Colombia Police Arrest FARC Leader, Undermining Peace Agreement

Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, FARC, leader Rodrigo Londoño, also known as "Timochenko," says the Colombian government has violated their peace agreement by detaining one of the organization's leader.

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Gloria Martinez, who leads the militant group's women's division, was arrested Friday when she was traveling to Cucuta to present an academic paper.

Martinez, who has been in the FARC for 32 years, is the head of the organization in the Transitional Zone "El Negro Eliecer Gaitan," located in Caño Indio, Tibu.

She is also a member of the national team of Pedagogy of Peace and was head of the Monitoring and Verification Mechanism of Bucaramanga, according to Timochenko.

The group that she belongs to, Mujeres Farianas, asked the United Nations to demand that the Colombian government comply with the peace agreement.

On June 5, Timochenko delayed the delivery of the organization's weapons to the U.N. after police captured FARC member Yimmi Rios, known as Troyano, in the capital city of Bogota.

What happened, gentlemen of the government? Comrade Gloria Martínez was arrested, she went to Cucuta to present her thesis on women and gender.

The detention of Gloria is a violation of the Agreement @JuanManSantos. How is it that you will bring her to a legalization capture audience?

They are speedy in legalizing detentions but are delayed in complying with amnesties. The irony of not having word and commitment.

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Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos claimed that the arrest was due to a problem of identities and bureaucratic procedures, according to local police.

"With the capture of Yimmi Rios, any member of the FARC who is involved in implementation tasks can be detained," Timochenko warned two months ago.

"That is almost in the process of being resolved."

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The FARC, the largest leftist guerrilla army in Colombia, handed in the last of its weapons to the U.N. at the end of June as part of the peace deal with the government implemented last November.

They are still waiting in 26 transition zones before they can fully return to civilian life after 52 years of armed conflict.

But the path to peace still faces several obstacles. The group has criticized progress in key areas, including the lack of resources at reintegration zones as well as the spiraling number of activists murdered. Six FARC members have been killed since the peace agreements were signed in November.

The government's failure to recognize the growing presence of right-wing paramilitaries has also been listed as a major threat to the peace process in Colombia.