The main dissident leader of the FARC is killed in a military operation in Colombia

The Colombian government has announced that the guerrilla leader Néstor Gregorio Vera Fernández, aka “Iván Mordisco”, one of the dissident leaders of the FARC, He died last weekend in a military operation in the Colombian department of Caquetá, in what they called “a coup de grace to dissidence” in the words of Defense Minister Diego Molano.

It was in an attack by the Colombian armed forces, where nine other members of the group also died.

“This operation, which allows the neutralization of nine individuals from that first front of FARC dissidents and the neutralization of the alias ‘Iván Mordisco’, also allows us to underline that it is an operation in which the last great leader falls. of the FARC FARC and it happens one last blow to dissidence“Minister Molano said at a press conference in Bogotá.

According to the Colombian newspaper El Espectador, the National Police he would be able to surround Mordisco in the southern department of San Vicente del Caguán. Over the weekend, after a bombing raid, they raided two dissident camps.

According to information that intelligence sources have entrusted to the RCN Noticias chain of Colombia, Mordisco’s assistants have taken the lifeless body of their commander from the site of the attack.

Colombian forces managed to locate the body of Mordisco’s sentimental partner and that of his communications specialist, “with signs of being dragged,” reports ‘El Tiempo’, “which would ratify the version that Bite’s body has been removed from the site. “

They were also able to seize two rifles, pistols, magazines, grenades and even a drone.

According to the armed forces, this war material was intended to intimidate the civilian population and plan some terrorist actions. Front 1 “Armando Ríos”, led by Iván Mordisco, It was funded through drug trafficking, extortion and kidnapping. It had an operational hub in Meta, Caquetá and Guaviare.

A dissident leader specializing in kidnappings

The “Armando Ríos” is an organization that has about 400 members according to intelligence estimates. It had recently suffered a severe blow with the death of Miguel Botache Santillana, aka Gentil Duarte, who was one of the most prominent leaders of the dissidents. Without Duarte, Mordisco presented himself as the main head of the organization nationwide.

The Colombian government estimates that Mordisco too He had ties to drug cartels in Mexico.

An expert sniper and explosives expert, Mordisco had joined the FARC in the 2000s. Since 2008 he had grown strongly in his forced recruitment tasks, where the victims were mainly indigenous peoples. Mostly children and farmers.

When peace negotiations began in Havana, in which the Colombian government and the FARC-EP participated, Mordisco was one of the dissidents who announced that they would not demobilize. He also issued a statement, in which he called on more guerrillas to “continue with the armed struggle”.