Gomez was born in the northern La Guajira department in 1947, where he joined a local branch of the Colombian Communist Party during his teenage years.

After the assassination of several of his comrades by paramilitary groups, Gomez left Colombia to study agricultural science in the Soviet Union.

On his return to Colombia in the early 1980s, Gomez enrolled as a teacher at the University of Amazonas in Florencia, the capital of the Caqueta province.

According to the US Department of State Gómez has participated in setting and implementing the FARC’s cocaine policies directing and controlling the production, manufacture, and distribution of hundreds of tons of cocaine to the United States and the world; the "taxation" of the drug trade in Colombia to raise funds for the FARC.

[1] After the death of Raul Reyes on 1 March 2008 a website affiliated to the FARC called Agencia Bolivariana de Prensa announced on 4 March 2008 that Joaquín Gómez was to replace Reyes as member of the Secretariat or higher command of the FARC.