COLOMBIA’S PACIFIC JUNGLE – Amid the sweltering heat and humidity of Colombia’s remote jungle, guerrillas armed with machine guns and rifles stalk the undergrowth and patrol along a river, where their presence ensures control of key transportation routes for the cocaine they seize.

The Segunda Marquetalia group was founded in 2019 by opposition members of the now-demobilized Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). They claim the government has not respected the terms of a 2016 peace agreement that ended FARC’s involvement in Colombia’s long conflict and are demanding further concessions before they will hand over their weapons.

Segunda Marquetalia remains true to the Marxist ideals that underpinned the FARC’s founding in 1964, such as land redistribution. Many of Segunda Marquetalia’s leaders are long-time FARC veterans and are now over 60 years old.

Some fighters in a camp visited by Reuters – the first time the group has allowed a media outlet to visit one of its camps – still wear symbols such as a bracelet with an image of Che Guevara that have long been associated with Latin American rebel groups.

But times have changed in other ways too. Many of the ordinary people, some of them still teenagers, have mobile phones. A generator in the camp in southwest Colombia supplies power to a satellite internet connection that allows them to video call their families.

The 1,700-member Segunda Marquetalia is one of the few remaining rebel groups holding talks with Colombia’s first leftist president, Gustavo Petro, who is trying to negotiate new peace deals before the end of his term in 2026.

Although these talks have stalled overall, the government has expressed optimism that an agreement with Segunda Marquetalia could be possible, which would also end the group’s involvement in the six-decade-long armed conflict that has claimed at least 450,000 lives.

However, Segunda Marquetalia’s chief negotiator told Reuters that the rebels first wanted to see significant progress in social investments before discussing the handover of their weapons – one of the government’s key demands.

“That’s what we want: to reach agreements and sign a peace treaty,” said chief negotiator Walter Mendoza, whose real name is Jose Vicente Lesmes, during an interview in a wooden village house with a tin roof several hours from the camp. “But two years is very little and the resistance to Petro’s government is enormous.”

Mendoza, who is 67 and has been involved in the rebel fight for four decades, said investing in long-neglected parts of the country was a priority for the guerrillas before giving up the influence of weapons.

“Right now, neither weapons nor demobilization are on the table,” said Mendoza, wearing a keffiyeh and camouflage pants. He said they wanted to build roads, schools and clinics first, as well as supply electricity to Colombia’s most remote regions. “First things first – transformation of (rural) areas, concrete steps.”

“The immutable limits are: no demobilization or surrender of weapons in advance,” said Mendoza.

Attracting young talent

Mendoza ordered a group of guerrillas to show Reuters journalists a camp in Segunda Marquetalia, which took four hours to get there by motorized canoe, four-by-four and on foot.

The rebels said an extensive supply network brings food and fuel to the camp by boat or vehicle. The fighters subsist mainly on staple foods such as rice, potatoes, noodles, beef and chicken.

The next rural community is extremely poor. Some residents grow coca, the raw material for cocaine, and small crops such as bananas. Signs celebrating the rebels are displayed on dilapidated buildings.

On a makeshift parade ground, about 50 rebels in military fatigues stood at attention, carrying M16 and AK-47 rifles. They had returned from a patrol.

Although many of the rebels are experienced veterans, some fighters are only 16 years old.

Colombia’s rebel groups and criminal gangs regularly forcibly recruit young people – some of them women – or lure them with promises of economic opportunity or political struggle to control large areas of territory crucial to drug trafficking and illegal gold mining, which security sources say are the armed groups’ main source of funding.

Mendoza denied that the group was directly linked to drug trafficking, but acknowledged that it collects taxes on profits from drug trafficking in the areas it controls.

Since its founding, the Segunda Marquetalia has avoided direct confrontations with the armed forces, but is fighting with other armed groups for territory and control of illegal industries, government sources say.

Mendoza also acknowledged that Segunda Marquetalia has a presence in Venezuela, saying a “buffer zone” gives commanders space to resolve political, logistical and financial problems.

Colombian politicians often accuse the guerrillas of seeking refuge from military offensives in Venezuela with the permission of President Nicolás Maduro. Caracas denies this accusation.

No more weapons

Armando Novoa, the government’s chief negotiator in the Segunda Marquetalia talks, told Reuters that two years would be enough to agree and implement an agreement with the group.

However, he acknowledged that “enormous difficulties and obstacles” remained and said the handover of the group’s weapons was a key element of the negotiations for the government.

“I don’t know whether it is a red line or not, but for us it is of course a central aspect of the negotiations,” he said.

The government agrees that poverty must be fought and investments made in health care and education, said Novoa. But for this development to happen, “the violence of illegal weapons must be ended.”

Eduardo Pizarro, a former ambassador and victims’ representative in the FARC talks, said the group’s refusal to give up its weapons “ruins the possibility of successful peace negotiations.”

“Clinging to weapons is absolutely untenable and completely poisons the credibility of the process,” he said.

The government’s efforts against other armed groups have come to nothing.

A six-month ceasefire with the larger National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrilla group recently expired and the ELN has repeatedly warned that negotiations are in crisis.

Talks are currently underway with the Estado Mayor Central, another breakaway FARC faction, with less than half of that group’s original units, while the criminal gang Clan del Golfo initially rejected surrender negotiations but the government approved preliminary talks this month.

A victory by a right-wing candidate in the 2026 Colombian elections could fuel the conflict, Mendoza said.

“The guerrilla will not disappear,” said Mendoza. “As long as the people support us, the armed struggle will continue.”

At the Segunda Marquetalia camp, Ernesto Rojas said he had been a rebel fighter for more than a decade, first with the FARC and then with Segunda Marquetalia, where he is now commander of the Jacobo Arenas unit. He said a peace agreement would not come overnight, but it could be achieved.

“We will always be open to a political solution to the conflict, whether with this or the next government, as long as the state is also open to it,” Rojas said, placing a rifle between his legs. REUTERS