Colombian Police Arrest Former FARC Member Who Resumed Criminal Activity - President

BUENOS AIRES (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th July, 2020) The Colombian police have caught a former member of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), said to have continued engaging in criminal activities even after the group's disarmament, President Ivan Duque said.

"Very good news: [the Colombian police] reports a serious blow to criminal structures in Maicao, [ the department of] La Guajira, with the capture of Francisco Durango Usuga also known as 'Ariel' or 'Frita' ... who have sowed terror with his actions for 30 years, he is attributed, among other crimes, a conspiracy to commit aggravating crimes, manufacturing, trafficking and carrying weapons, and drug trafficking in a border region with Venezuela," the president tweeted.

Duque has also claimed that the arrested was among the former FARC members, who, in 2019, announced the creation of a new armed group.

FARC was created in 1964 as a left-wing armed force, operating against the Colombian government. In 2017, after the disarmament process, it became Common Alternative Revolutionary Force political party. Nevertheless, in August 2019, former FARC leader Ivan Marquez declared his return to armed struggle.