How are we trying to unify the 2,500 FARC dissidents for a more economic than ideological purpose?

With at least 2,500 ex-combatants outside the peace process, the leader of the dissidents of the FARC, aka "Gentil Duarte"he tried for almost two years unify all the armed structures who have been trained with desertion to create a great project that has the same military power as the extinct guerrillas. The government's blows to the Allied leaders did not allow it, although the plan is maintained according to the authorities, but the fronts with this interest appear to have more economical than an ideological incentive.

Miguel Botache Santillana, aka "Gentil Duarte", was an intermediate command of the FARC Eastern bloc that operated in the Meta Department and, before the signing of peace in 2016, was one of the first to move away from the process and return to the The region, like La Macarena, Vista Hermosa, Puerto Concordia and Puerto Rico, is now the leader of the Seventh Front's dissent whose power extends to San Jose del Guaviare, and the most sought after desert structures by the army.

And the main reason is that it seeks to create a "southern bloc" from which all dissident organizations in the country will coordinate and restore the social regulation with which the FARC regulated the lives of peasants in the territories where they were. To this end, it has built grbadroots, popular work and political leadership – according to a report from the Ideas for Peace Foundation (FIP) – in which the community is presented as an ally and rejects the peace agreement, by designating the signatories as traitors.

In fact, the IFJ claims that its organization is the only one with the tools, the armed capability and the social base to create a real guerrilla group. The Peace and Reconciliation Foundation (Pares) goes much further and emphasizes that their group is the only one who can really call a dissident, referring to those who "did not politically share the FARC leaders' peace decision." The others, he says, are only deserting groups, who have returned to illicit activities but do not operate under political ideas.

"Gentil Duarte" has proposed to rearm and organize all these scattered groups across the country into one, which currently functions as a federated structure: each is responsible for one person and They maintain their own illegal markets. It is precisely these illicit savings that have been the most difficult to identify with the other leaders a true alliance in which he would be the maximum commander, and none would give up control over these companies. Although their strengthening has also been the strategy of some fronts to join the project.

Nearly a year after the signing of the peace, the authorities were certain of the FARC dissident unification project launched in October 2017 by "Gentil Duarte", which aimed to bring together between 6,000 and 8,000 armed men. 2019, according to the Foundation Insight Crime. For this, he brings together the leaders of other former deserters and, from Venezuela, where he hides, he sent them as emissaries to add new allies to the plan.

His main articulator at that time was Edgar Mesías Salgado Aragón, aka "Rodrigo Cadete", who had 39 years of criminal life in the FARC and after being sent from the Secretariat to avoid dissent during the talks in Havana, ended up becoming the leader of one of them when he defected in 2017, convinced by "Gentil Duarte" His task was to go first to the department of Nariño to explain the groups of former FARC who had trained there.

His first meetings took place with the late Walter Patricio Arizala, aka "Guacho", then leader of the Front Oliver Sinisterra. The talks were unsuccessful because "Guacho" was more interested in the need to make the proceeds of the drug trafficking company accountable to another political project. In addition, it began to draw the authorities' attention to the killing of 13 indigenous peoples in the municipality of El Charco in September 2018.

In fact, "Guacho" became the main target of Colombian and Ecuadorian military forces after the kidnapping and murder of a team from the Ecuadorian newspaper. Trade, shifting the lens slightly to "Gentil Duarte" until he was fired as a result of an operation in a rural area of ​​Tumaco ordered by President Iván Duque. "Rodrigo Cadete" is therefore focused on other dissidents in the region, such as the front of Stiven González and on the search for alliances in the southern departments of Caquetá and Putumayo.

Soon, "Cadet" remained in the sights of the armed forces, after the defense minister, Guillermo Botero, appointed him as articulator of the unification plan of the former FARC. "He was regrouping former FARC militants to form a new movement," said the official after Duque announced on February 2 the murder of "Cadete" in a bomb attack in the area. Rural San Vicente del Caguán. , between the rivers Camuya and Yari, in the south of the country.

Although the death of "Guacho" was more media, that of "Rodrigo Cadete" was a sensitive point more sensitive for the Colombian government to neutralize, even for a time, the plan of regrouping of the old militias of the FARC directed by "Gentil Duarte ". ", as explained Minister Botero at the time.

There are still other articulators as aliases in the plan of "Duarte"Jhon 40", responsible for the Catatumbo subregion, in the department of Norte de Santander, who was expelled before the end of the dialogues in Havana and who now has the most important international contacts for the marketing of coca from roads located In Venezuela, the unification project has not prospered either, but the work of "John 40" is continuing.

In fact, the project worked in the Arauca department, where "Duarte" had already succeeded in adding dissent from this region, which resulted in a control of the area where they were contributing to the financing of extortion as indicated by the President. portal The empty chair. There are fronts 10, 28, 38 and 45 with about 425 guerrillas depending on this medium. "It is thought that his work could be focused on logistics and strengthening support through delivery of supplies and arms imported from Venezuela"Details Insight Crime.

But there are also other fronts that still do not join the project "Gentil Duarte", as the 48th front that operates in Putumayo under the command of "Sinaloa", because they prefer to keep their savings illegal. , especially the drug trafficking and illegal mining. Others, however, see this unification as a means of specifically strengthening these markets. Well, if these alliances are made, "lDissent would have control of a corridor for trafficking cocaine, gold and weapons from the Pacific, crossing the borders with Ecuador, Peru, Brazil and Venezuela, until Arauca ", says Insight Crime.

The former FARC guerrillas operated in 242 out of 1,122 municipalities in the country, according to Pares. Currently, deserter groups are spread across 37 structures located in 18 departments and 120 municipalities, and they have about 2,500 armed men, according to data from the Colombian Observatory of Organized Crime. Gentile Duarte's plan to unify them all also depends on the speed with which the authorities react. Although their main focus today is ELN, they have not left them against them.

But Insight Crime suggests another point likely to influence this project, namely the role that could play other political actors such as former commanders Luciano Marín Arango, aka "Iván Márquez", and Hernán Darío Velásquez, aka "El Paisa ". of the peace process have disappeared and failed to comply with the subpoenas of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP).

"Given their importance and their trajectory within the former FARC, becoming dissidents, they might have the opportunity to call Duarte still necessary to establish criminal hegemony on a national scale," Insight Crime concludes.