Milton de Jesús Toncel Redondo a.k.a. Joaquín Gómez, a.k.a. Usuriaga (born 18 March 1947), is a Colombian former guerrilla Block Commander, member of the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People's Army (, FARC–EP or FARC) was a Marxist–Leninist Guerrilla warfare, guerrilla group involved in the continuing Colombian conflict starting in 1964. The FARC-EP was officially founded in ...
(FARC) commanding the
Southern Bloc of the FARC-EP
The Southern Bloc of the FARC-EP was the first bloc of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia to exist and is where the roots of the guerrilla movement lie. The bloc has been held responsible for several notorious attacks, including the infam ...
.
Biography
Gomez was born in the northern
La Guajira
La Guajira () is a departments of Colombia, department of Colombia. It occupies most of the Guajira Peninsula in the northeast region of the country, on the Caribbean Sea and bordering Venezuela, at the northernmost tip of South America. The ca ...
department in 1947, where he joined a local branch of the
Colombian Communist Party
The Colombian Communist Party (, PCC) is a legal communist party in Colombia. It was founded in 1930 as the Communist Party of Colombia, at which point it was the Colombian section of the Comintern. The party is led by Jaime Caycedo and publi ...
during his teenage years. After the assassination of several of his comrades by paramilitary groups, Gomez left Colombia to study
agricultural science
Agricultural science (or agriscience for short) is a broad multidisciplinary field of biology that encompasses the parts of exact, natural, economic and social sciences that are used in the practice and understanding of agriculture. Professio ...
in the
Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
. On his return to Colombia in the early 1980s, Gomez enrolled as a teacher at the University of Amazonas in
Florencia, the capital of the
Caqueta province. In 1981 Gomez joined the FARC.
Wanted by authorities
According to the
US Department of State
The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs o ...
Gómez has participated in setting and implementing the FARC’s cocaine policies directing and controlling the production, manufacture, and distribution of hundreds of tons of cocaine to the
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
and the world; the "taxation" of the drug trade in Colombia to raise funds for the FARC. Toncel is also responsible for overseeing the Southern Bloc’s production of thousands of tons of cocaine. The U.S. Department of State is offering a reward of up to $2.5 million for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction.
Member of the Secretariat
After the death of
Raul Reyes on 1 March 2008 a website affiliated to the FARC called ''Agencia Bolivariana de Prensa'' announced on 4 March 2008 that Joaquín Gómez was to replace Reyes as member of the Secretariat or higher command of the FARC.
Reports of Hospitalization in Venezuela
On 8 March 2008 the Colombian army reported that Gómez, along with one other FARC member, had been hospitalized at a clinic in Rubio, Venezuela after being shot in the face near the Colombian border. However, these reports were denied by military sources.
[ El Tiempo. "Colombiano herido en Venezuela no es 'Joaquín Gómez', afirman voceros militares]
Available online
Accessed 11 March 2008.
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gomez, Joaquin
1947 births
Living people
People from La Guajira Department
Members of FARC