BOGOTA, December 5, Reuters - A top commander belonging to a group of former Colombian rebels who rearmed after a peace deal in 2016 was killed in an ambush in Venezuela, Colombian media reported on Sunday.
Hernan Dario Velasquez, known as El Paisa, is a former member of the now-demobilized Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia FARC guerrillas. He and several other well-known commanders said in 2019 they were rearming and forming a faction called Segunda Marquetalia.
The newspaper El Tiempo reported that Velasquez was killed in an attack by mercenaries trying to cash in on rewards available for his capture.
According to high-level official sources, the Colombian military was in no way involved in the operation, which took place in Apure state.
Neither the Colombian Defense Ministry nor the Venezuelan Information Ministry responded immediately to requests for comment.
A spokesman for Colombian President Ivan Duque said the office was looking for information about Velasquez's reported death, while the commander of the armed forces and the head of the national police both said they had no information.
Caracas has denied the accusations, despite Duque's government accusing Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro of securing and protecting FARC dissidents.
Colombian Defense Minister Diego Molano blamed a dispute over control of drug traffickers between the Venezuelan military and illegal armed groups for mass displacements of Venezuelans to Colombia earlier this year.
An Interpol red notice, which serves as an international arrest warrant obliging member countries - including Venezuela - to arrest and extradite criminal suspects, was reissued earlier this year for Velasquez.
Ivan Marquez, the commander of Segunda Marquetalia, told local media last week that Colombia's government should hold talks with all armed groups to achieve peace for the Andean country.
The government says some 2,400 fighters are in their ranks, and battle crime gangs and one another for access to illegal mining and cocaine production.