The Colombian Prosecutor's Office accuses the dissident leader 'Iván Márquez' for homicide, kidnapping and recruitment

MADRID, 5 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Colombian prosecutor's office announced on Saturday that it has charged the leader of the defunct Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) 'Segunda Marquetalia' dissident Luciano Marin, alias 'Ivan Marquez', with the crimes of murder, kidnapping and recruitment illicit, as well as of other criminal conduct.

The specialized director against Human Rights Violations of the Prosecutor's Office, Deisy Jaramillo Rivera, has assured that the acts attributed to Marín have been carried out by fronts that were in his charge and "in compliance with guidelines and actions" imposed as coordinator of the then northwestern bloc and member of the secretariat of the extinct FARC, as reported by Radio Nacional de Colombia.

In this sense, his possible responsibility is defined by the criminal role and hierarchy that he would have exercised in "the illegal armed group", as explained by the Colombian Prosecutor's Office in a statement.

Among the cases of which 'Márquez' is accused, is the kidnapping and homicide of Army Lieutenant Wargner Harvey Tapias Torres. The soldier was kidnapped in the city of Urabá, on the border with Panama, in 1997 by the FARC. In 2003, the soldier was assassinated while he was still being held by this guerrilla, as reported by 'El Espectador'.

According to the file, the guerrillas shot him after realizing that an operation was approaching to rescue several soldiers and the then governor of Antioquia, Guillermo Gaviria Correa, as well as former Peace Minister Gilberto Echeverri Mejía, according to the aforementioned media.

The other case for which 'Márquez' is accused has to do with the recruitment of a 16-year-old boy in Nariño, in the department of Antioquía, in 2000. Three years later, it was discovered that after several attempts to escape , was assassinated and kidnapped by the guerrillas with whom he was recruited. The body is supposed to be found in a mass grave in the rural area of ​​Samaná (Caldas), although it has not yet been located.

The Prosecutor's Office has ordered the preventive detention of alias 'Iván Márquez' for the crime of deportation, expulsion, transfer or forced displacement of the civilian population.

The case is related to the pressures received by a peasant from the village of El Rosario, in Argelia, Antioquia. In December 2004, the man was forced to abandon his land and sell it at a lower price for refusing to meet, bring food and collaborate with the 9th front of the then FARC, according to the Prosecutor's Office.

"The three processes are followed in accordance with the parameters of Law 600 of 2000. In all of them, the prosecutors reiterated the arrest warrants against Iván Luciano Márquez Marín Arango due to his status as a dissident and his decision to remain in hiding." added the judicial body.