FARC congressman “Jesus Santrich” failed to show up at the Supreme Court on Tuesday, weeks after the former guerrilla leader went missing.
Santrich was summoned to appear to defend himself against a vague US drug trafficking charge, but disappeared late last month.
The FARC’s faction chief in the House of Representatives allegedly fled to Venezuela after getting wind of an impending plot to assassinate or kidnap him, but this has not been confirmed.
Fellow former guerrilla commanders who demobilized with Santrich in 2017 have called on Santrich to appear before the court and to contact the party.
Santrich’s attorney did appear before the court and said that he hasn’t heard from the FARC leader since his disappearance.
The whereabouts of Santrich are a mystery to everyone, except for Colombia’s Military Intelligence that has claimed the FARC Congressman crossed the Venezuelan border to meet up with “Ivan Marquez,” who went underground in August last year.
The disappearance followed a series of incidents that began in April last year when the prosecution arrested the FARC leader at the request of the US government that accused Santrich of conspiring to traffic drugs.
Colombia’s war crimes tribunal rejected this request in May after having received no evidence that would support the claim. In a shock move, the court ordered investigations into the DEA and the prosecution over alleged misconduct.
The Supreme Court subsequently took over the drug trafficking claim and ordered the release of the FARC leader, who was then sworn in as congressman.
Santrich’s disappearance shocked friend and foe as the FARC leader had explicitly said he would cooperate with justice and even called a press conference to apologize for remarks about his obligations to victims made ahead of peace talks in 2012.
The court will now decide whether or not to call for the arrest of Santrich, of whom it is unclear at this point whether he is dead or alive and teaming up with other missing FARC commanders.
