Luciano Marín Arango, alias “Iván Márquez,” was a former guerrilla commander who rejected the 2016 FARC peace agreement and formed a dissident group known as the Segunda Marquetalia.
Marquez, wearing fatigues and carrying a pistol, declared in a video that the group would return to war, claiming the Colombian state had “betrayed” the peace accords signed in 2016 between the government and the FARC. The address — published on YouTube in August 2019 – threatened to jeopardize the entire peace process further.
Márquez, as the former second-in-command of the FARC, was able to attract many ex-guerrillas back to criminality and received pledges of loyalty from certain ex-FARC Mafia groups.
He also rapidly set up a base of operations for the Second Marquetalia in Venezuela, capitalizing on opportunities to get involved in drug trafficking, illegal gold mining, and contraband. However, he faced significant setbacks in his attempts to gain control of the border region. At the end of 2021, three of his senior commanders were killed in Venezuela, leaving Márquez dangerously alone and exposed.
Márquez apparently went into hiding in December 2021 to avoid a similar fate. He remained off the radar until July 2022, when rumors that he had been killed in Venezuela began circulating. However, the Second Marquetalia always denied his death.
In July 2023, sources allegedly close to Márquez confirmed to several news sources that he had died in Venezuela from injuries sustained in an assassination attempt a year earlier. However, in August, Colombia’s Foreign Affairs Minister Álvaro Leyva announced that Márquez was alive and well.
History
Iván Márquez was born on June 6, 1955, in Florencia, the capital city of Colombia’s southern Caquetá department. Like many of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia’s (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia – FARC) oldest members, Márquez was part of the Colombian Communist Party Youth Organization (Juventud Comunista Colombiana – JUCO), joining in 1977.
As a member of the JUCO, he supported the FARC in part by taking provisions to the group in the countryside. He joined the FARC in 1985 as a political commissioner for one of the rebels’ most active units, the 14th Front in Caquetá.
In the early 1980s, as part of a peace process between the Colombian government and the FARC, Márquez became a top emissary for the rebels’ nascent political party, the Patriotic Union (Union Patriótica – UP). He was later elected as a city council member and then as an alternate congressman for Caquetá.
SEE ALSO: FARC Coverage
In 1987, as the persecution of UP members intensified, the FARC called Márquez and other top rebel emissaries in the party back to the mountains. The rebels named him commander of the Southwest Bloc for his efforts with the UP.
In the 1990s, Márquez was transferred to the northwestern part of the country, where he took part in a bloody battle for control of the Urabá region along the Colombia-Panama border.
This earned Márquez respect within the FARC as a strong military commander, complementing his political skills. The combination of these two abilities contributed to his trajectory as an international representative of the organization. His activities and influence spread far and wide: he became the guerrillas’ top foreign emissary, and intelligence officials in Colombia said he headed efforts to infiltrate universities and create student federations to support the FARC’s political and military strategy in Colombian cities.
Thanks to his political and diplomatic skills, Márquez was chosen to head the FARC’s delegation for peace talks with the Colombian government in Havana in 2012. He continued to head the guerrillas’ negotiating team after the talks moved to Havana in November of the same year.
After four years at the negotiating table, followed by the signing of the peace accords in 2016, Márquez joined the Monitoring and Implementation Commission of the Agreement (Comisión de Seguimiento, Impulso y Verificación a la Implementación del Acuerdo), the mechanism created to ensure both parties implement the accords.
With the transition of the FARC to a political party called the Common Alternative Revolutionary Force (Fuerza Alternativa Revolucionaria del Común – FARC) between August and September 2017, the FARC Secretariat became the party’s national directorate. Márquez received the most votes during the party’s founding congress.
A year later, however, the peace process was beset by turmoil after Jesús Santrich’s arrest on drug trafficking charges. Considering the April 2018 arrest a setup, Márquez refused his post as a senator in the Colombian congress, which had been granted to him as part of the accords. In an interview, Márquez said his refusal was evidence the peace process had failed and questioned how he could be a senator “when they’ll say I’m a drug trafficker.” He also demanded that the government comply with stipulations in the agreement that had not been fulfilled, such as funding projects for ex-FARC members.
Amid this uncertainty, Márquez moved to a reintegration camp in Miravalle, a village in the municipality of San Vicente del Caguán in the southwest Caquetá department. The Training and Reincorporation Space (Espacios Territoriales de Capacitación y Reincorporación – ETCR) was headed by former FARC commander Hernán Darío Velásquez, alias “El Paisa,” who previously led the militant Teófilo Forero Mobile Column.
Sometime later, he fled from the camp along with El Paisa and went into hiding. He wasn’t heard from until May 2019, when he sent a message via Twitter saying that the FARC guerrillas made a “grave error” when they put down their weapons.
In December 2021, after the deaths of some of his closest allies within the Second Marquetalia, Márquez allegedly went into hiding. He was not heard of publicly until July 2022, when widespread rumors of his death in Venezuela surfaced. In July 2023, it emerged that he had died in Venezuela.
Criminal Activities
According to the US State Department, Iván Márquez was in charge of the FARC’s drug policies, directing and controlling the production, manufacture, and distribution of cocaine. Eventually, the State Department offered $5 million for information leading to his arrest. He also commanded FARC units accused of kidnapping, extortion and murder.
Before the peace agreement was signed and amnesty was subsequently granted, the Colombian government considered Márquez a narco-terrorist.
In April 2018, US authorities revealed that Márquez was investigated for alleged cocaine trafficking after he was caught speaking to a supposed Mexican cartel operative on a cellphone video. The investigation is the same one that has led to drug charges against his comrade, Santrich. It stems from a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) operation in which Marlon Marín, Marquez’s nephew and assistant, was observed retrieving $5 million from a DEA informant. The money was exchanged for the movement of ten tons of cocaine to Mexico’s powerful Sinaloa Cartel.
Márquez was also a significant target of the US government, which offered a $10 million reward for his capture.
As the head of the Second Marquetalia, troops formerly under his command control much of the drug trafficking along the border between Colombia and Venezuela, specifically in Arauca and Apure.
Geography
Before heading up the FARC’s peace negotiating team, Márquez primarily operated in northern Colombia. As commander of the Caribbean Bloc, his zones of influence included the Serranía del Perijá mountain range, the departments of La Guajira and Cesar, and some regions along the Colombia-Venezuela border.
While groups associated with the Second Marquetalia operated elsewhere in Colombia, its firm base of operations since 2019 has been the Venezuelan state of Apure.
Allies and Enemies
Historically, the main enemies of FARC leaders like Márquez have included extreme right-wing elements of Colombia’s political elite, some of whom have had ties to paramilitary groups.
However, the FARC has seen its share of infighting as well. A rift formed in its ruling body when Rodrigo Londoño Echeverri, alias “Timochenko,” assumed leadership of the FARC because Márquez was also a candidate for the guerrilla group’s top position. Although the replacement of FARC commanders had been resolved through its handover mechanism, the succession of Guillermo León Sáenz Vargas, alias “Alfonso Cano,” was a challenge for the rebel group.
In the wake of successful military operations against its commanders, the FARC increasingly depended on young leaders due to its need to continue with the chain of command. This meant that even though Márquez was a strong contender for the top leadership position, Timochenko took the reins because he had more years of service in the Secretariat under his belt.
SEE ALSO: Ex-FARC Mafia Profile
The division became most evident as the FARC transitioned into a political party. Márquez earned more votes than Timochenko to be elected to the party’s national directorate after running on a more critical line regarding the implementation of the peace agreement.
Following his return to criminality and the creation of the Second Marquetalia, Márquez made numerous enemies. His troops frequently clashed with other ex-FARC Mafia groups, commanded by Gentil Duarte, as well as the ELN. They also came under sustained pressure from Colombian and Venezuelan authorities. This pressure began to tell as three top commanders, Hernán Darío Velásquez, better known as “El Paisa,” Seuxis Pausías Hernández, alias “Jesús Santrich,” and Henry Castellanos Garzón, alias “Romaña,” were all killed in Venezuela in 2021.
In July 2022, it emerged that Márquez himself might have been killed in Venezuela as well, but it was later alleged he had only been injured and was convalescing in a Caracas hospital. In July 2023, he reportedly finally succumbed to the injuries sustained a year earlier.
Prospects
Márquez was one of the more radical leaders among the ex-FARC Mafia and has used his leadership position to try and undermine the peace agreement, being highly critical of how it was handled. As the former second-in-command of the FARC, his position as the leader of the Second Marquetalia endowed the group with a sense of legacy as the continuation of the original FARC.
His deep insider knowledge of the FARC’s operations, his experience of combat tactics and the respect he carries made Márquez one of the principal criminal actors in Colombia and Venezuela, with the ability to wield real influence in both countries.
However, following the deaths of most of the Second Marquetalia leadership, Márquez’s power and that of his group had significantly weakened ahead of “Total Peace” talks with the Gustavo Petro administration.