Miguel Botache Santillana, known as “Gentil Duarte”, one of the first leaders of the dissolved guerrilla to take up arms after the signing of the peace accords in 2016, died in early May in an attack by a rival group, according to the Colombian press. While the Minister of Defense, Diego Molano, indicated that the combatant would have died in a confrontation with drug gangs.
Botache Santillana, 58, died in a camp in the jungle area of Venezuela about 14 kilometers from the border with Colombia in a rural area known as Casigua El Cubo, located in the state of Zulia, the Colombian newspaper reported. Time. That camp would have been infiltrated by unknown persons during the early hours of Wednesday, May 4. In the bedroom that “Gentil Duarte” had improvised in the jungle, a bomb exploded, killing the dissident chief and a girl named Salomé, the morning newspaper reported.
Gentil Duarte had the protection of some 40 members of the dissidents. According to Time, the former guerrilla distrusted his own men after he almost died in March 2021 in an attack in which 12 people lost their lives. Months later, in July, he fled a police operation in the department of Caquetá, located in the south of the country. According to the Colombian morning paper, Santillana was injured and lost mobility in one arm. The government offered up to a million dollars for information on his whereabouts.
Javier Alonso Veloza García, alias Jhon Mechas, designated as head of the dissidents of the 33rd front, then sought protection. Veloza is also considered the author of the explosion of a device against a police headquarters in the south of Bogotá that occurred at the end of March and in which two children died.
For his part, the Colombian Defense Minister, Diego Molano, confirmed the death of Santillana in a confrontation “because of a confrontation between themselves, between those drug-trafficking and terrorist groups.” The Defense portfolio assured that the confrontation was between the 33rd Front led by “John Mechas” and the Second Marquetalia with Luciano Marín alias “Iván Márquez” at the head of the group. Both groups walked out of the peace accords.
In 2016, “Gentil Duarte” participated in the negotiating table of the peace agreements in Havana, Cuba. However, he was also one of the first fighters to walk out of the agreement before it was signed and later went on to found the first dissidents. According to Molano, the identified camp on the Venezuelan side of the border is proof that the president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro “protects terrorist groups and drug traffickers on his soil and does not fight them.” Meanwhile, Caracas rejects the numerous accusations of the government of Iván Duque and did not rule on the death of the former guerrilla.
For his part, Colombian senator Gustavo Bolívar of Colombia Humana pointed out the security policy of the right-wing governments in the country.. “Gentil Duarte committed crimes for decades in Colombia and they never touched him because in a criminal partnership with military politicians, they expropriated thousands of hectares and vacant lots. He was discharged in Venezuela. The Democratic Security of Uribe and Duque. It is only effective against unarmed youth, ”Bolívar assured on his Twitter account.
Time accessed the camp where the ex-guerrilla was hiding. The morning published images in which you can see various personal items, burned clothes, and the cap that Santillana wore.
The newspaper indicated that the dissidents who carried out the attack had taken the bodies of the people who died in the explosion in early May. In turn, he assured that after the attack on Botache, Néstor Gregorio Vera Fernández, alias Iván Mordisco, would take over as leader of the criminal network headed by “Gentil Duarte.”
The ex-guerrilla allegedly killed in the first days of May joined the 14th guerrilla front in 1981 when he was 17 years old. In 1999 he was the seventh chief and in 2014 he moved to the General Staff. Santillana participated in the negotiations held in Havana. After abandoning the peace accords, in December 2016 he formed the Jorge Briceño front, an organization that extorted merchants and ranchers. Four years ago, this group began a mainly forced recruitment campaign of children in the areas of Meta, Guavire, and Caquetá.