The dissident guerrilla group known as the Second Marquetalia has entered peace negotiations with the government of Colombia, and appears poised to strike a deal due to its weakened condition.
On June 24, representatives from the Second Marquetalia (Segunda Marquetalia) and the Colombian government met in Caracas, Venezuela to begin peace talks under Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s Total Peace (Paz Total) strategy. The initiative aims to persuade the country’s main armed organizations to put down their weapons in a series of parallel negotiations.
The Second Marquetalia, created by former commanders of the defunct Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia – FARC), is the third prominent criminal organization to agree to dialogue, following the National Liberation Army (Ejército de Liberación Nacional – ELN) and another ex-FARC faction called the Central General Staff (Estado Mayor Central – EMC).
Both the armed group and the government have strong incentives to quickly forge a peace agreement. The Second Marquetalia is in dire straits, having lost multiple leaders in the last few years. And Petro’s government is eager to show progress on its Total Peace initiative, as it reaches the halfway mark of its four-year term while criminal groups grow stronger and violence has increased in parts of the country.
As negotiations begin, InSight Crime looks at three reasons why they may succeed.
Last Chance for Second Marquetalia Leaders
After Petro took office in 2022, he recognized the Second Marquetalia as a political organization, opening the door for peace talks with the group. But Petro’s successor may not accept this designation, adding a sense of urgency to the negotiations.
The Second Marquetalia’s political standing was unclear at the beginning of Petro’s term. The group was founded in 2019 by former FARC commanders who had chosen to abandon the historic 2016 peace agreement signed during the administration of former Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos. In abandoning the deal, the leaders lost the privileges that came with it, including seats in Congress, and political recognition.
Petro’s decision to recognize the group as a political actor was condemned, including from those who brokered the 2016 peace agreement.
Humberto de la Calle, a senator who was the head of the government delegation to the FARC peace accords, pointed out that the Second Marquetalia’s members had abandoned peace talks once before.
“They had their chance … Who can guarantee [the group] will not break [its] word again?” he said in a video published on his X account.
A peace treaty with Petro may therefore represent the Second Marquetalia’s last opportunity to receive the benefits of voluntary disarmament, including lenient prison sentences.
“Márquez and those who laid down their arms earlier are probably not going to get a government that treats them any better. In other words, if they want to get the best possible deal, now is the time,” Kyle Johnson, co-founder of the Conflict Responses Foundation (CORE), a think-tank specializing in conflict and peace building in Colombia, told InSight Crime.
An Off Ramp From an Unwinnable War
The Second Marquetalia may be inclined to sign an agreement due to its militarily weakened state.
In 2021, the Second Marquetalia fought a war over drug routes against the ex-FARC mafia’s 10th Front and the ELN on the Colombian-Venezuelan border. The conflict was taxing for the Second Marquetalia, and it has yet to fully recover.
During that period, Colombia’s security forces and rival groups killed most of the organization’s top leaders, including Seuxis Pausías Hernández, alias “Jesús Santrich,” Henry Castellanos Garzón alias “Romaña,” and Hernán Darío Velásquez, alias, “El Paisa.” The Second Marquetalia is now led by Luciano Marín Arango, alias “Iván Márquez,” who recently returned to public life almost a year after being reported dead, though he seems to be in poor health. This loss of leadership rendered large parts of the organization inoperative.
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Today, the Second Marquetalia’s territorial power is restricted to a few strongholds along the Colombian-Venezuelan border and in southwestern Colombian states like Nariño, Cauca, and Putumayo.
But even in these regions, it does not have the military capacity to act on its own. The group has been forced to form alliances with stronger local organizations, such as the ELN and the Border Command (Comandos de la Frontera).
This is hardly a promising future for Second Marquetalia, and Total Peace may be its last option to prevent a total military defeat.
Moderates Hold Sway
The death of most of the hard-line founders of the Second Marquetalia elevates the voices of mid-level commanders, who are more open to negotiating.
Santrich, Romaña, and El Paisa, the more radical voices in the group’s leadership, had little incentive to engage in peace talks, having lost any privileges they received from the 2016 peace deal when they abandoned it.
They were also targets of authorities both in Colombia and outside. For example, prior to his death, Santrich was charged with drug trafficking crimes by the United States.
But Márquez, the sole surviving founder of the group, has shown a willingness to negotiate in the past. He was part of an effort to demobilize the FARC in the 1980s, when parts of the organization, including Márquez, split off and formed part of a political party. The effort ended in tragedy, as the military and paramilitary groups massacred party members by the thousands, and the FARC returned in full to the battlefield.
Now, in frail health, Márquez may be more prepared than ever to make a deal.
Additionally, other commanders of the Second Marquetalia have expressed their willingness to take part in negotiations.
For example, Giovanny Andrés Rojas, alias “Araña,” leader of the Border Command, one of the Second Marquetalia’s strongest allies, said his group would be willing to lay down their arms in exchange for “amnesty, forgiveness, and forgetting.” His stance was supported several by other commanders.
Feature image: Peace talks between the Second Marquetalia and the Colombian government in Caracas, Venezuela. Credit: Associated Press.