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News > Latin America

Colombia's Public Ministry Denies Wall Street Journal's Claims

  • Ivan Marquez of the political party of FARC speaks during a news conference in Bogota, Colombia April 10, 2018.

    Ivan Marquez of the political party of FARC speaks during a news conference in Bogota, Colombia April 10, 2018. | Photo: Reuters

Published 29 April 2018
Opinion

Ivan Marquez responded to the WSJ accusations saying on Twitter that they were “warming up old stuff in a bid to sink peace efforts.”

Colombia's Attorney General's Office affirmed Saturday that no investigation has been opened since the peace accord was signed against the former negotiator for the former FARC rebel group FARC Ivan Marquez over alleged drug-trafficking charges, as claimed by a Wall Street Journal's article published earlier.

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According to the article, U.S. and Colombian authorities opened a probe against Luciano Marín, aka Marquez, over his alleged participation in the exporting of cocaine to the U.S. territory. It quotes a cellphone video footage where Marquez allegedly speaks to an associate of a known Mexican drug trafficker.

Marquez is currently in the rural village of San Vicente del Caguan, where Jesus Santrich was arrested earlier this month on drug-trafficking charges.

He responded to the WSJ accusations saying on Twitter that they were “warming up old stuff in a bid to sink peace efforts.”

Marquez was a rebel negotiator for more than four years at peace talks between the government and the FARC, which kept its initials but renamed itself the Revolutionary Alternative Common Force when it became a political party.

Under the terms of a 2016 peace deal with the government, the FARC handed over thousands of weapons and pledged to abandon drug trafficking, which had been a key source of financing for the group during five decades of war, in exchange for 10 guaranteed seats in Congress through 2026 and other benefits.

Crimes committed by FARC members during the war are to be adjudicated by a special tribunal, but those committed after demobilization are subject to the regular judicial procedure, which includes the possibility of extradition. 

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