Colombia rebel group Segunda Marquetalia splits, but majority to continue peace talks

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By Luis Jaime Acosta

BOGOTA (Reuters) – The Colombian rebel group Segunda Marquetalia has split, but a majority of the organization, founded by former members of the Marxist FARC guerrillas, will still pursue peace talks with the government, the faction and a government negotiator said on Wednesday.

The peace negotiations have been championed by President Gustavo Petro, the South American country’s first leftist president, who decades ago was a member of a different rebel group.

“There was a internal division within Segunda Marquetalia,” said Armando Novoa, the government’s chief negotiator with the group, which rejected a 2016 peace agreement to continue its armed struggle. At the time, it argued the government had failed to keep its commitments.

Novoa told Reuters that peace talks continue “with those who show an interest,” which he said is a majority of the group’s members but without providing a specific count.

The divisions within Segunda Marquetalia, one of the largest factions within the now-dissolved Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), stem from a lack of communication between the group’s top leader, Ivan Marquez and veteran commander Walter Mendoza.

Mendoza has been acting as chief negotiation for the group.

Segunda Marquetalia is made up of more than 1,700 combatants located in both jungle and mountainous areas key for drug trafficking and illegal mining.

(Reporting by Luis Jaime Acosta; Writing by David Alire Garcia)