Farc guerrillas vow to resume civil war in Colombia

THE top peace negotiator for Colombia’s Marxist guerrillas announced that he was resuming armed conflict yesterday, three years after a peace deal was signed.

Luciano Marin, better known as Iván Márquez, published a video on Youtube announcing that he and his Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) colleagues were taking up arms again, promising to restart the Western hemisphere’s longest-running civil war.

Appearing alongside about 20 heavily armed guerrillas dressed in camouflage fatigues, he condemned Iván Duque, the president, for standing by as hundreds of Leftist activists and 150 rebels have been killed since demobilising.

“When we signed the accord in Havana we did so with the conviction that it was possible to change the life of the most humble and dispossessed,” said Mr Márquez.

“But the state hasn’t fulfilled its most important obligation, which is to guarantee the life of its citizens and especially avoid assassinations for political reasons.”

In the video, Marquez, speaking from what he said were Colombia’s eastern jungles in the Amazon rainforest, stood alongside several former Farc leaders, including ideologue Seuxis Hernandez, alias Jesus Santrich, who abandoned the peace process after the US ordered his arrest on drug charges.

The government said it was very concerned by the announcement.

Bogota is struggling to cope with the aftermath of the 50-year civil war, the recent influx of over a million refugees from neighbouring Venezuela, and the continued guerrilla activity from the ELN (National Liberation Army).

In January, the ELN claimed responsibility for a car bomb attack on a police academy in Bogota which killed 21 people.