Communism in Colombia

A Colombian splinter group of former FARC guerrillas known as Segunda Marquetalia has agreed to a "unilateral ceasefire" and the release of captives following negotiations with the government, according to a joint statement Saturday.

Ecuador on Monday announced the arrest of a wanted cocaine trafficker from neighboring Colombia, as President Daniel Noboa said his government's crackdown on gang violence was starting to bear fruit.

Carlos Arturo Landazuri Cortes, a "high-value target," was captured overnight after months of investigations and intelligence work, Ecuador's police chief Cesar Augusto Zapata said on X.

A dissident former leader of the FARC guerrillas was shot dead in Venezuela by other rebels, Colombian media reported on Dec. 5.

Citing Colombian and Venezuelan intelligence sources, several newspapers said Hernan Dario Velasquez, nicknamed "El Paisa" ("The Peasant"), had been ambushed in the state of Apure, on the border with Colombia.

Colombia's government announced on Oct. 24 it is working towards extraditing the country's most-wanted drug trafficker "Otoniel" to the United States, a day after he was captured in a major operation in the jungle.

Colombian President Ivan Duque announced Friday he was deploying military troops to the city of Cali, as international alarm grows over the policing of deadly anti-government protests across the country in recent weeks.

Friday marked a full month of nationwide protests, which began over a proposed tax increase but have since morphed into a broader anti-establishment mobilization.

Turkey reiterated its support on Sept. 1 for the peace process in Colombia following the recent rearmament announcement by the former top commander of the FARC.       

Colombian former rebel movement FARC said 24 of its ex-combatants had been killed since the beginning of the year, sounding a warning over continued violence threatening Colombia's fragile peace agreement.

Colombia has located and exhumed the bodies of 9,000 people killed by far-right paramilitary groups during the country's decades-long civil war, judicial officials said on May 2.

Colombia on April 9 arrested a soon-to-be congressman from the Marxist FARC party on charges of drug trafficking, the government said, sparking outrage from the former rebel group that demobilized last year.

Right-wing parties opposed to a peace deal with the FARC won historic elections in Colombia on March 11 but fell short of a majority in polls that saw the former rebels enter the Congress.