Colombian troops kill FARC dissident leaders

Colombian forces have killed FARC dissident leader Nestor Vera and nine other rebels in a raid in the south-west of the country, the defense minister said on Friday.

The operation “allowed us to neutralize nine people on the FARC’s dissident front, as well as… Ivan Mordisco,” Minister Diego Molano told reporters, using Vera’s pseudonym.

“The last great leader of the FARC has fallen,” Molano added, describing it as a “final blow” to the breakaway movement.

Hundreds of dissidents from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) have continued fighting after their comrades laid down arms under a 2016 peace deal that ended more than half a century of armed conflict.

Vera, one of Colombia’s most wanted men, recently took command of a group of about 2,000 dissidents known as the Armando Rios Front, after leader “Gentil Duarte” was believed to have died in fighting with a drug gang in neighboring Venezuela in May . according to Colombian intelligence.

A reward of $700,000 has been offered for information on Vera’s whereabouts.

According to General Luis Fernando Navarro, around 500 soldiers were deployed in the Colombian jungle a few weeks ago to find Vera.

Vera and his comrades were eventually killed on July 8 in an Luftwaffe-led operation.

Just months before the 2016 accord was signed, Vera became the first FARC leader to abandon the peace process with several of her subordinates.

Despite the deal, violence has flared up in Colombia over territory and resources between dissidents, the restrained rebel group ELN, paramilitary forces and drug cartels.

The government says Vera and his men were embroiled in a heated dispute over drug trafficking routes with another dissident faction called Segunda Marquetalia, led by former FARC chief Ivan Marquez.

Marquez signed the 2016 peace pact, only to take up arms again in 2019.

Bogota says Marquez was injured in a recent attack in Venezuela and was hospitalized there, although Caracas said it was just speculation.

“Today in Colombia there are none of the leaders, none of the great kapos of the former FARC…this is a fundamental blow to the plans they had for renewal,” Defense Minister Molano said.

According to the Indepaz Monitoring Group, with no unified command, there are about 5,200 dissident FARC fighters scattered across the country.

They finance themselves mainly through drug trafficking and illegal mining.

The majority are new recruits who, according to Indepaz, were never FARC members.