Terrorism QuickBrief: Segunda Marquetalia: The Resurgence of an Armed Group in Colombia

Segunda Marquetalia is an armed group that has emerged as a new threat to security and stability in Colombia. This article explores the origins, activities, and implications of the group's resurgence, shedding light on its impact on the Colombian conflict and the challenges it poses to the country's peace process.

Origins and Historical Context:

Segunda Marquetalia traces its roots back to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a Marxist guerrilla group that operated in Colombia for over five decades. In 2016, the FARC signed a historic peace agreement with the Colombian government, leading to the demobilization and disarmament of thousands of fighters. However, a faction within the FARC, dissatisfied with the implementation of the peace deal, regrouped and formed Segunda Marquetalia, named after the birthplace of the FARC's original founder, Manuel Marulanda.

Activities and Objectives:

Segunda Marquetalia has engaged in a range of illicit activities, including drug trafficking, extortion, and illegal mining. These activities serve as a primary source of financing for the group, allowing it to sustain its operations and maintain its armed presence. Additionally, Segunda Marquetalia has targeted security forces and infrastructure, conducting attacks and ambushes in various regions of Colombia. The group seeks to challenge the government's authority and undermine the legitimacy of the peace agreement.

Implications for the Peace Process:

The resurgence of Segunda Marquetalia presents significant challenges to Colombia's peace process. The group's actions undermine the progress made in the demobilization and reintegration of former FARC members into civilian life. It also erodes public confidence in the peace agreement and threatens the stability of post-conflict regions. The presence of Segunda Marquetalia not only hampers the government's efforts to establish state authority but also perpetuates violence and insecurity in areas where the FARC previously held control.

Response from the Colombian Government:

The Colombian government has responded swiftly to address the threat posed by Segunda Marquetalia. Security forces have intensified military operations in areas known to be under the group's influence, aiming to dismantle its networks and disrupt its illicit activities. The government has also implemented strategies to enhance intelligence capabilities, strengthen border control, and increase cooperation with international partners to combat the group's transnational criminal activities.

Regional and International Implications:

The resurgence of Segunda Marquetalia has regional and international implications. The group's involvement in drug trafficking and other illicit activities contributes to the destabilization of neighboring countries, as it forms alliances with other criminal organizations. Furthermore, the group's reemergence underscores the challenges of addressing transnational security threats and highlights the need for regional cooperation to combat organized crime and illicit networks.

The Path Forward:

Addressing the challenge posed by Segunda Marquetalia requires a multifaceted approach. The Colombian government must prioritize security efforts to dismantle the group's infrastructure, disrupt its financing, and bring its leaders to justice. Simultaneously, the government must continue to address the root causes of the conflict, such as poverty, inequality, and rural development, to prevent the recruitment and radicalization of marginalized populations. Additionally, efforts to promote reconciliation, social inclusion, and the rule of law are crucial in building sustainable peace and preventing the emergence of new armed groups.

Conclusion:

Segunda Marquetalia's resurgence represents a setback for Colombia's peace process and poses significant challenges to the country's security and stability. The group's illicit activities and armed operations undermine the progress achieved through the peace agreement with the FARC. The Colombian government, in collaboration with regional and international partners, must confront this new threat, dismantling the group's networks, and addressing the root causes of the conflict. By doing so, Colombia can pave the way for a more inclusive and sustainable peace, ensuring the well-being and security of its citizens.

VIKTOR BOUT SENTENCED TO 25 YEARS FOR TERRORIST CRIMES

DEA Administrator Michele M. Leonhart today announced that international arms dealer VIKTOR BOUT was sentenced today to 25 years in prison for conspiring to sell millions of dollars worth of weapons, including hundreds of surface-to-air missiles and over 20,000 AK-47s to the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (the “FARC”), a designated foreign terrorist organization based in Colombia.  BOUT understood that the weapons would be used to kill Americans in Colombia.  On November 2, 2011, BOUT was convicted on all four counts for which he was charged after a three-week jury trial before U.S. District Judge Shira A. Scheindlin.

“The crimes Viktor Bout committed represent the worst case scenario for modern law enforcement--the merger of criminal international narcotics cartels with their terrorism enablers,” Leonhart said. “But his sentencing today also reflects the best of modern international law enforcement-- sophisticated, determined, and coordinated. Thanks to the extraordinary efforts of criminal investigators and prosecutors in the United States, Thailand, Romania, Curacao and elsewhere, the ‘Merchant of Death’ has finally been held to account in a court of law for his years of profiteering from death and misery around the world.”

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said: “Viktor Bout has been international arms trafficking enemy number one for many years, arming some of the most violent conflicts around the globe.  He was finally brought to justice in an American court for agreeing to provide a staggering number of military grade weapons to an avowed terrorist organization committed to killing Americans.  Today’s sentence is a fitting coda for this career arms trafficker of the most dangerous order.”

According to the Indictment and evidence presented at the trial:

Since the 1990s, BOUT has been an international weapons trafficker.  As a result of his weapons trafficking activities in Liberia, the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control within the Department of Treasury placed him on the Specially Designated Nationals list in 2004.  The designation prohibits any transactions between BOUT and U.S. nationals, and freezes any of his assets that are within the jurisdiction of the United States.

Between November 2007 and March 2008, BOUT agreed to sell millions of dollars’ worth of weapons to the FARC, including 700-800 surface-to-air missiles (“SAMs”), over 20,000 AK-47 firearms, 10 million rounds of ammunition, five tons of C-4 plastic explosives, “ultralight” airplanes outfitted with grenade launchers, and unmanned aerial vehicles.  BOUT agreed to sell the weapons to two confidential sources working with the DEA (the “CSs”), who represented that they were acquiring them for the FARC, with the specific understanding that the weapons were to be used to attack U.S. helicopters in Colombia.

During a covertly recorded meeting in Thailand on March 6, 2008, BOUT stated to the CSs that he could arrange to airdrop the arms to the FARC in Colombia, and offered to sell them two cargo planes that could be used for arms deliveries.  He also provided a map of South America and asked the CSs to show him American radar locations in Colombia.  BOUT said that he understood that the CSs wanted the arms to use against American personnel in Colombia, and advised that, “we have the same enemy,” referring to the United States.  He also stated that the FARC’s fight against the United States was also his fight and that he had been “fighting the United States…for ten to fifteen years.” During the meeting, he also offered to provide people to train the FARC in the use of the arms.

The evidence presented at trial included a recording of the March 6, 2008 meeting between BOUT, the CSs, his former associate Andrew Smulian, and others.  Smulian was charged along with BOUT in March 2008 and pled guilty in July 2008.  Smulian cooperated with the Government and, along with the two CSs, provided testimony at the trial.

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In addition to his prison term, Judge Scheindlin sentenced BOUT to 5 years of supervised released and ordered him to forfeit $15 million.

BOUT was arrested in Thailand in March 2008 based on a Complaint filed in Manhattan federal court.  He was subsequently charged in a four-count Indictment in April 2008 and extradited to the Southern District of New York in November 2010.  At trial, he was convicted of (1) conspiring to kill U.S. nationals; (2) conspiring to kill U.S. officers and employees; (3) conspiring to acquire and export anti-aircraft missiles; and (4) conspiring to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization.

Besides the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and Southern District of New York, the Royal Thai Police was instrumental in the success of the Bout case.  In addition, the Romanian National Police, the Romanian Prosecutor’s Office Attached to the High Court of Cassation and Justice, the Korps Politie Curaçao of the Netherlands Antilles, and the Danish National Police Security Services assisted, as well as the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs.

Dempsey: Colombia Has Strategy to Take Down Terror Group

By Jim Garamone

American Forces Press Service

BRASILIA, Brazil, March 29, 2012 – The Colombians have a good strategy to counter the main terrorist group in the country, and they will stick with it, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said yesterday.

Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey spoke with reporters traveling with him from Colombia to Brazil. He spent two days in Colombia meeting with senior leaders and visiting Joint Task Force Vulcano – a new interagency force aimed at defeating the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as FARC.

Dempsey said he was impressed by the senior leaders he met during his visit. “They had a remarkably coherent vision of where they are today to where they need to be,” he said.

The strategy calls for Colombia to cut the FARC forces in half in two years. “They selected 2014 as a key moment for them,” he said. “They want to accelerate their effects against the FARC.”

The conversations he had with senior leaders dealt not only with equipment, but also intellectual capital, the chairman said. “We’re getting ready to send some brigade commanders who have been in Iraq and Afghanistan down here to partner with their Joint Task Force commanders in a leader developmental function,” the general said. “The challenges they face are not unlike the challenges we’ve faced in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

These American officers will visit with joint task force commanders for two weeks and share insights into their fights overseas. Dempsey said he fully expects the American leaders to learn from their Colombian counterparts, too.

The Colombians began by speaking about their personnel, Dempsey said, and then went to ways to accelerate the effects they were trying to make on the ground. He said this includes border security; critical infrastructure protection; intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; intelligence fusion; airlift; and remotely piloted vehicles. “It wasn’t a shopping list,” the chairman said. “It was more, ‘We have the strategy. We’ve got the resources we need to do it, with a few exceptions, and we can work together to close those gaps.”

The Colombians have made great progress and they want to take advantage of that, Dempsey said. They have found that as they introduce the army into the populace, people became fond of its presence, he added.

That works well, Dempsey said, until you want to move the units. “The army has become fixed to an extent, and part of the strategy is to reintroduce mobile forces,” he explained. “They are forming a number of joint task forces, but also national police, and they are putting them in the places where the FARC has migrated to.”

The Colombians are doubling their efforts and making sure they are integrating their efforts as a nation, the chairman said. “It really has to be the whole of government,” he added. “It is really emphasizing what we called in Iraq ‘clear, hold, build.’”

Colombia has been working closely with the U.S. government in the fight. Current Colombian military leaders all have received at least some American military training.

“There was a gravitas about them, and they have a grasp of what they are facing,” Dempsey said. “There was a real appreciation of the task at had. The Colombians are winning. The FARC has had a few successes, but so have the military.”

Dempsey Visits Latest Site in Colombia’s Terrorism Fight

By Jim Garamone

American Forces Press Service

TIBU, Colombia – The markets are all open in this small Colombian town. Some streets are cobbled, some are bricked, some once had macadam and others are just dirt.

Chickens run around in the backyards of houses facing the air strip, and a plane or helicopter landing there attracts curious on-lookers.

They had a lot to look at today as U.S. Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, joined virtually the entire Colombian defense leadership to visit Joint Task Force Vulcano, located just outside town.

The Colombian government established the task force in December. It is the latest effort to defeat the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – known by its Spanish acronym FARC – and other terror groups and criminal gangs.

“It draws all assets of the government together to provide security for the people,” said Colombian army Capt. Jose Mojica, a spokesman for the task force.

Dempsey arrived at the base in a Colombian Air Force Mi-17 helicopter along with Colombian Defense Minister Juan Carlos Pinzon Bueno and Gen. Alejandro Navas, commander of the Colombian Armed Forces.

Dempsey thanked the troops and police for their courage in facing groups that threaten not only their country, but the region and the hemisphere.

“I thank you for your courage and for the sacrifices you have suffered over these many years,” the general said. “As the chief of our armed forces, I come here today to first of all say ‘thank you,’ and secondly, how much we admire your courage and democratic values. I commit to continuing to be a good partner with you in this conflict.”

Following his comments, Dempsey discussed strategy with the minister and the chief of defense and also Army chief Maj. Gen. Sergio Mantilla Sanmiguel, Navy chief Vice Adm. Roberto Garcia Marquez and Air Force chief Maj. Gen. Tito Saul Pinilla-Pinilla.

Only a couple hundred soldiers were at the task force base. “We have little amount of people here, because the rest are in the field,” Mojica said, adding that they patrol continuously.

The impoverished area is three kilometers from the Venezuela border, which U.S. officials, speaking on background, said is porous and suffers from corruption. The area is a prime shipping point for cocaine and the FARC and other terror groups use the proceeds to fuel their fight, they said.

If money stays in the village, it is well hidden. Whole families ride on small motorbikes with a father driving, mother on the back, and a small child wedged between them.

Before Joint Task Force Vulcano stood up, there were a small number of troops in the region. Now there are more than 10,000, Mojica said. The forces are composed of three mobile brigades and a geographic brigade. A fourth brigade is getting ready to deploy to the area.

This is all part of an ambitious Colombian strategy to cut the FARC by half in two years. U.S. Embassy officials said there are about 8,000 FARC members now. Colombian officials spoke of the plan as the end game for the rebellion against the government after 48 years of intermittent war.

The Colombian military is a leader in counterinsurgency strategy and have incorporated civil affairs efforts into almost every operation. Health care is a big draw, especially for the underserved people in the countryside. One of the first operations the task force set up was a health care program, including a health fair for the people of Tibu.

The FARC had warned towns people to stay away from the health effort, and task force commanders were worried the people would be too afraid to show up, Mojica said. But by 6 a.m., 250 people already were line, he said.

The FARC and their criminal allies are not taking the challenge lying down. The group attacked a police station outside Tibu just after Dempsey left the area. First reports indicated two police were dead and three were wounded.

Accused Member of Foreign Terrorist Organization Extradited to United States on Hostage Taking Charges

WASHINGTON—Alexander Beltran Herrera, 35, aka Jhon Alexander Beltrain Herrera, aka Rodrigo Pirinolo, an accused member of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), has been extradited from Colombia to face hostage taking and terrorism charges in the United States.

The extradition was announced by Lisa Monaco, assistant attorney general for national security; Ronald C. Machen Jr., U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia; and Dena Choucair, acting special agent in charge of the FBI’s Miami Division.

Beltran Herrera was extradited from Colombia to the United States over the weekend to face charges in an indictment returned in the District of Columbia on February 22, 2011. The indictment, which names as defendants 18 members of the FARC, charges Herrera specifically with one count of conspiracy to commit hostage taking; three counts of hostage taking; one count of using and carrying a firearm during a crime of violence; one count of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists; and one count of conspiracy to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization.

Beltran Herrera is scheduled to be arraigned today at 11:15 a.m. before Judge Royce C. Lamberth in federal court in the District of Columbia. If convicted of all the charges against him, he faces a maximum potential sentence of life in prison.

According to the indictment, the FARC is an armed, violent organization in Colombia, which, since its inception in 1964, has engaged in an armed conflict to overthrow the Republic of Colombia, South America’s longest-standing democracy. The FARC has consistently used hostage taking as a primary technique in extorting demands from the Republic of Colombia. Hostage taking has been endorsed and commanded by FARC senior leadership. The FARC has characterized American citizens as “military targets” and has engaged in violent acts against Americans in Colombia, including murders and hostage taking. The FARC was designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. Secretary of State in 1997 and remains so designated.

The indictment alleges that Beltran Herrera was a member of the 27th Front in the FARC’s Southern Block. Beltran Herrera was allegedly involved in the hostage taking of three U.S. citizens, Marc D. Gosalves, Thomas R. Howes, and Keith Stansell. These three individuals, along with Thomas Janis, a U.S. citizen, and Sergeant Luis Alcides Cruz, a Colombian citizen, were seized on February 13, 2003 by the FARC after their single engine aircraft made a crash landing near Florencia, Colombia. Janis and Cruz were murdered at the crash site by members of the FARC.

According to the indictment, Gonsalves, Howes, and Stansell were held by the FARC at gunpoint and were advised by FARC leadership that they would be used as hostages to increase international pressure on the government of the Republic of Colombia to agree to the FARC’s demands.

The FARC at various times marched the hostages from one site to another, placing them in the actual custody of various FARC fronts. At the conclusion of one 40-day march, in or about November 2004, the hostages were delivered to members of the FARC’s 27th Front, commanded by Daniel Tamayo Sanchez, who was responsible for the hostages for nearly two years, after which they were delivered to the FARC’s 1st Front. During part of this two-year period with the 27th Front, Beltran Herrera was responsible for moving the hostages and keeping them imprisoned.

Throughout the captivity of these three hostages, FARC jailors and guards, including Beltran Herrera, used choke harnesses, chains, padlocks, and wires to restrain the hostages, and used force and threats to continue their detention and prevent their escape. The indictment also accuses Beltran Herrera of using and carrying a military-type machine gun during the hostage taking and providing material support and resources to aid in the hostage taking and to aid the FARC.

“Today’s extradition underscores our resolve to hold accountable all those responsible for this crime and we will not rest until every one of them is brought to justice,” said Assistant Attorney General Monaco.

“This extradition is another step toward justice on behalf of Americans taken hostage and held in chains by a Colombian terrorist organization,” said U.S. Attorney Machen. “We will not hesitate to bring to justice anyone who targets Americans around the world with violence to advance their political agendas.”

“This extradition further disrupts and dismantles the FARC, a foreign terrorist organization that has engaged in violent acts against American and Colombian citizens,” said FBI Acting Special Agent in Charge Choucair. “The outstanding, long-term cooperation between the Colombian National Police and U.S. law enforcement has struck another blow to international terrorism.”

This investigation is being led by the FBI’s Miami Field Division. The prosecution is being handled by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Anthony Asuncion and Fernando Campoamar-Sanchez from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, and Trial Attorney David Cora from the Counterterrorism Section of the Justice Department’s National Security Division.

Substantial assistance in the case was provided by the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs, the Department’s Judicial Attachés in Colombia, and the FBI’s Legal Attaché in Colombia. The Directorate of Intelligence (DIPOL) and the Anti-Kidnapping Unit (GAULA) of the Colombian National Police also provided substantial assistance.

The public is reminded that an indictment contains mere allegations and that defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.