Neither the government of Iván Duque nor that of Nicolás Maduro have confirmed the information.
“El Paisa”, one of the commanders of the FARC dissidents and a feared ex-combatant of that guerrilla, was killed by other rebels in Venezuela, the Colombian press reported this Sunday.
Citing intelligence sources from both countries, different media reported that the guerrilla leader had been the victim of an ambush in the border state of Apure (west).
According to the newspaper El Tiempo, Hernán Darío Velásquez (“El Paisa”) “was killed by an armed commando who attacked him with rifle and explosive bursts.”
Neither the government of Iván Duque nor that of Nicolás Maduro have confirmed the information. The Colombian army told journalists that it had no knowledge of the matter.
“Venezuelan sources confirmed to SEMANA that Hernán Darío Velázquez, alias El Paisa (…) would have been killed in an attack in the neighboring country,” that magazine wrote on its website.
A feared commander who for years led the FARC’s elite force, Velásquez in 2018 walked away from the 2016 peace agreement that disarmed the once most powerful guerrilla in America.
Although he was one of the negotiators of the pact, in 2019 he reappeared dressed in camouflage along with Iván Márquez, former number two of the FARC, and Jesús Santrich, an influential rebel, to announce his return to arms in the so-called Second Marquetalia.
The conservative Duque government has repeatedly denounced that they receive protection from Maduro, which Caracas denies.
According to NGOs from Colombia and Venezuela, there they would be fighting against men from “Gentil Duarte”, another powerful dissident.
Last Tuesday, the United States included that illegal organization on the list of foreign terrorist groups. The NGO Indepaz estimates its strength at around 2,000 members.
“‘El Paisa’ would have died in an attack due to the dispute that is taking place in Venezuela for control of drug trafficking zones,” the NTN24 channel indicated.
Velásquez became famous in Colombia for the harshness of the armed actions he planned at the command of the so-called Teófilo Forero column.
At his instructions, the FARC detonated a car bomb in the El Nogal social club, located in an exclusive sector of Bogotá, which left 36 dead and dozens injured in February 2003.
For information on his whereabouts, Colombian authorities offer up to $ 750,000 in reward. There are ten convictions against him for murder and terrorism, and 27 for kidnapping.
In May 2021, the Venezuelan NGO Fundaredes indicated that Jesús Santrich, second in command of the Second Marquetalia, had also been assassinated in Venezuela by an armed commando.
Although the Colombian government then announced an investigation into the events, it never officially confirmed the death. (I)
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