Colombia rebel negotiators say they are taking up arms again

BOGOTA — The top peace negotiator for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia announced Thursday that he and a small cadre of hard-line supporters are taking up arms again, accusing President Ivan Duque of failing to uphold the 2016 accord that sought to end a half century of bloody fighting.

At the same time, Duque accused Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro of providing safe haven to a cadre of demobilized rebel leaders and offered a nearly $1 million reward for the arrest of the insurgents.

In a video published before dawn, Luciano Marin appeared alongside some 20 heavily armed guerrillas dressed in camouflaged fatigues condemning the conservative Duque for standing by idly as hundreds of leftist activists and more than 150 rebels have been killed since demobilizing as part of the peace deal.

“When we signed the accord in Havana we did so with the conviction that it was possible to change the life of the most humble and dispossessed,” said Marin, better known by his alias Ivan Marquez, in the more than 30-minute video. “But the state hasn’t fulfilled its most important obligation, which is to guarantee the life of its citizens and especially avoid assassinations for political reasons.”

In the video, Marin, speaking from what he said were Colombia’s eastern jungles in the Amazon rain forest, stood alongside several former FARC leaders, including ideologue Seuxis Hernandez, alias Jesus Santrich, who abandoned the peace process after the U.S. ordered his arrest on drug charges.

A commander from the National Liberation Army, or ELN, a more radical guerrilla army that has filled the void left by withdrawing FARC rebels in far-flung rural areas, welcomed the pronouncement, which came as a shock to many Colombians.

“Better late than never,” said the...