Former number two Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (Farc) announced in a video message the resumption of fighting against the government. Luciano Marín Arango aka "Iván Márquez" appeared in the recordings together with about 20 armed soldiers. It starts "a new stage of the struggle," read Márquez from a manifesto.
Márquez had been diving for over a year. At his side was the former guerrilla commander Seuxis Hernández Solarte alias "Jesús Santrich", which is internationally advertised for drug trafficking for investigation.
The Colombian government had betrayed the peace treaty with the Farc, it said in the message on. The group around Márquez will "take up arms" to defend themselves against repression by the government.
Criticism of government
Both were among the Farc negotiators of the 2016 peace agreement with the Colombian government. The agreement had ended the decade-long civil war with some 220,000 dead and millions displaced by a peace treaty.
The rebels laid down their arms and were then to return to civilian life. In the summer of 2017, it was said by the United Nations, the 6800 fighters have handed over all previously registered 7132 weapons.
However, the ex-guerilleros repeatedly accuse the government of failing to fulfill its obligations, of not sufficiently supporting and protecting the ex-rebels.
The former Farc boss Rodrigo Londoño declined the resumption of the fight, however. "The vast majority stick to the deal, and despite all the difficulties, we are on the side of peace," he wrote on Twitter.