A complaint about extortion in the area of Caicara del Orinoco, Bolívar state, was what allowed the Venezuelan military to find the location of Olivio Iván Merchán (Loco Iván), one of the heads of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) that he didn’t agree with the surrender of the insurgent group and he settled clandestinely in Venezuela since 2019, according to information obtained from military sources.
Crazy Iván was killed last Friday in the La Cochinera sector, Ciudad Bolívar (Bol). The operation was led by the Bolívar Integral Defense Zone (Zodi) and the Guayana Integral Defense Strategic Region (Redi) whose commanders were monitoring the deployment.
The Zodi Bolívar gathered through intelligence information that from the La Paturra farm, located between Caicara del Orinoco and Ciudad Bolívar, extortions were organized against merchants and ranchers in the area. Such complaint was processed and a fragmentary order was generated; that is, derived from a general operational plan, to move to the site and address the situation. The order was executed last Friday by 80 members of the Bolivarian Infantry, the Bolivarian National Police and the Bolivarian National Guard, who carried out checkpoints and closures on the roads leading to the farm.
Upon arriving at the site, delegates from the police-military commission visualized an armored Toyota Hilux and made mediation contact with the four individuals who were occupying it. And it is there when the irregular rejected the mediation and opened fire. The Venezuelan military responded and killed four subjects, including Loco Iván. At the site they seized three rifles, a pistol and three tactical vests, according to reports.
Cuatro sujetos, presuntamente de nacionalidad colombiana, y uniformados militarmente cayeron abatidos durante un enfrentamiento en Venezuela
Loco Iván didn’t agree with FARC’s dismantling and the Colombian authorities had ordered his capture. The FARC were born in 1964 and demobilized in 2016 after leading a prolonged war with the Colombian State. Now they formed the Alternativa Revolucionaria del Común party.
