Colombia Farc rebels: President vows to hunt down new group

(FASTNEWS | COLOMBO) – Colombia’s president has vowed to hunt down Farc rebel commanders who have called on followers to take up arms after three years of peace.

President Iván Duque offered $882,000 (£725,000) for the capture of each of the rebels who appeared in a video with former Farc commander Iván Márquez.

He was one of the main negotiators of the 2016 peace deal, which ended 50 years of conflict.

But now the former commander has accused the government of “betrayal”.

“In two years, more than 500 social leaders have been killed and 150 guerrilla fighters are dead amidst the indifference and the indolence of the state,” Ivan Márquez says in the 30-minute video, referring to the high number of activists and former Farc members killed since President Duque took office.

But President Duque hit back later on Thursday, accusing the rebels of being “narco-terrorists who have the shelter and support of the dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro”, president of neighbouring Venezuela.

Who are the Farc?

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc, after the initials in Spanish), Colombia’s largest rebel group, were founded in 1964 as the armed wing of the Communist Party and follow a Marxist-Leninist ideology.

Their main founders were small farmers and land workers who had banded together to fight against the staggering levels of inequality in Colombia at the time.

While the Farc have some urban groups, they have always been an overwhelmingly rural guerrilla organisation.

Is the Farc back now?

Many would argue it has never completely gone away. While the group’s leaders signed a peace deal and almost 7,000 of their fighters handed in their weapons, there have been groups of dissidents that never stood down.

The number of dissidents is hard to estimate, but the figure cited in a leaked military document earlier this year was 2,300.

Some of these dissidents never laid down their weapons, others have returned and yet others are new recruits. But so far, they have been scattered around the country in dozens of small groups.

Tuesday’s video showing three former influential commanders could be a sign that these groups are joining forces and will again act as one rebel group.

(Foreign Media)