” are operating in its territory.
According to the Colombian military intelligence service, some 1,400 members of the Colombian armed forces are in Venezuela and often cross from one side of the two states’ 2,200-kilometer-long border to the other.
Following the disarmament and dissolution of the FARC under the peace agreement, the faction transformed into a political party and is collaborating in a special court investigation into crimes during the civil war. However, about 1,500 former guerrillas refused to surrender their weapons and take part in their social reintegration process.
In 2020, the United States offered a $ 10 million reward for information leading to the capture of Sandric – known as Seuss Hernandez – and Ivan Markes, another of the Second Marketing leaders.
Mr Markes, one of the rebel negotiators in the FARC-EP negotiations with the government, disappeared in 2018, following the arrest of his nephew extradited to the United States.
Sandric is supposed to occupy one of the 10 parliamentary seats given to the rebels under the peace agreement., but after being prosecuted by the US and after months of court adventures he disappeared in mid-2019.
Both of them reappeared in August 2019, when they released a video announcing that they are continuing the armed struggle against the government.
In February, Colombian President Ivan Duque announced the establishment of a new select unit of the Special Forces that will pursue “high value targets”.
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