He served in the Communist Party (1967), the Colombian Communist Youth organization (1968), and the M-19 in the mid-1970s. He joined the FARC in 1973 and was the leader of the 26th and 6th fronts. He supported Alfonso Cano in the peace negotiations in Arauca, Caracas (1991), and Tlaxcala (1992). In 2008, he joined the FARC Secretariat and commanded the Western Bloc. He was one of the first members who began the secret conversations with the Santos administration.
