Controversy in Colombia over School Named after Dead Guerrilla Fighter

Controversy has arisen in Colombia due to the announcement of the inauguration of a school, located in a rural area of San Vicente del Caguan, in the department of Caqueta, which will bear the name of Gentil Duarte, a former guerrilla fighter who belonged to the extinct FARC-EP and who, as a militant in a dissident group of that illegal organization, died in strange circumstances in Venezuela in 2022.

The educational institution will be called Internado Agropecuario y Ambiental Comandante Gentil Duarte. It is scheduled to start its activity on April 12 and 13 of this year, with an inauguration ceremony to which citizens, in general, are invited through a video that is circulating on social networks and that has lent itself to all kinds of criticism and comments since the promotion is being made by the Mayor’s Office itself.

It is not known who proposed the name

To date, it is not known why it was decided to name it after the former guerrilla fighter, and it is not even known how the inauguration of the school was financed.

“The departmental administration does not know who built it, when it was built, or us being immersed in that construction. In addition, we will not endorse the names of people who have harmed the region. We will not allow any type of apology,” said the governor of Caqueta, Luis Francisco Ruiz, in an interview with Blu Radio.

In the promotional video of the event, a presenter extends an invitation to participate in the event, announcing the performance of five musical orchestras. “All this and much more on April 12 and 13 in the village of El Triunfo,” announces the presenter in a design in which liquor bottles appear.

Gentil Duarte, forty years of guerrilla life

Miguel Botache Santillana, alias Gentil Duarte, was a Colombian guerrilla fighter born in Florencia, the capital of the Caqueta department, in 1963. Between 2019 and 2022 he was the leader of one of the most important FARC dissidents, which emerged after renouncing the peace of this major insurgent group in 2016.

Duarte was killed in Venezuela in May 2022, allegedly in battles between his illegal armed group and a front of the National Liberation Army, fighting for control of drug trafficking routes. The fact, in reality, has never been clarified either by the Colombian State nor by Venezuela, the country where the death took place.

Gentil Duarte’s illegal activity began in 1981 when he became a member of the historic and now-defunct FARC-EP guerrilla group. As a leader of the 7th Front of this organization, he came to control important extensions of territory in the department of Meta.

He quickly rose through the ranks of the illegal group until 2009, when he became part of the leadership of the FARC-EP’s powerful Eastern Bloc, where he became the right-hand man of the fearsome Victor Suarez, alias Mono Jojoy, the bloodthirsty leader of the guerrilla bloc who was killed by the Colombian army in September 2010. From there, he went on to join the FARC leadership in 2015, with the peace process underway, dialogues in which he even participated.

Dissident leader of Central General Staff

Very quickly distancing himself from the 2016 Peace Accord, Gentil Duarte organized a dissident group of the former FARC called Central General Staff, currently in peace talks with the government of President Petro. Together with other former FARC members, such as alias Ivan Mordisco, it became a powerful armed group, facing another dissident group called Segunda Marquetalia, this one led by historic ex-FARC members such as Ivan Marquez, el Paisa or Jesus Santrich.

He died in an explosive attack on May 4 in Zulia State, Venezuela. Some sources say it was during an attack attributed to the ELN, although this claim was denied by the group. Other versions suggest that it could have been an ambush perpetrated by dissident factions of the FARC-EP, or in a confrontation with Colombian security forces.