Timoleon Jimenez

Born January 22, 1959 in Calarca , Department of Kindio , Colombia .

In his youth, he studied medicine (specializing in cardiology ) at the University of Patrice Lumumba in Moscow , and then in Cuba . He underwent military training in the army of Marshal Tito in Yugoslavia , after which he joined the FARC in March 1982.

He quickly rose in the organization, achieved the position of “commander of the Ninth Front of the FARC” ( Spanish Comandante del Frente 9 ). In 1986, he was already the fifth at the FARC Central Headquarters. It is considered one of the main organizers of the military operation "on the Bogota-Medellin road" and other attacks in the department of Antioquia .

Timoleon Jimenez was one of seven members of the "ruling partisan secretariat." Since the early 1990s, he worked in the department of Northern Santander (on the border with Venezuela ).

In May 2006 he was sentenced in absentia (in Colombia) to imprisonment for 40 years by a court decision in the city of Popayan : for rebellion, murder, kidnapping, including the abduction and murder in 2003 of a former governor, former minister and eight soldier.

The US State Department also accuses him of organizing the production and trafficking of cocaine in Colombia and in foreign countries. The US State Department has offered a reward of $ 5 million for information leading to his detention.

According to American sources, in 2000, Timoleon Jimenez (along with another rebel leader known as Pastor Alape ( Spanish Pastor Alape )) commanded the operation of the Magdalena Medio Front group (after 2004 the MMF joined the FARC), during which this group regained control of coca cultivation territories in its area of ​​responsibility, resulting in increased cocaine production. Commander Timoleon Jimenez is also accused of shooting down fumigant planes that destroyed forests, kidnapping US citizens and numerous killings of Colombian citizens loyal to government forces.

According to the US Department of State, among the FARC senior staff, Timoleon Jimenez was responsible for controlling the production and transport of cocaine in the United States , as well as its sale in the United States and other countries in volumes measured in hundreds of tons; the proceeds thus obtained under the control of Timoleon were used to finance the partisan movement in Colombia .

Timoleon took over the FARC leadership in November 2011 after the previous leader Alfonso Cano was killed in battle by the Colombian army.

He began his career as a leader with a proposal to the government to begin peace negotiations. “We are ready to discuss privatization , issues of reducing regulation by the state, absolute freedom of trade, democracy in a market economy, ” the communist partisans said in a statement ^[1] . On September 4, 2012, peace negotiations officially started between the administration of President Juan Manuel Santos and the FARC leadership ^[2] .

On September 26, 2016, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and FARC leader Timoleon Jimenez signed a peace agreement. On the occasion of the signing of the historic document, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon , Presidents of Cuba and Venezuela Raul Castro and Nicolas Maduro , US Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Cartagena . At the same time, Timoleon Jimenez said that they will continue to fight, but in the legal field ^[3] . However, at a national referendum held in Colombia on October 2 , 50.21% of voters voted against the peace treaty with the FARC ^[4] . The leader of this protest was the past president of Colombia, Alvaro Uribe . In his opinion, the rebels should be imprisoned and do not have the right to sit in Congress ^[5] . On October 7, the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the Peace Prize to Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos for his efforts to end the civil war, which has continued for more than half a century. ^[6] Timoleon Jimenez congratulated Santos via Twitter ^[7] . On November 24, 2016 in Bogota, he signed a new, somewhat changed in content, peace agreement with President Santos ^[8] .

According to the Colombian Air Force, the pseudonym is taken from the surname of the Soviet Marshal Semyon Timoshenko ^[9] .

• US Department of State: Rodrigo Londoño-Echeverry
• 'Timochenko' profile on Insight Crime (inaccessible link)