Dissidence of ‘Iván Márquez’, ‘Santrich’ and company breaks their silence on the murder of Álvaro Gómez Hurtado

On the afternoon of this holiday Monday, the FARC dissidents, led by aliases ‘Iván Márquez’ and ‘Jesús Santrich’ issued a statement in which they accept the crime of Álvaro Gómez Hurtado. Faced with doubts about whether the FARC party’s confession was a cover-up, the once-armed guerrillas assured that the order to end the life of Gómez Hurtado had been given since 1982.

In the letter, published by the investigative unit of the newspaper El Tiempo, they assure that “None of the hypotheses about the motives and authors of Álvaro Gómez Hurtado’s death were true, and none of those who had been implicated in one way or another had to do with such an event.”

Regarding the accused who have historically had the case, they denied the participation of Éver Veloza, alias HH, former paramilitary chief in Urabá; Santa Lopesierra and Luis Herniendo Gómez, alias ‘Rasguño’. They also questioned whether former President Ernesto Samper was incriminated in a “premeditated” manner.

The dissidents were critical of the fact that the Prosecutor’s Office declared the murder of Gómez Hurtado a crime against humanity, as they point out that the decision to eliminate him had to do with a rather historical responsibility of the politician with the events that happened in Marquetalia, when the rebel guerrilla of the FARC was born. They allege that a similar investigation has not been carried out into what “the regime committed against the Marquetalia peasants, their persistent and dark persecution, their deaths and mourning, as well as the fratricidal confrontation that was unleashed and has not yet ended.”

Finally, they confirm that the decision to assassinate was taken at the famous Seventh Meta Conference, between May 4 and 14, 1982. This is the third statement attributed to the so-called ‘Segunda Marquetalia’ dissidents, also made up of aliases ‘El Paisa’ and alias ‘Romaña’.

The previous FARC confession

On October 3, the Farc political party sent a letter to the Special Jurisdiction for Peace -JEP-, signed by Julián Gallo Cubillos, Pastor Lisandro Alape Lascarro and Pablo Catatumbo Torres Victoria, and their lawyers, in which the murder of the conservative politician Álvaro Gómez Hurtado, which occurred on November 2, 1995.

The confession of the crime by the former guerrilla leaders generated a wave of comments from politicians, some even pointing to an alleged cover-up of those who were truly responsible for the crime.

“Eyes wide open: if JEP assumes jurisdiction in the case of Álvaro Gómez, it will be to cover up those who are truly responsible. Farc will be willing to do a favor to their friends. It is not a coincidence. Progress is beginning to be seen right now, ”Rafael Nieto Loaiza, a member of the Democratic Center, wrote on his Twitter account.

Senators of the ruling party also joined to reject that the FARC has attributed the murder of Gómez Hurtado.

Even President Iván Duque reacted to the news: “We saw in the last hours that some members of the Farc have attributed this fact to themselves and that they are going to tell the JEP that. I want to say the following, obviously that justice does its job, but also that he is not going to allow for one thing to try to obstruct the true responsibility behind that murder ”.

The president said that he had doubts that the FARC would adjudicate the crime, “when there are already guarantees that no one will pay jail time. It does not stop generating doubts, suspicions, concerns”.

In addition, he pointed out that if someone claims this death and it does not correspond to the truth, it should be understood “that a crime is being committed to obstruct justice in our country. We want justice to act with forceful promptness and not to dismiss any of the considerations, nor in the statements that it has also made Álvaro Gómez’s family about what they claim must be investigated so that the truth is known”.

“It was a mistake to have killed the politician”

Rodrigo Londoño, political leader of the Farc, published a statement in which they admit that they were behind the murder of Gómez Hurtado in 1995.

“We have expressed our decision to contribute the truth and recognize the responsibility of the Farc in the homicides of Álvaro Gómez Hurtado, Jesús Antonio Bejarano, Fernando Landazábal Reyes and Pablo Emilio Guarin, as well as Hernando Pizarro and José Fedor Rey. We ratify our unwavering commitment to peace in Colombia, with the victims and their families”.

The Farc party points out that for 25 years this crime, declared as against humanity in May 2019, has remained in impunity.

“This lacerates the open wound in the heart of Álvaro Gómez’s family and friends. Today, a few days after the 25th anniversary of this murder, the members of the former secretariat of the extinct FARC-EP recognize before the family of Gómez Hurtado, the country and the world that we are responsible for this fact ”, they confessed.

At the end of the statement, the now political party acknowledges that it was a mistake to have assassinated “a politician of the stature of Álvaro Gómez Hurtado. We have read his biographies and today we know that his contribution to the peace of the country it would have been fundamental. But the war clouds the vision of the future and only allows us to see reality in black and white and divide it into friends and enemies ”.