Jorge Enrique Rodríguez Mendieta, also known by his nom de guerre Iván Vargas (born c. 1963), 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-EP), former commander of the 24th Front of the Middle Magdalena Bloc of the FARC-EP. Vargas was arrested in late 2004 in the city of

Bucaramanga Bucaramanga () is the capital and largest city of the department of Santander Department, Santander, Colombia. Bucaramanga has the fifth-largest economy by GDP in Colombia, has the lowest unemployment rate and is the ninth most populous city i ...

by Colombian authorities and extradited to the United States on 3 November 2007 on charges of narcotrafficking.

Early years

Vargas began his activities with the FARC in 1987 as an aide of the FARC's Secretariat and in 1989 military intelligence of the

Colombian Army The National Army of Colombia () is the land warfare service branch of the Military Forces of Colombia. With over 361,420 active personnel as of 2020, it is the largest and oldest service branch in Colombia, and is the second largest army in the ...

reported that Vargas was a guerrilla instructor in the ''Escuela Nacional de Cuadros de las FARC'' (a guerrilla training school of the FARC) in Casa Verde. In 1991 Vargas was made guerrilla commander of the 22nd Front of the FARC-EP, part of the Eastern Bloc of that organization.Prontuario de Jorge Enrique Rodríguez Mendieta, alias Iván Vargas - Ejército Nacional de Colombia
/ref> He was also a member of the Estado Mayor, the FARC's operational leadership council.Anti-Defamation League

22 December 2009

Vietnam training and commander

The following year, in 1992 Vargas was sent to

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

to receive training in guerrilla tactics and ordnance and explosives training. Upon his return he was made commander of the 24th Front of the FARC-EP and commander of the Middle Magdalena region, guerrilla unit that operates in the southern region of

Bolívar Department Bolívar () is a department of Colombia. It was named after one of the original nine states of the United States of Colombia. It is located to the north of the country, extending roughly north–south from the Caribbean coast at Cartagena near ...

. According to the Colombian Army, Vargas had also received training in the former

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 ...

Capture and extradition to the United States

Vargas was extradited 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 ...

by the

Government of Colombia The Government of Colombia is a republic with separation of powers into executive, judicial and legislative branches. Its legislature has a congress, its judiciary has a supreme court, and its executive branch has a president. The citi ...

charged with conspiracy to export

illegal drugs Illegal may refer to: Law * Violation of law ** Crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and uni ...

from Colombia to the United States. In Colombia, the government charged him with rebellion, terrorism, conspiracy to export

According to the United States Attorney General's Office Rodriguez Mendieta allegedly directed the purchase of hundreds of thousands of kilograms of cocaine paste and transmitted billions of Colombian pesos in cocaine proceeds to other FARC officials. Rodriguez Mendieta is also alleged to have ordered the murder of at least eight farmers, including several whom he personally dismembered alive, and to have plotted to retaliate against United States law enforcement officers who were conducting the narcotics-trafficking investigation#06-163: 03-22-06 United States Charges 50 Leaders of Narco-Terrorist FARC in Colombia with Supplying More Than Half of the World\'s Cocaine
/ref> Jorge Enrique Rodriguez Mendieta (a.k.a. Ivan Vargas) was arrested by Colombian authorities in late 2004 and extradited to the U.S. in November 2007. On 16 December 2009, he pleaded guilty in a Washington, D.C. federal court to conspiring to import large quantities of cocaine into the U.S. When submitting his guilty plea, Mendieta admitted that he had directed other FARC members to purchase hundreds of thousands of kilograms of cocaine paste, some of which was imported to the U.S. The U.S. government has also alleged that Mendieta plotted to retaliate against American law enforcement officers conducting the narcotics-trafficking investigation that ultimately led to the charges filed against him.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rodriguez, Jorge Enrique 1963 births Living people Members of FARC Colombian drug traffickers Colombian people imprisoned in the United States Prisoners and detainees of the United States federal government Date of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) People extradited from Colombia to the United States