The FARC funeral procession passed through towns in the southern department (state) of Huila, shooting into the air, throwing fireworks, and blasting music, eliciting outrage from local communities.
The Colombian newspaper El Tiempo explained that the FARC members held the procession in honor of 21-year-old Emanuel Marín, a dangerous explosives expert also known as El Flaco (“The Skinny”).
Marín was a member of the “Isaías Pardo” front, a south-western Colombia FARC faction under the broader leadership of Néstor Gregorio Vera Fernández, also known as “Ivan Mordisco.” Marín was reportedly killed by Colombian police officials on Friday evening during a failed FARC attempt to storm a police station in Tesalia, Hulia, seeking to take control of the building. Officials reported that FARC attackers used explosives, bomb cylinders, and long range-weapons during the attack.
The police successfully prevented the takeover of the station, leading to FARC members escaping, but not before setting a vehicle on fire and scattering explosive devices to hinder police pursuit. Marín reportedly received several gunshot wounds during the attack and was gravely wounded. FARC terrorists dragged him away on their way out.
Video footage published by Semana shows the FARC members, clad in the group’s military garb, bidding farewell to El Flaco. The group carried the coffin in a truck adorned with the Colombian flag and white balloons. Several motorcycles can be seen passing by behind them in the video.
Semana reported that the video rapidly went viral, sparking outrage over the way FARC members seemingly traversed through the area just hours after their attack on the police station.
Hulia’s Secretary of Government and Security Juan Carlos Casallas reportedly confirmed that the video corresponds to El Flaco’s funeral procession. Local authorities later determined that the video was recorded over the weekend by onlookers in the village of Rionegro, municipality of Iquira, Huila.
“The video shared on social media shows the funeral of alias ‘El Flaco,’ a guerrilla fighter who was an explosives expert,” Casallas said. “Most members of the dissident groups are young people and minors who were recruited under false pretenses by these groups in the municipalities.”
Casallas detailed to local outlets that FARC sought to kill “at least ten” Tesalia police officers during the failed Friday attack on the police station using bombs and long range weapons.
Emanuel “El Flaco” Marín was reportedly born in the town of Páez, Cauca, and is presumed to have died hours after he was gravely injured on Friday. Information from Colombian intelligence officials indicated that the attack was ordered by alias “Masa,” chief of FARC’s “Isaías Pardo” front. The terrorist plan called to strike the police station with an explosives-loaded cylinder to breach through a wall.
Three other FARC members were killed by the police during the failed attack, including a woman. On the way out, FARC members reportedly left three high-powered firecrackers, three bomb cylinders, improvised devices, fragmentation grenades, and tatucos, makeshift explosive weapons often used by Colombian guerrillas.
“Our men emerged completely unscathed from this attack, thanks to their timely response and the security protocols established for this type of incident,” Huila Police commander Colonel Carlos Eduardo Téllez, said, and explained that all leftover FARC explosive devices were detonated in a controlled manner.
The FARC, a Marxist terror group founded in the 1960s, claims that it “abandoned terrorism” and “demobilized” in 2016 after signing a purported “peace deal” with the government of then-President Juan Manuel Santos, who was awarded with the Nobel Peace Prize for arranging this deal.
In return for allegedly “abandoning terrorism,” FARC’s leadership was granted several generous benefits such as legal immunity and uncontested congressional seats. FARC nevertheless actively continues to carry out numerous terrorist activities throughout Colombia, and is presumed to have been involved in the assassination of conservative Senator Miguel Uribe Turbay earlier this year.
The Colombian government and mainstream media claim that the active FARC forces are a “dissident” faction and that the “true” FARC is the leadership in the capital city of Bogotá.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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