Luciano Marín Arango (born 16 June 1955), better known as Iván Márquez, is a Colombian guerrilla leader, 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), part of its secretariat higher command and advisor to the Northwestern and

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

blocs. He was part of the FARC negotiators that concluded a

peace agreement A peace treaty is an agreement between two or more hostile parties, usually countries or governments, which formally ends a state of war between the parties. It is different from an armistice, which is an agreement to stop hostilities; a surr ...

with President

Juan Manuel Santos Juan Manuel Santos Calderón (; born 10 August 1951) is a Colombian politician who was the President of Colombia from 2010 to 2018. He was the sole recipient of the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize. An economist by training and a journalist by trade, S ...

. On 29 August 2019, Márquez abandoned the peace process and announced a renewed armed conflict with the Colombian government.

Early years

Marín Arango was born in Florencia in 1955. He joined the Colombian Communist Youth (JUCO), the Colombian Communist Party's youth wing, in 1977. Between 1977 and 1979 Marín Arango (Marquez) was a teacher in biology at the school 'Corazón Inmaculado de María' in

El Doncello San Juan de El Doncello or simply El Doncello is a municipality of Colombia in the department of Caquetá Department, Colombia. Planted on the foothills of the Eastern Cordillera, it is located northeast of Florencia, capital of the department. ...

, Caqueta. He was described as a calm disciplined teacher and requested from his students to talk for 15 minutes on the current problems of Colombia. Sometimes he also presented the students with books from

Friedrich Engels Friedrich Engels ( ;"Engels"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''.Karl Marx Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; traditionally Romanization of Chinese, romanised as Mao Tse-tung. (26December 18939September 1976) was a Chinese politician, revolutionary, and political theorist who founded the People's Republic of China (PRC) in ...

and handouts on left wing politics. He would also organize meetings where

Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...

ideologies were discussed. He would later move on to Cartagena de Chaira and onwards to Florencia in Caquetá. In Florencia he was elected a member of the municipal council.

Patriotic Union career

As a result of peace talks with the Colombian government, Marín Arango became part of the leftist Patriotic Union (UP) party, coordinating the UP's activities in

Caquetá Department Caquetá Department () is a department of Colombia. Located in the Amazonas region, Caquetá borders with the departments of Cauca and Huila to the west, the department of Meta to the north, the department of Guaviare to the northeast, th ...

. Marín Arango first served as councilman and then as congressman in the Colombian Congress representing Caquetá. In 1986 he became a member of the Colombian Parliament for UP, but in October 1987 he left

Bogotá Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish Imperial period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city, capital and largest city ...

and went to Casa Verde in La Uribe on orders from the

FARC The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People's Army (, FARC–EP or FARC) was a Marxist–Leninist guerrilla group involved in the continuing Colombian conflict starting in 1964. The FARC-EP was officially founded in 1966 from peasan ...

leader

Jacobo Arenas Jacobo Arenas ("nom de guerre" of Luis Alberto Morantes Jaimes, 23 January 1924 – 10 August 1990) was a Colombian guerrilla leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (''Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia'', FARC). Im ...

. According to ''El Tiempo'', the presidential candidate of the UP Jaime Pardo Leal was murdered the same day, Márquez left Bogotá. The UP party was subjected to persecution by different

paramilitary groups A paramilitary is a military that is not a part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. The Oxford English Dictionary traces the use of the term "paramilitary" as far back as 1934. Overview Though a paramilitary is, by definiti ...

, drug lords and death squads that saw the party as a threat as the political branch of the FARC. El Tiempo: Ex ministro de Chávez, cerebro de la visita de las Farc a Caracas
/ref>

FARC membership

Luciano Marín Arango, adopting the alias "Iván Márquez", became a political commissar for FARC's 14th Front in 1985. ¿Quién es Iván Márquez?, delegado de las Farc ante el presidente Chávez
/ref>

FARC commander

By 1988, Márquez had left the UP and returned to

as bloc commander, overseeing activities in the departments of Huila, Caquetá and Putumayo. By the end of the 1980s, he was a member of the secretariat of the FARC. After the 1990 death of Arenas, Márquez joined the secretariat, the highest command of the organization. During the mid-1990s, he was transferred to Colombia's northwest in order to reorganize FARC forces after paramilitary attacks. In 2008 documents obtained from the computer of slain FARC chieftain Iván Ríos revealed that Márquez also led FARC's efforts to raise support in universities and high schools though "the creation of two student federations, some academics and other secondary officials, and by the infiltration of already existing university movements" olombian DAS intelligence director María del PilarHurtado told Spanish news agency EFE.

FARC negotiator

Márquez was a FARC negotiator during the 1999–2002 failed

peace process A peace process is the set of political sociology, sociopolitical negotiations, agreements and actions that aim to solve a specific armed conflict. Definitions Prior to an armed conflict occurring, peace processes can include the prevention of ...

between the FARC and the government of Andrés Pastrana.

Humanitarian exchange

In November 2007 Márquez was sent to

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

to meet with President

Hugo Chávez Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías (; ; 28 July 1954 – 5 March 2013) was a Venezuelan politician, Bolivarian Revolution, revolutionary, and Officer (armed forces), military officer who served as the 52nd president of Venezuela from 1999 until De ...

. At the time, Chávez was mediating between the government of Colombia and the FARC to agree on a deal to liberate the hostages held by the FARC and the liberation of some 500 guerrillas imprisoned by the government of Colombia, after years of combat in the

Colombian armed conflict The Colombian conflict () began on May 27, 1964, and is a low-intensity asymmetric war between the government of Colombia, far-right paramilitary groups, crime syndicates and far-left guerrilla groups fighting each other to increase their i ...

Peace agreement

Since 2012, Márquez took part in peace negotiations with the Government of

Havana Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center. In August 2016 he signed a peace agreement with the Colombian Government on behalf of the FARC. The Colombian negotiator was Humberto de la Calle. The peace agreement was announced in a ceremony in Cuba. The agreement would have provided him with a seat in the Colombian Senate but he eventually did not run in the elections.

Leader of the Segunda Marquetalia

Márquez took up arms anew after his nephew was arrested and extradited to the United States. In 2019, he eventually appeared as the leader of the Segunda Marquetalia, a group of FARC dissidents. The group had about 1000 active members. On 30 June 2022, an attack on Márquez life was made by a group suspected to be of the 'Gentil Duarte' front of the FARC dissidents. Márquez was accompanied by a security detail of about twenty militia members at the time of the attack in

Caicara del Orinoco Caicara del Orinoco is a town in, and the administrative seat of, Cedeño Municipality, Bolívar State, Venezuela. Currently the Venezuelan government is building a bridge across the Orinoco at Caicara. When completed the bridge will be 2.4&n ...

in Venezuela. According to

El País (; ) is a Spanish-language daily newspaper in Spain. is based in the capital city of Madrid and it is owned by the Spanish media conglomerate PRISA. It is the second-most circulated daily newspaper in Spain . is the most read newspaper in ...

, Márquez shall have lost an arm during the attack.

U.S. State Department allegations and bounty

According to the U.S. Department of State, Márquez oversaw loading of planes carrying 600–1200 kilograms of cocaine and the receipt of money and automatic weapons as payment. The State Department also alleged that Márquez established the FARC's policies for 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. The U.S. Department of State is offering a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to his arrest and/or conviction

Reports of death

Iván Márquez was reported dead in July 2022, by the Government of Iván Duque after an assassination attempt by a group of mercenaries in Venezuela. A few days later, the Segunda Marquetalia announced that Márquez was not dead but in a hospital. It was reported that Márquez died on 6 July 2023 in a hospital in

Caracas Caracas ( , ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas (CCS), is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the northern p ...

, Venezuela, where he was receiving medical treatment for injuries he received in an assassination attempt in June 2022. However, in August 2023, Marquez denied reports of his death in an audio recording. In 2024, the Government of Gustavo Petro stated that they were investigating the claim that he had died in Venezuela.

Personal life

In the 1990s, his mother and sister were abducted by Colombian

paramilitary forces A paramilitary is a military that is not a part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. The Oxford English Dictionary traces the use of the term "paramilitary" as far back as 1934. Overview Though a paramilitary is, by definiti ...

, but were eventually released. His nephew Marlon Marín became a witness to the US prosecution in an investigation on drug trafficking against the FARC leader Jesús Santrich.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Marquez, Ivan 1955 births Living people People from Caquetá Department Patriotic Union (Colombia) politicians Members of FARC Colombian communists Anti-revisionists