Colombia: five FARC dissidents killed by the army

At least five dissidents of the former FARC guerrilla have been killed during a military operation in southern Colombia, the Colombian army announced on Monday (July 5th).

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According to the statement, the slain rebels belong to the Nueva Marquetalia group, led by the former leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Ivan Márquez, the chief negotiator of the Marxist guerrilla at the time of the peace talks in 2016 which took place. led to a historic agreement and the disarmament of 13,000 combatants.

Three years later, he announced his return to arms, believing that the Colombian government had betrayed the peace agreement signed in Havana.

Without a unified command, FARC dissidents currently number some 2,500 guerrillas who fund themselves mainly through drug trafficking, illegal mining and extortion, according to military intelligence.

The military operation was carried out in the department of Caqueta (south), in the Colombian Amazon where the civil and military authorities blame FARC dissidents for recent massacres. Almost six decades of conflict in Colombia have claimed more than nine million victims (dead, missing and displaced).