Former Farc commanders say they are returning to war despite 2016 peace deal

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Men in YouTube video lambast the Colombian president, Iván Duque, and his government for not keeping its end of the deal.

In their announcement, Márquez and Santrich said they would be forming a ‘new guerrilla’ to continue in arms against the government. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
▼ Two former commanders of the demobilised Colombian rebel group the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, Farc, have announced a that they are returning to war, nearly three years after a peace deal which  sought to endSouth America’s longest guerrilla conflict.
The two men, known by their aliases, Iván Márquez and Jesús Santrich, released a video to YouTube early on Thursday morning in which they lambasted president Iván Duque and his government for not keeping its end of the deal, negotiated over four years of talks in Cuba.
Dressed in military fatigues and flanked by armed fighters, Márquez said: “This is the continuation of the rebel fight in answer to the betrayal of the state of the Havana peace accords. We were never beaten or defeated ideologically, so the struggle continues.”
The 2016 deal sought to formally end 52 years of warthat killed over 260,000 people and forced 7 million from their homes, in a bitter conflict between left-wing rebels, government forces and state-aligned paramilitaries.
Márquez led the Farc’s negotiating team, assisted in part by Santrich – who is currently wanted by US authorities for trafficking cocaine.
The deal initially failed to pass a public referendum by the narrowest of margins. Many took umbrage at the accord’s guarantees of uncontested seats in congress for Farcleaders, and softer sentencing guidelines for those who committed atrocities.
Implementation of the process has been fraught with difficulties, and  (▪ ▪ ▪)

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