Colombian colonel “presumed dead” was freed by FARC dissidents

FARC dissidents released Colombian Army Lieutenant Colonel Pedro Enrique Pérez, a who had been kidnapped on April 18 in the department of Arauca, bordering Venezuela, official sources reported this Sunday.

The Army said in a statement that the officer was released in the hamlet of La Esmeralda, in the jurisdiction of Arauquita, department of Arauca.

Thanks to the humanitarian management developed by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the Ombudsman’s Office and representatives of the Catholic Church.

Army of colombia

“Our soldier had been kidnapped by the armed group organized residual GAO-r Structure 28, on April 18, 2021, in the municipality of Saravena, Arauca “added the Army.

Alias ​​’el Paisa’, FARC dissident commander, was reportedly killed in Venezuela, according to Colombian media

The High Commissioner for Peace, Juan Camilo Restrepo Gómez, said in a statement that Pérez, commander of the Army’s Special Energy and Road Battalion No. 18, was in the power of a “Narco-terrorist group”.

The commissioner added that what Colombia wants from the groups outside the law is that “Stop your criminal activities.”

Different version about murder

Last September the commander of the Colombian Army, General Eduardo Enrique Zapateiro, said on social media that the FARC had murdered to Lieutenant Colonel Pérez in Venezuela.

Chauvin, the Ecuadorian who was closest to the FARC

However, days later, the FARC dissidents denied that murder and released a video of the military as proof of survival.

According to the Colombian authorities, after his kidnapping in Saravena, the officer was taken by two guerrillas from the dissidents to Venezuela, where the Colombian government says that the heads of the former FARC are hiding who did not accept the peace agreement signed in November 2016.

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In recent days there has been speculation that “Iván Márquez”, who was the chief guerrilla negotiator of the FARC in the peace agreement, would have fled to Cuba from the border area in Venezuela, where he was hiding, after the murder of two of his closest allies: Hernán Darío Velásquez, alias “El Paisa”, and Henry Castellanos Garzón, aka “Romagna”.

“The Paisa” and “Romagna“Were two of the leaders of the dissidence called Segunda Marquetalia, and they left the peace agreement at the same time as” Iván Márquez “who in August 2019 announced his return to arms, alleging a” betrayal of the State “of the agreement . (I)