The Colombian conflict ( es, link=no, Conflicto armado interno de Colombia) began on May 27, 1964, and is a
low-intensity asymmetric war between the
government of Colombia
The Government of Colombia is a republic with separation of powers into executive, judicial and legislative branches.
Its legislature has a congress,
its judiciary has a supreme court, and
its executive branch has a president.
The citiz ...
,
far-right paramilitary groups,
crime syndicates, and
far-left guerrilla groups such as the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People's Army ( es, link=no, Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de ColombiaEjército del Pueblo, FARC–EP or FARC) is a Marxist–Leninist guerrilla group involved in the continuing Colombian confl ...
(FARC), the
National Liberation Army (ELN) and the
Popular Liberation Army
The Popular Liberation Army ( es, Ejército Popular de Liberación, ''EPL'') is a Colombian anti-revisionist Marxist–Leninist guerrilla group created in 1967. Most of its former members demobilized in 1991, forming the Esperanza, Paz y Libe ...
(EPL), fighting each other to increase their influence in Colombian territory. Some of the most important international contributors to the Colombian conflict include
multinational corporation
A multinational company (MNC), also referred to as a multinational enterprise (MNE), a transnational enterprise (TNE), a transnational corporation (TNC), an international corporation or a stateless corporation with subtle but contrasting senses, i ...
s, the United States,
Cuba
Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...
, and the drug trafficking industry.
The conflict is historically rooted in the conflict known as ''
La Violencia
''La Violencia'' (, The Violence) was a ten-year civil war in Colombia from 1948 to 1958, between the Colombian Conservative Party and the Colombian Liberal Party, fought mainly in the countryside.
''La Violencia'' is considered to have begu ...
'', which was triggered by the 1948 assassination of liberal political leader
Jorge Eliécer Gaitán,
and in the aftermath of the
anti-communist repression in rural Colombia in the 1960s that led
Liberal
Liberal or liberalism may refer to:
Politics
* a supporter of liberalism
** Liberalism by country
* an adherent of a Liberal Party
* Liberalism (international relations)
* Sexually liberal feminism
* Social liberalism
Arts, entertainment and m ...
and
Communist militants to re-organize into
FARC
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People's Army ( es, link=no, Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de ColombiaEjército del Pueblo, FARC–EP or FARC) is a Marxist–Leninist guerrilla group involved in the continuing Colombian confl ...
.
The reasons for fighting vary from group to group. The
FARC
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People's Army ( es, link=no, Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de ColombiaEjército del Pueblo, FARC–EP or FARC) is a Marxist–Leninist guerrilla group involved in the continuing Colombian confl ...
and other guerrilla movements claim to be fighting for the rights of the poor in Colombia to protect them from government violence and to provide
social justice
Social justice is justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, Equal opportunity, opportunities, and Social privilege, privileges within a society. In Western Civilization, Western and Culture of Asia, Asian cultures, the concept of social ...
through
communism
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a ...
.
The Colombian government claims to be fighting for order and stability, and to protect the rights and interests of its citizens. The paramilitary groups claim to be
reacting to perceived threats by
guerrilla movements.
According to a study by
Colombia's National Centre for Historical Memory, 220,000 people have died in the conflict between 1958 and 2013, most of them civilians (177,307 civilians and 40,787 fighters), and more than five million civilians were forced from their homes between 1985 and 2012, generating the world's second-largest population of
internally displaced person
An internally displaced person (IDP) is someone who is forced to leave their home but who remains within their country's borders. They are often referred to as refugees, although they do not fall within the legal definitions of a refugee.
...
s (IDPs).
16.9% of the population in Colombia has been a direct victim of the war.
2.3 million children have been displaced from their homes, and 45,000 children killed, according to national figures cited by
UNICEF
UNICEF (), originally called the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund in full, now officially United Nations Children's Fund, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing humanitarian and developmental aid to ...
. In total, one in three of the 7.6 million registered victims of the conflict are children, and since 1985, 8,000 minors have disappeared.
A Special Unit was created to search for persons deemed as missing within the context of and due to the armed conflict.
As of April 2022, th
Single Registry of Victimsreported 9,263,826 victims of the Colombian conflict, with 2,048,563 of them being children.
The United Nations has estimated that 12% of all civilian deaths in the Colombian conflict were caused by FARC and National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrillas, with 80% caused by right-wing paramilitaries, and the remaining 8% caused by Colombian security forces.
On 23 June 2016, the Colombian government and the FARC rebels signed a historic ceasefire deal, bringing them closer to ending more than five decades of conflict.
Although the deal was rejected in the subsequent October
plebiscite
A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a direct vote by the electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a representative. This may result in the adoption of ...
, the same month,
President of Colombia
The president of Colombia ( es, Presidente de Colombia), officially known as the president of the Republic of Colombia ( es, Presidente de la República de Colombia) or president of the nation ( es, Presidente de la Nacion) is the head of stat ...
Juan Manuel Santos
Juan Manuel Santos Calderón (; born 10 August 1951) is a Colombian politician who was the President of Colombia from 2010 to 2018. He was the sole recipient of the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize.
An economist by profession and a journalist by trade ...
was awarded the
Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Chemistry, Physics, Physiolog ...
for his efforts to bring the country's more than 50-year-long civil war to an end.
A revised peace deal was signed the following month and submitted to
Congress
A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...
for approval.
The
House of Representatives
House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...
unanimously approved the plan on November 30, a day after the
Senate also gave its backing.
Armed conflict
The armed conflict in Colombia emerged due to a combination of economic, political and social factors in the country.
Various organizations and scholars that have studied the conflict trace it back to a long history of political violence, a high social and economic inequality, the lack of strong state capable of providing for its citizens (especially in the rural and remote areas of the country), conflict of political ideologies (mainly capitalist-right wing groups represented by the government against communist left wings groups represented by the armed groups), and an unequal distribution of land, power, and wealth in the country. The precise date of the conflict's beginning is still disputed, with some scholars claiming it started in 1958 with the start of the Frente Nacional ("National Front") and the end of La Violencia ("The Violence") meanwhile others believe it was in 1964 with the creation of the FARC and the end of the National Front. Some scholars even trace it back to the 1920s, with the unequal distribution of land in the country which has been one of the main causes and disputes of the conflict throughout the years.
In the early period (1970s), guerrilla groups like the
FARC
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People's Army ( es, link=no, Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de ColombiaEjército del Pueblo, FARC–EP or FARC) is a Marxist–Leninist guerrilla group involved in the continuing Colombian confl ...
, the
ELN and others adopted a slogan of greater equality through communism, which came to be supported by many people, mostly in low-income and rural areas of the country. During these years the violence was low in intensity and occurred mainly in remote parts of the country. However, the balance of power and influence shifted in the mid-1980s when Colombia granted greater political and fiscal autonomy to local governments, strengthening the position of the
Colombian Government
The Government of Colombia is a republic with separation of powers into executive, judicial and legislative branches.
Its legislature has a congress,
its judiciary has a supreme court, and
its executive branch has a president.
The citi ...
in more remote regions of the country.
In 1985, during peace talks between President Belisario Betancur and the FARC, the armed group co-created the left-wing
Patriotic Union (UP) political party as a path to leave violence behind and eventually move into politics. However, between 1985 and 2002 right-wing paramilitaries, with the help and support from parts of the government, murdered and disappeared 4,153 members and supporters of the party, including two presidential candidates, six of 16 congressmen, 17 regional representatives and 163 councilmen. This systematic killing decimated the organization and aggravated the broader conflict.
In the 1980s the level of violence increased in many parts of the country as a result of the beginning of the drug trafficking. Trafficking had begun in the 1960s and 70s, when a group of
Americans
Americans are the citizens and nationals of the United States of America.; ; Although direct citizens and nationals make up the majority of Americans, many dual citizens, expatriates, and permanent residents could also legally claim Ame ...
began to smuggle
marijuana. Later, the
American Mafia began to establish drug trafficking in Colombia in cooperation with local marijuana producers.
Cocaine
Cocaine (from , from , ultimately from Quechua: ''kúka'') is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant mainly used recreationally for its euphoric effects. It is primarily obtained from the leaves of two Coca species native to South Ameri ...
(and other drugs) manufactured in Colombia were historically mostly consumed in the US as well as Europe.
Organized crime
Organized crime (or organised crime) is a category of transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally th ...
in Colombia grew increasingly powerful in the 1970s and 80s with the introduction of massive drug trafficking to the United States from Colombia.
After the Colombian Government dismantled many of the drug cartels that appeared in the country during the 1980s,
left-wing guerrilla groups and
rightwing paramilitary organizations resumed some of their drug-trafficking activities and resorted to extortion and kidnapping for financing, activities which led to a loss of support from the local population.
These funds helped finance paramilitaries and guerrillas, allowing these organizations to buy weapons which were then sometimes used to attack military and civilian targets.
During the presidency of
Álvaro Uribe
Álvaro Uribe Vélez (born 4 July 1952) is a Colombian politician who served as the 31st President of Colombia from 7 August 2002 to 7 August 2010.
Uribe started his political career in his home department of Antioquia. He held offices in t ...
, the government applied more military pressure on the FARC and other outlawed far-left groups. After the offensive, many security indicators improved. As part of a controversial peace process, the
AUC (right-wing paramilitaries) as a formal organization had ceased to function.
Colombia achieved a great decrease in cocaine production, leading White House
drug czar Drug czar is an informal name for the person who directs drug-control policies in various areas. The term follows the informal use of the term ''czar'' in U.S. politics. The 'drug czar' title first appeared in a 1982 news story by United Press Int ...
R.
Gil Kerlikowske
Richard Gil Kerlikowske (born November 23, 1949) is a former Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. He assumed office on March 6, 2014 and retired January 20, 2017. He also served as the Director of the Office of National Drug Cont ...
to announce that Colombia was no longer the world's biggest producer of cocaine. The United States is still the world's largest consumer of cocaine and other illegal drugs.
In February 2008, millions of Colombians demonstrated against the FARC and other outlawed groups. The Colombian Ministry of Defense reported 19,504
deserters
Desertion is the abandonment of a military duty or post without permission (a pass, liberty or leave) and is done with the intention of not returning. This contrasts with unauthorized absence (UA) or absence without leave (AWOL ), which a ...
from the
FARC
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People's Army ( es, link=no, Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de ColombiaEjército del Pueblo, FARC–EP or FARC) is a Marxist–Leninist guerrilla group involved in the continuing Colombian confl ...
between August 2002 and their collective demobilization in 2017, peaking in the year 2008. During these years the
military forces
A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...
of the Republic of Colombia were strengthened.
The Peace process in Colombia, 2012 refers to the dialogue in Havana,
Cuba
Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...
between the
Colombian government
The Government of Colombia is a republic with separation of powers into executive, judicial and legislative branches.
Its legislature has a congress,
its judiciary has a supreme court, and
its executive branch has a president.
The citi ...
and
guerrilla of
FARC-EP with the aim to find a political solution to the armed conflict. After almost four years of peace negotiations, the Colombian state and the FARC announced
consensus on a 6-point plan towards peace and reconciliation. The government also began a process of assistance and reparation for victims of conflict.
Recently, U.P. supporters reconstituted the political party, within the process of reconciliation. Colombia's congress approved the revised
peace accord.
In February 2015, the Historical Commission on the Conflict and its Victims (Comisión Histórica del Conflicto Armado y sus Víctimas – CHCV) published its report entitled "Contribution to an Understanding of the Armed Conflict in Colombia". The document addresses the "multiple reasons for the conflict, the principle factors and circumstances that made it possible and the most notable impacts on the population", and explains Colombia's armed conflict in terms of international law.
Background
The origin of the armed conflict in Colombia goes back to 1920 with agrarian disputes over the Sumapaz and Tequendama regions. Much of the background of Colombian conflict is rooted in ''
La Violencia
''La Violencia'' (, The Violence) was a ten-year civil war in Colombia from 1948 to 1958, between the Colombian Conservative Party and the Colombian Liberal Party, fought mainly in the countryside.
''La Violencia'' is considered to have begu ...
'', a conflict in which
liberal
Liberal or liberalism may refer to:
Politics
* a supporter of liberalism
** Liberalism by country
* an adherent of a Liberal Party
* Liberalism (international relations)
* Sexually liberal feminism
* Social liberalism
Arts, entertainment and m ...
and leftist parties united against the dictator of Colombia,
Gustavo Rojas Pinilla
Gustavo Rojas Pinilla (12 March 1900 – 17 January 1975) was a Colombian Army general, civil engineer and dictator who ruled as 19th President of Colombia as from June 1953 to May 1957.
Rojas Pinilla gained prominence as a colonel during L ...
. Colombia at the time was a
banana republic
In political science, the term banana republic describes a politically unstable country with an economy dependent upon the export of natural resources. In 1904, the American author O. Henry coined the term to describe Honduras and neighboring c ...
, dominated by foreign monopolies specifically the
United Fruit Company
The United Fruit Company (now Chiquita) was an American multinational corporation that traded in tropical fruit (primarily bananas) grown on Latin American plantations and sold in the United States and Europe. The company was formed in 1899 fro ...
.
The United Fruit Company existed to buy large amounts of
agricultural products
Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people ...
in Latin America at cheap prices, then resell the crops in foreign markets for inflated amounts. Local farmers were largely impoverished and were forced to grow specific crops creating a
monoculture
In agriculture, monoculture is the practice of growing one crop species in a field at a time. Monoculture is widely used in intensive farming and in organic farming: both a 1,000-hectare/acre cornfield and a 10-ha/acre field of organic kale are ...
in which farmers depended on the company for all food, products and wages. The United Fruit Company would usually pay their workers in
coupons
In marketing, a coupon is a ticket or document that can be redeemed for a financial discount or rebate when purchasing a product.
Customarily, coupons are issued by manufacturers of consumer packaged goods
or by retailers, to be used in r ...
, which was worthless outside company stores, the stores would charge extravagant prices compared to what workers earned. As well as this the system of employment was usually in which farmers would be forced to sell their property to the United Fruit Company and then be indebted to the company having to work on the land and pay back the company. The United Fruit Company would hire
private militaries to enforce its power, their purpose was to put down worker calls for reform, destroy unions, and put down worker
revolutions
In political science, a revolution (Latin: ''revolutio'', "a turn around") is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due ...
. Any potential threat to the United Fruit Company would be overturned in a company backed coups, which would prop up friendly puppet politicians and support
right wing militias to maintain power.
Workers would often organize and
strike
Strike may refer to:
People
* Strike (surname)
Physical confrontation or removal
*Strike (attack), attack with an inanimate object or a part of the human body intended to cause harm
*Airstrike, military strike by air forces on either a suspected ...
against these conditions, and would form local
militias
A militia () is generally an army or some other fighting organization of non-professional soldiers, citizens of a country, or subjects of a state, who may perform military service during a time of need, as opposed to a professional force of r ...
against the United Fruit Company. This would often lead to conflict between the United Fruit Company and the workers. This culminated in a strike in November 1928 by farmers in
Ciénaga for better working conditions. The striking workers called for an end to temporary contracts, the creation of mandatory worker insurance, the creation of compensation for work accidents, the creation of hygienic dormitories, the 6 day work weeks, the implementation of a
minimum wage, the abolishment of wages through company coupons and office stores, and the recognition of farmers and tenets as employees with legal rights. The strike quickly grew becoming the largest strike in all of Colombia's history, with many
Socialists
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the eco ...
, Anarchists,
Marxists and Leftists joining and organizing the strike. The United Fruit Company demanded that the workers disband and the Union should disband. Following several weeks of failed negotiations, the Colombian government of
Miguel Abadía Méndez
Miguel Abadía Méndez (June 5, 1867 – May 9, 1947) was the 12th President of Colombia (1926–1930). A Conservative party politician, Abadía was the last president of the period known as the Conservative Hegemony, running unopposed and fo ...
sent the
Colombian Army
The National Army of Colombia ( es, Ejército Nacional de Colombia) is the land warfare service branch of the Military Forces of Colombia. With over 361,420 active personnel as of 2020, it is the largest and oldest service branch in Colombia, an ...
to Ciénaga. After a standoff with the strikers, the Colombian Army shot into the crowd of strikers, killing between 68 and 2,000 people in what became known as the
Banana massacre.
This led to an outrage in the Colombian Public, creating an explosion of Leftists and
Revolutionary organizations. In
Bogota, leftist students protested and organized against the Colombian government, eventually hoping to overthrow it. This opposition to the Colombian Government exploded in 1948, upon hearing of the assassination of
socialist
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...
candidate
A candidate, or nominee, is the prospective recipient of an award or honor, or a person seeking or being considered for some kind of position; for example:
* to be elected to an office — in this case a candidate selection procedure occurs.
* ...
Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, many poor workers saw the death of Gaitán as
political assassination
Assassination is the murder of a prominent or important person, such as a head of state, head of government, politician, world leader, member of a royal family or CEO. The murder of a celebrity, activist, or artist, though they may not have a ...
orchestrated by the rich. Workers began rioting and destroying the Colombian capital Bogota, leading to the death of 4,000 people. When news of the death of Gaitán reached the countryside, the local militias were furious and immediately started a civil war known as
La Violencia
''La Violencia'' (, The Violence) was a ten-year civil war in Colombia from 1948 to 1958, between the Colombian Conservative Party and the Colombian Liberal Party, fought mainly in the countryside.
''La Violencia'' is considered to have begu ...
. Joined by fellow Leftists a brutal war was fought for over 10 years leading to the death of 200,000 people and the destruction of much of the country, resulting in a peace settlement and the changing of power to the
Colombian Conservative Party
The Colombian Conservative Party ( es, Partido Conservador Colombiano) is a conservative political party in Colombia. The party was formally established in 1849 by Mariano Ospina Rodríguez and José Eusebio Caro.
The Conservative party along ...
to the
Colombian Liberal Party
The Colombian Liberal Party ( es, Partido Liberal Colombiano; PLC) is a centre to centre-left political party in Colombia. It was founded as a classical liberal party but later developed a more social-democratic tradition, joining the Sociali ...
and the
Colombian Communist Party
The Colombian Communist Party ( es, Partido Comunista Colombiano, PCC) is a legal communist party in Colombia. It was founded in 1930 as the Communist Party of Colombia, at which point it was the Colombian section of the Comintern, and changed i ...
in 1958.
As ''La Violencia'' wound down, most self-defense and guerrilla units made up of Liberal Party supporters demobilized, but at the same time some former Liberals and active
Communist groups continued operating in several rural enclaves. One of the Liberal bands was a group known as the "Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia" (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia), or FARC, formed by
Pedro Antonio Marin in 1964, FARC was founded out of fighters of unhappy with the peace settlement. The goal of the FARC, among other things, was redistribution of land that would benefit poor peasant farmers like Marin, along with the desire to establish a communist state.
In 1958, an exclusively bipartisan political alternation system, known as the National Front, resulted from an agreement between the Liberal and Conservative parties. The agreement had come as a result of the two parties attempting to find a final political solution to the decade of mutual violence and unrest, remaining in effect until 1974.
Timeline
1960s
During this period, the main conflict in Colombia was between leftist guerillas and the central government. Key concerns included access to land, the battle between communist and capitalist ideologies, and the marginalisation of peasant populations.
In the early 1960s, Colombian Army units loyal to the
National Front began to attack peasant communities. This happened throughout Colombia with the Colombian army considering that these peasant communities were enclaves for bandits and Communists. It was the 1964 attack on the community of
Marquetalia that motivated the later creation of FARC. Despite the infantry and police encirclement of the villages inside Marquetalia (3500 men swept through the area), Manuel Marulanda managed to escape the army cordon.
Unlike the rural FARC, which had roots in the previous Liberal peasant struggles, the ELN was mostly an outgrowth of university unrest and would subsequently tend to follow a small group of charismatic leaders, including
Camilo Torres Restrepo.
Both guerrilla groups remained mostly operational in remote areas of the country during the rest of the 1960s.
The Colombian government organized several short-lived counter-guerrilla campaigns in the late 1950s and early 1960s. These efforts were aided by the U.S. government and the
CIA
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
, which employed hunter-killer teams and involved U.S. personnel from the previous
Philippine
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
campaign against the
Huks
The Hukbong Bayan Laban sa Hapon (), better known by the acronym Hukbalahap, was a communist guerrilla movement formed by the farmers of Central Luzon. They were originally formed to fight the Japanese, but extended their fight into a rebellio ...
, and which would later participate in the subsequent
Phoenix Program
The Phoenix Program ( vi, Chiến dịch Phụng Hoàng) was designed and initially coordinated by the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) during the Vietnam War, involving the American, Australian, and South Vietnamese militaries ...
in the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...
.
1970s
![Uniforme de combate para Oficiales y Suboficiales](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e9/Uniforme_de_combate_para_Oficiales_y_Suboficiales.JPG)
By 1974, another challenge to the state's authority and legitimacy had come from the
19th of April Movement
The 19th of April Movement ( es, Movimiento 19 de Abril), or M-19, was a Colombian guerrilla organisation movement. After its demobilization it became a political party, the M-19 Democratic Alliance (), or AD/M-19.
The M-19 traced its or ...
(M-19), leading to a new phase in the conflict. The M-19 was a mostly urban guerrilla group, founded in response to an alleged electoral fraud during the final National Front election of
Misael Pastrana Borrero
Misael Eduardo Pastrana Borrero (14 November 1923 – 21 August 1997) was a Colombian politician and lawyer who served as the 23rd President of Colombia from 1970 to 1974. He was also the father of the 30th President Andrés Pastrana Arango.
...
(1970–1974) and the forced removal of former President
Gustavo Rojas Pinilla
Gustavo Rojas Pinilla (12 March 1900 – 17 January 1975) was a Colombian Army general, civil engineer and dictator who ruled as 19th President of Colombia as from June 1953 to May 1957.
Rojas Pinilla gained prominence as a colonel during L ...
.
1980s
By 1982, the perceived passivity of the FARC, together with the relative success of the government's efforts against the M-19 and the ELN, enabled the administration of the Liberal Party's
Julio César Turbay Ayala
Julio César Turbay Ayala (18 June 1916 – 13 September 2005) was a Colombian lawyer and politician who served as the 25th President of Colombia from 1978 to 1982. He also held the positions of Foreign Minister and Ambassador to the United St ...
(1978–82) to lift a state-of-siege decree that had been in effect, on and off, for most of the previous 30 years. Under the latest such decree, President Turbay had implemented security policies that, though of some military value against the M-19 in particular, were considered highly questionable both inside and outside Colombian circles due to numerous accusations of military
human rights abuse
Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hum ...
s against suspects and captured guerrillas.
Citizen exhaustion due to the conflict's newfound intensity led to the election with 47% of the popular vote of President
Belisario Betancur
Belisario Betancur Cuartas (4 February 1923 – 7 December 2018) was a Colombian politician who served as the 26th President of Colombia from 1982 to 1986. He was a member of the Colombian Conservative Party. His presidency was noted for its at ...
(1982–1986), a Conservative. Betancur directed peace feelers at all the insurgents, and negotiated a 1984 cease-fire with the FARC at
La Uribe,
Meta, after a 1982 release of many guerrillas imprisoned during the previous effort to overpower them. A truce was also arranged with the M-19. The
ELN, however, rejected any negotiations and continued to rebuild through the use of extortion and threats, in particular against oil companies of European and U.S. origin.
At the same time as these developments, the growing
illegal drug trade
The illegal drug trade or drug trafficking is a global black market dedicated to the cultivation, manufacture, distribution and sale of prohibited drugs. Most jurisdictions prohibit trade, except under license, of many types of drugs throug ...
was becoming increasingly important to all participants in the Colombian conflict. Guerrillas and newly wealthy drug lords had mutually uneven relations and numerous incidents occurred between them. Eventually the kidnapping of drug cartel family members by guerrillas led to the creation in 1981 of the ''
Muerte a Secuestradores
Muerte a Secuestradores (English: ''Death to Kidnappers'') or MAS, was a Colombian paramilitary group supported by drug cartels, U.S. corporations, Colombian politicians, and wealthy landowners during the 1980s to protect their economic interests ...
'' ("Death to Kidnappers") death squad (MAS). The
Medellín Cartel
The Medellín Cartel ( es, Cartel de Medellín) was a powerful and highly organized Colombian drug cartel and terrorist organization originating in the city of Medellín, Colombia that was founded and led by Pablo Escobar. It is often considered ...
and other cartels came under pressure from the U.S. government and from critical sectors of Colombian society who supported the
extradition
Extradition is an action wherein one jurisdiction delivers a person accused or convicted of committing a crime in another jurisdiction, over to the other's law enforcement. It is a cooperative law enforcement procedure between the two jurisdi ...
of suspected Colombian cartel members to the U.S. The cartels responded by bribing or murdering numerous public officials, politicians and others. Their victims included Justice Minister
Rodrigo Lara Bonilla
Rodrigo Lara Bonilla ( es, Rodrigo Lara Bonilla; August 11, 1946 – April 30, 1984) was a Colombian lawyer and politician, who served as Minister of Justice under President Belisario Betancur, and was assassinated by orders of Pablo Escobar bec ...
, whose assassination in 1984 led the Betancur administration to confront the drug lords directly.
The first negotiated cease-fire with the
M-19 ended when the guerrillas resumed fighting in 1985. The M-19 claimed that the cease-fire had not been fully respected by official security forces, alleged that several of its members had suffered threats and assaults, and questioned the government's real willingness to implement any accords. The Betancur administration in turn criticized the M-19's actions and questioned its commitment to the peace process, while at the same time continuing to advance high-profile negotiations with the FARC. These negotiations led to the creation of the
Patriotic Union (''Unión Patriótica'') -UP-, a legal and non-clandestine political organization.
On November 6, 1985, the M-19
stormed the Colombian Palace of Justice and held the Supreme Court magistrates hostage, intending to put President Betancur on trial. The military responded with force and in the ensuing crossfire some 120 people lost their lives, including most of the guerrillas (several high-ranking operatives among them) and 12 Supreme Court Judges. Both sides blamed each other for the bloodbath, which marked the end of Betancur's peace process.
Meanwhile, individual FARC members initially joined the UP leadership in representation of the guerrilla command, though most of the guerrilla's chiefs and militiamen did not demobilize nor disarm, as that was not a requirement of the process at that point in time. Tension soon significantly increased, as both sides began to accuse each other of not respecting the cease-fire.
According to historian Daniel Pecáut, the creation of the Patriotic Union took the guerrillas' political message to a wider public outside of the traditional communist spheres of influence and led to local electoral victories in regions such as Urabá and Antioquia, with their mayoral candidates winning 23 municipalities and their congressional ones gaining 14 seats (five in the Senate, nine in the lower Chamber) in 1988. According to journalist Steven Dudley, who interviewed ex-FARC as well as former members of the UP and the Communist Party, FARC leader
Jacobo Arenas
Jacobo Arenas ("nom de guerre" of Luis Alberto Morantes Jaimes, 23 January 1924 – 10 August 1990) was a Colombian guerrilla leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (''Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia'', FARC).
Im ...
insisted to his subordinates that the UP's creation did not mean that the group would lay down its arms; neither did it imply a rejection of the Seventh Conference's military strategy. Pecáut states that new recruits entered the guerrilla army and its urban militia units during this period, and that the FARC continued to carry out kidnappings and to target regional politicians for assassination.
In October 1987
Jaime Pardo Leal, who had been the UP's presidential candidate the previous year, was assassinated amid a wave of violence in which thousands of the party's members perished at the hands of death squads.
According to Pecáut, the killers included members of the military and the political class who had opposed Betancur's peace process and considered the UP to be little more than a "facade" for the FARC, as well as drug traffickers and landowners who were also involved in the establishment of paramilitary groups.
1990s
Early 1990s
The
Virgilio Barco Vargas
Virgilio Barco Vargas (17 September 1921 – 20 May 1997) was a Colombian politician and civil engineer who served as the 27th President of Colombia serving from 7 August 1986 to 7 August 1990.
Early life
Barco was born in Cúcuta in the Nort ...
(1986–1990) administration, in addition to continuing to handle the difficulties of the complex negotiations with the guerrillas, also inherited a particularly chaotic confrontation against the drug lords, who were engaged in a campaign of terrorism and murder in response to government moves in favor of their extradition overseas.
In June 1987, the ceasefire between FARC and the Colombian government formally collapsed after the guerrillas attacked a military unit in the jungles of Caquetá.
[Pecáut, p. 52][Dudley, p. 102] According to journalist Steven Dudley, FARC founder
Jacobo Arenas
Jacobo Arenas ("nom de guerre" of Luis Alberto Morantes Jaimes, 23 January 1924 – 10 August 1990) was a Colombian guerrilla leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (''Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia'', FARC).
Im ...
considered the incident to be a "natural" part of the truce and reiterated the group's intention to continue the dialogue, but President Barco sent an ultimatum to the guerrillas and demanded that they immediately disarm or face military retaliation.
Regional guerrilla and Army skirmishes created a situation where each violation of the ceasefire rendered it null in each location, until it was rendered practically nonexistent.
By 1990, at least 2,500 members of the FARC-founded Patriotic Union had been murdered, according to historian Daniel Pecáut, leading up to that year's assassination of presidential candidate
Bernardo Jaramillo Ossa. The Colombian government initially blamed drug lord
Pablo Escobar for the murder but journalist Steven Dudley argues that many in the UP pointed at then-Interior Minister
Carlos Lemos Simmonds for publicly calling out the UP as the "political wing of FARC" shortly before the murder, while others claimed it was the result of an alliance between
Fidel Castaño
Fidel Antonio Castaño Gil Rambo (August 8, 1951 – January 6, 1994) was a Colombian drug lord and paramilitary who was among the founders of Los Pepes and the Peasant Self-Defense Forces of Cordoba and Uraba (ACCU), a paramilitary group whi ...
, members of the Colombian military and the
DAS. Pecáut and Dudley argue that significant tensions had emerged between Jaramillo, FARC and the Communist Party due to the candidate's recent criticism of the armed struggle and their debates over the rebels' use of kidnapping, almost leading to a formal break. Jaramillo's death led to a large exodus of UP militants; in addition, by then many FARC cadres who joined the party had already returned to clandestinity, using the UP experience as an argument in favor of revolutionary war.
The M-19 and several smaller guerrilla groups were successfully incorporated into a peace process as the 1980s ended and the '90s began, which culminated in the elections for a
Constituent Assembly of Colombia
The Constituent Assembly of Colombia ( es, Asamblea Nacional Constituyente de Colombia) was formed on February 5, 1991, to draft the Colombian Constitution of 1991. It was dissolved in June 1991, after the new document was adopted nationwide.
B ...
that would write a new constitution, which took effect in 1991.
Contacts with the FARC, which had irregularly continued despite the end of the ceasefire and the official 1987 break from negotiations, were temporarily cut off in 1990 under the presidency of
César Gaviria Trujillo (1990–1994). The Colombian Army's assault on the FARC's ''Casa Verde'' sanctuary at
La Uribe,
Meta, followed by a FARC offensive that sought to undermine the deliberations of the Constitutional Assembly, began to highlight a significant break in the uneven negotiations carried over from the previous decade.
Both parties nevertheless never completely broke off some amount of political contacts for long, as some peace feelers continued to exist, leading to short rounds of conversations in both
Caracas, Venezuela (1991) and
Tlaxcala
Tlaxcala (; , ; from nah, Tlaxcallān ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Tlaxcala ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Tlaxcala), is one of the 32 states which comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 60 municipaliti ...
, Mexico (1992). Despite the signing of several documents, no concrete results were achieved when the talks ended.
Mid-1990s
FARC military activity increased throughout the bulk of the 1990s as the group continued to grow in wealth from both kidnapping and drug-related activities, while drug crops rapidly spread throughout the countryside. The guerrillas protected many of the coca growers from eradication campaigns and allowed them to grow and commercialize coca in exchange for a "tax" either in money or in crops.
In this context, FARC had managed to recruit and train more fighters, beginning to use them in concentrated attacks in a novel and mostly unexpected way. This led to a series of high-profile raids and attacks against Colombian state bases and patrols, mostly in the southeast of Colombia but also affecting other areas.
In mid-1996, a civic protest movement made up of an estimated 200,000 coca growers from
Putumayo and part of
Cauca began marching against the Colombian government to reject its drug war policies, including fumigations and the declaration of special security zones in some departments. Different analysts have stressed that the movement itself fundamentally originated on its own, but at the same time, FARC heavily encouraged the marchers and actively promoted their demands both peacefully and through the threat of force.
Additionally, in 1997 and 1998, town councilmen in dozens of municipalities of the south of the country were threatened, killed, kidnapped, forced to resign or to exile themselves to department capitals by the FARC and the ELN.
In Las Delicias,
Caquetá, five FARC fronts (about 400 guerrillas) recognized intelligence pitfalls in a Colombian Army base and exploited them to overrun it on August 30, 1996, killing 34 soldiers, wounding 17 and taking some 60 as prisoners. Another significant attack took place in El Billar, Caquetá on March 2, 1998, where a Colombian Army counterinsurgency battalion was patrolling, resulting in the death of 62 soldiers and the capture of some 43. Other FARC attacks against Police bases in
Miraflores,
Guaviare and
La Uribe,
Meta in August 1998 killed more than a hundred soldiers, policemen and civilians, and resulted in the capture or kidnapping of a hundred more.
These attacks, and the dozens of members of the Colombian security forces taken prisoner by the FARC, contributed to increasingly shaming the government of President
Ernesto Samper Pizano
Ernesto Samper Pizano (born 3 August 1950) is a Colombian politician. Samper is a member of the influential Samper family. He served as the President of Colombia from 1994 to 1998, representing the Liberal Party. From 2014 to 2017 he served as ...
(1994–1998) in the eyes of sectors of public and political opinion. He was already the target of numerous critics due to revelations of a drug-money scandal surrounding his presidential campaign. Perceptions of corruption due to similar scandals led to Colombia's decertification as a country cooperating with the United States in the
war on drugs
The war on drugs is a global campaign, led by the United States federal government, of drug prohibition, military aid, and military intervention, with the aim of reducing the illegal drug trade in the United States.Cockburn and St. Clair, 1 ...
in 1995 (when the effects of the measure were temporarily waived), 1996 and 1997.
The Samper administration reacted against FARC's attacks by gradually abandoning numerous vulnerable and isolated outposts in more than 100,000 km
2 of the rural countryside, instead concentrating Army and Police forces in the more heavily defended strongholds available, which allowed the guerrillas to more directly mobilize through and influence events in large areas of rural territory which were left with little or no remaining local garrisons.
Samper also contacted the guerrillas to negotiate the release of some or all of the hostages in FARC hands, which led to the temporary demilitarization of the municipality of
Cartagena del Chairá,
Caquetá in July 1997 and the unilateral liberation of 70 soldiers, a move which was opposed by the command of the Colombian military. Other contacts between the guerrillas and government, as well as with representatives of religious and economic sectors, continued throughout 1997 and 1998.
Altogether, these events were interpreted by some Colombian and foreign analysts as a turning point in the armed confrontation, giving the FARC the upper hand in the military and political balance, making the Colombian government a target of critics from some observers who concluded that its weakness was being evidenced, perhaps even foreshadowing a future guerrilla victory in the middle term. A leaked 1998 U.S.
Defense Intelligence Agency
The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) is an intelligence agency and combat support agency of the United States Department of Defense, specializing in defense and military intelligence.
A component of the Department of Defense (DoD) and the ...
(DIA) report went so far as to speculate that this could be possible within 5 years if the guerrilla's rate of operations was kept up without effective opposition. Some viewed this report as inaccurate and alarmist, claiming that it did not properly take into account many factors, such as possible actions that the Colombian state and the U.S. might take in response to the situation, nor the effects of the existence of paramilitary groups.
Also during this period, paramilitary activities increased, both legally and illegally. The creation of legal CONVIVIR self-defense and intelligence gathering groups was authorized by Congress and the Samper administration in 1994. Members of CONVIVIR groups were accused of committing numerous abuses against the civilian population by several human rights organizations. The groups were left without legal support after a 1997 decision by the Colombian Constitutional Court which restricted many of their prerogatives and demanded stricter oversight. However, in April 1997, preexisting paramilitary forces and several former CONVIVIR members were joined to create the
AUC, a large paramilitary militia closely tied to drug trafficking which carried out attacks on the
FARC
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People's Army ( es, link=no, Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de ColombiaEjército del Pueblo, FARC–EP or FARC) is a Marxist–Leninist guerrilla group involved in the continuing Colombian confl ...
and
ELN rebel groups as well as civilians starting with the 1997
Mapiripán Massacre
Mapiripán is a town and municipality in the Meta Department
Meta () is a department of Colombia. It is close to the geographic center of the country, to the east of the Andean mountains. A large portion of the department, which is also cr ...
.
The AUC, originally present around the central/northwest part of the country, executed a series of raids into areas of guerrilla influence, targeting those that they considered as either guerrillas or their supporters.
This resulted in a continuing series of massacres. After some of these operations, government prosecutors and/or human rights organizations blamed officers and members of Colombian Army and police units for either passively permitting these acts, or directly collaborating in their execution.
1998–1999
On August 7, 1998,
Andrés Pastrana Arango
Andrés Pastrana Arango (born 17 August 1954) is a Colombian politician who was the 30th President of Colombia from 1998 to 2002, following in the footsteps of his father, Misael Pastrana Borrero, who was president from 1970 to 1974.
Early ...
was sworn in as the President of Colombia. A member of the Conservative Party, Pastrana defeated Liberal Party candidate Horacio Serpa in a run-off election marked by high voter turn-out and little political unrest. The new president's program was based on a commitment to bring about a peaceful resolution of Colombia's longstanding civil conflict and to cooperate fully with the United States to combat the trafficking of illegal drugs.
In July 1999, Colombian military forces attacked the town of
Puerto Lleras, Colombia where FARC rebels were stationed. Using U.S. supplied aircraft and equipment, and backed with U.S. logistical support, Colombian government forces strafed and bombed the town for over 72 hours. In the attack, three civilians were killed and several others were wounded as the military attacked hospitals, churches, ambulances, and residential areas. FARC rebels were forced to flee the area, and many were killed or wounded. The Colombian government claimed that this was a significant victory, while human rights groups claimed this as proof that "anti-narcotics" aid, was actually just military aid which was being used to fight a leftist insurgency.
[Tod Robberson]
"U.S. aid questioned in Colombian battle"
, ''Dallas Morning News'', August 16, 1999 (accessed: February 27, 2010)
2000–2006
The years from 2000 to 2006 were bloody ones in Colombia with thousands of deaths every year resulting from the ongoing war between the
Colombian Armed Forces
The Military Forces of Colombia ( es, Fuerzas Militares de Colombia, links=no) are the unified armed forces of the Republic of Colombia. They consist of the Colombian Army, the Colombian Navy and the Colombian Air Force. The National Police of ...
, Paramilitary groups such as the
AUC and the rebel groups (mainly the
FARC
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People's Army ( es, link=no, Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de ColombiaEjército del Pueblo, FARC–EP or FARC) is a Marxist–Leninist guerrilla group involved in the continuing Colombian confl ...
,
ELN and also the
EPL).
The fighting resulted in massive internal displacement of Colombia's civilian population and thousands of civilian deaths.
During President Uribe's first term in office (2002–2006), the security situation inside Colombia showed some measure of improvement and the economy, while still fragile, also showed some positive signs of recovery according to observers. But relatively little has been accomplished in structurally solving most of the country's other grave problems, such as poverty and inequality, possibly in part due to legislative and political conflicts between the administration and the
Colombian Congress (including those over a controversial project to eventually give Uribe the possibility of re-election), and a relative lack of freely allocated funds and credits.
Some critical observers considered that Uribe's policies, while reducing crime and guerrilla activity, were too slanted in favor of a military solution to Colombia's internal war while neglecting grave social and human rights concerns. Critics have asked for Uribe's government to change this position and make serious efforts towards improving the human rights situation inside the country, protecting civilians and reducing any abuses committed by the armed forces. Political dissenters and labor union members, among others, have suffered from threats and have been murdered.
In 2001 the largest government supported paramilitary group, the
AUC, which had been linked to drug trafficking and attacks on civilians, was added to the US State Department's
list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations and the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...
and Canada soon followed suit.
On January 17, 2002, right-wing paramilitaries entered the village of Chengue, and divided up the villagers into two groups. They then went from person to person in one of the groups, smashing each person's head with sledgehammers and rocks, killing 24 people, as the Colombian military sat by and watched. Two other bodies were later discovered dumped in a shallow grave. As the paramilitaries left, they set fire to the village.
In 2004, it was revealed by the
National Security Archive that a 1991 document from the U.S.
Defense Intelligence Agency
The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) is an intelligence agency and combat support agency of the United States Department of Defense, specializing in defense and military intelligence.
A component of the Department of Defense (DoD) and the ...
had described then-Senator Uribe as a "close personal friend" and collaborator of
Pablo Escobar. The Uribe administration denied several of the allegations in the 1991 report.
Starting in 2004 a disarmament process was begun of Colombia's paramilitary groups (especially the AUC) and was completed on April 12, 2006, when 1,700 fighters turned in their weapons in the town of Casibare.
In May 2006, the
Colombian presidential election resulted in Uribe winning re-election with a historic first round vote tally of 62%, followed by leftist
Carlos Gaviria with 22% and
Horacio Serpa.
2007–2009
On June 28, 2007, the FARC suddenly reported the death of 11 of the 12 kidnapped provincial deputies from
Valle del Cauca Department. The
Colombian government
The Government of Colombia is a republic with separation of powers into executive, judicial and legislative branches.
Its legislature has a congress,
its judiciary has a supreme court, and
its executive branch has a president.
The citi ...
accused the FARC of executing the hostages and stated that government forces had not made any rescue attempts. FARC claimed that the deaths occurred during a crossfire, after an attack to one of its camps by an "unidentified military group". FARC did not report any other casualties on either side.
In 2007, Venezuelan President
Hugo Chávez and
Colombian Senator Piedad Córdoba
Piedad Esneda Córdoba Ruiz (born 25 January 1955) is a Colombian lawyer and politician who served as Senator of Colombia from 1994 to 2010. A Liberal Party politician, she also served as Member of the Chamber of Representatives of Colombia for ...
were acting as authorised mediators in the ongoing
humanitarian exchange
The Humanitarian Exchange or Humanitarian Accord ( es, Acuerdo Humanitario, Intercambio Humanitario or Canje Humanitario) referred to a possible accord to exchange hostages for prisoners between the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) ...
between the FARC and the government of Colombia. Colombian President
Álvaro Uribe
Álvaro Uribe Vélez (born 4 July 1952) is a Colombian politician who served as the 31st President of Colombia from 7 August 2002 to 7 August 2010.
Uribe started his political career in his home department of Antioquia. He held offices in t ...
had given Chávez permission to mediate, under the conditions that all meetings with the FARC would take place in Venezuela and that Chávez would not contact members of the Colombian military directly, but instead go through proper diplomatic channels. However, President Uribe abruptly terminated Chávez's mediation efforts on November 22, 2007, after Chávez personally contacted General
Mario Montoya Uribe, the Commander of the Colombian National Army. In response, Chávez said that he was still willing to mediate, but had withdrawn Venezuela's ambassador to Colombia and placed Colombian-Venezuelan relations "in a freezer" President Uribe responded by accusing Chávez of legitimizing terrorism and pursuing an expansionist project on the continent.
Several scandals have affected Uribe's administration. The
Colombian parapolitics scandal
The Colombian parapolitics scandal or "parapolítica" in Spanish (a combination of the words '' paramilitar'' and '' política'') refers to the 2006–present Colombian congressional scandal in which several congressmen and other politicians hav ...
expanded during his second term, involving numerous members of the administration's ruling coalition. Many pro-government lawmakers, such as the President's cousin Mario Uribe, have been investigated for their possible ties to paramilitary organizations.
At the end of 2007, FARC agreed to release former senator Consuelo González, politician
Clara Rojas and her son Emmanuel, born in captivity after a relationship with one of her captors.
Operation Emmanuel was proposed and set up by Venezuelan President
Hugo Chávez, with the permission of the Colombian government. The mission was approved on December 26. Although, on December 31, FARC claimed that the hostage release had been delayed because of Colombian military operations. On the same time, Colombian President
Álvaro Uribe
Álvaro Uribe Vélez (born 4 July 1952) is a Colombian politician who served as the 31st President of Colombia from 7 August 2002 to 7 August 2010.
Uribe started his political career in his home department of Antioquia. He held offices in t ...
indicated that FARC had not freed the three hostages because Emmanuel may not be in their hands anymore.
Two FARC gunmen were taken prisoner.
Colombian authorities added that a boy matching Emmanuel's description had been taken to a hospital in
San José del Guaviare in June 2005. The child was in poor condition; one of his arms was hurt, he had severe malnutrition, and he had diseases that are commonly suffered in the jungle. Having been evidently mistreated, the boy was later sent to a foster home in Bogotá and DNA tests were announced to confirm his identity.
On January 4, 2008, the results of a
mitochondrial DNA test, comparing the child's DNA with that of his potential grandmother Clara de Rojas, were revealed by the Colombian government. It was reported that there was a very high probability that the boy was indeed part of the Rojas family.
The same day, FARC released a communique in which they admitted that Emmanuel had been taken to Bogotá and "left in the care of honest persons" for safety reasons until a humanitarian exchange took place. The group accused President Uribe of "kidnapping" the child to sabotage his liberation.
However, on January 10, 2008, FARC released Rojas and Gonzalez through a humanitarian commission headed by the
International Committee of the Red Cross
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC; french: Comité international de la Croix-Rouge) is a humanitarian organization which is based in Geneva, Switzerland, and it is also a three-time Nobel Prize Laureate. State parties (signato ...
.
On January 13, 2008, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez stated his disapproval with the FARC strategy of armed struggle and kidnapping saying "I don't agree with kidnapping and I don't agree with armed struggle". He repeated his call for a political solution and an end to the war on March and June 2008, "The guerrilla war is history...At this moment in Latin America, an armed guerrilla movement is out of place".
In February 2008,
FARC
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People's Army ( es, link=no, Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de ColombiaEjército del Pueblo, FARC–EP or FARC) is a Marxist–Leninist guerrilla group involved in the continuing Colombian confl ...
released four others political hostages "as a gesture of goodwill" toward Chávez, who had brokered the deal and sent Venezuelan helicopters with
Red Cross
The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure respect for all human beings, and ...
logos into the Colombian jungle to pick up the freed hostages.
On March 1, 2008, the
Colombian armed forces
The Military Forces of Colombia ( es, Fuerzas Militares de Colombia, links=no) are the unified armed forces of the Republic of Colombia. They consist of the Colombian Army, the Colombian Navy and the Colombian Air Force. The National Police of ...
launched a military operation 1.8 kilometres into
Ecuador
Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ' ...
on a FARC position, killing 24, including
Raúl Reyes
Luis Edgar Devia Silva (30 September 1948 – 1 March 2008), better known by his ''nom de guerre'' Raúl Reyes, was a leader, Secretariat member, spokesperson, and advisor to the Southern Bloc of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia–Pe ...
, member of the FARC
Central High Command. This led to the
2008 Andean diplomatic crisis between Colombia and Ecuadorian President
Rafael Correa
Rafael Vicente Correa Delgado (; born 6 April 1963), known as Rafael Correa, is an Ecuadorian politician and economist who served as President of Ecuador from 2007 to 2017. The leader of the PAIS Alliance political movement from its foundation ...
, supported by Venezuelan President
Hugo Chávez. On March 3,
Iván Ríos, also a member of the FARC
Central High Command was killed by his security chief "Rojas". In March 2008 alone, FARC lost 3 members of their Secretariat, including their founder.
On May 24, 2008, Colombian magazine, ''
Revista Semana
''Semana'' (Spanish: ''Week'') is a weekly magazine in Colombia.
History
''Semana'' was founded in 1946 by Alberto Lleras Camargo (who would become president of Colombia in 1958) and that folded in 1961. It was relaunched by journalist Felipe ...
'', published an interview with Colombian Defense Minister
Juan Manuel Santos
Juan Manuel Santos Calderón (; born 10 August 1951) is a Colombian politician who was the President of Colombia from 2010 to 2018. He was the sole recipient of the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize.
An economist by profession and a journalist by trade ...
in which Santos mentions the death of
Manuel Marulanda Vélez
Pedro Antonio Marín Marín (13 May 1930 – 26 March 2008), known by his " nom de guerre" Manuel Marulanda Vélez, was the main leader of the Marxist–Leninist FARC-EP ("''Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia – Ejército del Pueblo ...
. The news was confirmed by FARC-commander '
Timochenko' on Venezuelan based television station Telesur on May 25, 2008. 'Timochenko' announced the new commander in chief is '
Alfonso Cano
Guillermo León Sáenz Vargas (22 July 1948 – 4 November 2011), more commonly known by his nom de guerre Alfonso Cano, was the commander of the militant group known as Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (''Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias ...
'.
In May 2008, a dozen jailed paramilitary leaders were extradited to the United States on drug-related charges. In 2009, extradited paramilitary leader
Salvatore Mancuso would claim that the AUC had supported Uribe's 2002 election, but said that this was a result of their similar "ideological discourse" and not the result of any direct prior arrangement.
On July 2, 2008, the
Colombian armed forces
The Military Forces of Colombia ( es, Fuerzas Militares de Colombia, links=no) are the unified armed forces of the Republic of Colombia. They consist of the Colombian Army, the Colombian Navy and the Colombian Air Force. The National Police of ...
launched
Operation Jaque that resulted in the freedom of 15 political hostages, including former Colombian presidential candidate
Íngrid Betancourt
Íngrid Betancourt Pulecio (; born 25 December 1961) is a Colombian politician, former senator and anti-corruption activist, especially opposing political corruption.
Betancourt was kidnapped by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) ...
,
Marc Gonsalves
Marc David Gonsalves (born 1972) is an American Northrop Grumman employee who was abducted by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and was held hostage from February 13, 2003, to July 2, 2008. He was rescued in Operation Jaque, along ...
,
Thomas Howes, and
Keith Stansell
Keith Donald Stansell is an American Northrop Grumman employee who was captured by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, or FARC) and was held hostage from February 13, 2003 to July 2, 2008. He w ...
, three American military contractors employed by
Northrop Grumman
Northrop Grumman Corporation is an American multinational aerospace and defense technology company. With 90,000 employees and an annual revenue in excess of $30 billion, it is one of the world's largest weapons manufacturers and military techn ...
and 11 Colombian military and police. Two FARC members were arrested. This trick to the FARC was presented by the Colombian government as a proof that the guerrilla organisation and influence is declining.
On October 26, 2008, after 8 years of captivity, the ex-congressman
Óscar Tulio Lizcano
Óscar Tulio Lizcano (born 1947) is a Colombian conservative politician and a member of the Colombia Conservative Party who was a congressman for the Department of Caldas (a position now taken by his son). On August 5, 2000, while serving as co ...
escaped with the assistance of a FARC rebel he convinced to travel with him. Soon after the liberation of this prominent political hostage, the
Vice President of Colombia
The Vice President of Colombia ( es, Vicepresidente de Colombia), officially known as the Vice President of the Republic of Colombia ('' es, Vicepresidente de la Republica de Colombia'') or Vice President of the Nation ('' es, Vicepresidente de ...
Francisco Santos Calderón
Francisco Santos Calderón (born 14 August 1961), also known as Pacho Santos, is a Colombian politician and journalist. Santos was elected as Álvaro Uribe's running mate and became Vice President in 2002. Santos was re-elected in 2006 for a se ...
called Latin America's biggest guerrilla group a "
paper tiger
"Paper tiger" is a literal English translation of the Chinese phrase ''zhǐlǎohǔ'' ( zh, s=纸老虎, t=紙老虎). The term refers to something or someone that claims or appears to be powerful or threatening, but is actually ineffectual and ...
" with little control of the nation's territory, adding that "they have really been diminished to the point where we can say they are a minimal threat to Colombian security," and that "After six years of going after them, reducing their income and promoting reinsertion of most of their members, they look like a paper tiger." However, he warned against any kind of premature triumphalism, because "crushing the rebels will take time." The of jungle in Colombia makes it hard to track them down to fight.
According to the Colombian government, in early 2009 FARC launched plan ''Rebirth'' to avoid being defeated. They planned to intensify
guerrilla warfare by the use of
landmine
A land mine is an explosive weapon, explosive device concealed under or on the ground and designed to destroy or disable enemy targets, ranging from combatants to vehicles and tanks, as they pass over or near it. Such a device is typically d ...
s, snipers, and bomb attacks in urban areas. They also plan to buy missiles to fight the Colombian airforce which highly contribute to their weakness since few years.
In February 2009, the guerrilla released 6 hostages as a humanitarian gesture. In March, they released Swedish hostage Erik Roland Larsson.
In April 2009, the Colombian armed forces launched ''Strategic Leap'', an offensive in border areas where the FARC's forces still has a strong military presence, especially in
Arauca, near the Venezuelan border.
In November 2009, Nine Colombian soldiers were killed when their post was attacked by FARC guerrillas in a southwestern part of the country.
On December 22, 2009, FARC rebels raided the home of Provincial governor
Luis Francisco Cuéllar, killing one police officer and wounding two. Cuellar was found dead the following day.
2010–2016
On January 1, 2010, Eighteen FARC rebels were killed when the
Colombian Air Force
, "We are the Force"
, colours =
, colours_label =
, march = Colombian Air Force Hymn
, mascot = Capitan Paz
, anniversaries = 8 November
, ...
bombed a jungle camp in Southern Colombia. Colombian troops of the elite Task Force Omega then stormed the camp, capturing fifteen FARC rebels, as well as 25 rifles, war materials, explosives, and information which was given to military intelligence. In Southwestern Colombia, FARC rebels ambushed an army patrol, killing a soldier. The troops then exchanged fire with the rebels. During the fighting, a teenager was killed in the crossfire.
[http://www.english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/01/20101123513156705.html ]
When
Juan Manuel Santos
Juan Manuel Santos Calderón (; born 10 August 1951) is a Colombian politician who was the President of Colombia from 2010 to 2018. He was the sole recipient of the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize.
An economist by profession and a journalist by trade ...
was elected president in August 2010, he promised to "continue the armed offensive" against rebel movements. In the month after his inauguration, FARC and ELN killed roughly 50 soldiers and policemen in attacks all over Colombia. September also saw the killing of FARC's second-in-command Mono Jojoy. By the end of 2010, it became increasingly clear that "neo-paramilitary groups", referred to as "criminal groups" (BACRIM) by the government, had become an increasing threat to national security, with violent groups such as
Los Rastrojos and
Aguilas Negras taking control of large parts of the Colombian countryside.
In 2010, the FARC killed at least 460 members of the security forces, while wounding more than 2,000.
By early 2011, Colombian authorities and news media reported that the FARC and the clandestine sister groups have partly shifted strategy from guerrilla warfare to "a war of militias", meaning that they are increasingly operating in civilian clothes while hiding amongst sympathizers in the civilian population. In early January 2011, the Colombian army said that the FARC has some 18,000 members, with 9,000 of those forming part of the militias. The army says it has "identified" at least 1,400 such militia members in the FARC-strongholds of
Valle del Cauca and
Cauca in 2011. In June 2011, Colombian chief of staff Edgar Cely claimed that the FARC wants to "urbanize their actions", which could partly explain the increased guerrilla activity in Medellín and particularly Cali. Jeremy McDermott, co-director of Insight Crime, estimates that FARC may have some 30,000 "part-time fighters" in 2011, consisting of supporters making up the rebel militia network instead of armed uniformed combatants.
In 2011, the Colombian Congress issued a statement claiming that the FARC has a "strong presence" in roughly one third of Colombia, while their attacks against security forces "have continued to rise" throughout 2010 and 2011.
In 2012, the Colombia Military launched The Espada de Honor War Plan, an aggressive counterinsurgency strategies that aims to dismantle FARC's structure, crippling them both militarily and financially. The plan targets FARC leadership and it is focused on eliminating 15 of the most powerful economic and military fronts.
On July 20, 2013, as peace talks were making progress,
two rebel attacks on government positions killed 19 soldiers and an unspecified number of combatants. It was the deadliest day since peace talks began in November 2012.
On December 15, 2014, 9 FARC guerrillas were killed in the aftermath airstrikes conducted by the Colombian air force in the Meta province.
On May 22, 2015, the FARC suspended a truce after 26 of its fighters were killed in a government air and ground offensive.
On June 22, 2015, a Colombian Army Black Hawk helicopter was destroyed while landing on a mine field laid by FARC: four soldiers were killed and six were wounded.
On June 23, 2016, the Colombian government and FARC agreed to a ceasefire.
A "final, full and definitive accord" was agreed to on August 24, 2016. This accord does not include ELN.
On October 2, 2016, the results of the referendum to decide whether or not to support the peace accord showed that 50.2% opposed the accord while 49.8% favoured it.
In October 2016, President
Juan Manuel Santos
Juan Manuel Santos Calderón (; born 10 August 1951) is a Colombian politician who was the President of Colombia from 2010 to 2018. He was the sole recipient of the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize.
An economist by profession and a journalist by trade ...
was awarded the
Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Chemistry, Physics, Physiolog ...
for his resolute efforts to bring the country's more than 50-year-long war to an end.
The Colombian government and the FARC on November 24 signed a revised
peace deal and the revised agreement will be submitted to Congress for approval.
The House of Representatives unanimously approved the plan on November 30, a day after the Senate also gave its backing.
2017–2019
In September 2019, Colombia's President Iván Duque Márquez launched a new military crackdown against FARC, which declared resuming the armed struggle due to the government's failure to abide by the 2016 peace deal.
2020–present
On April 25, senior
Gulf's Cartel (Clan de Golfo) leader Gustavo Adolfo Álvarez Téllez, who was one of Colombia's most wanted drug lords and had bounty of up to 580 million pesos for his capture, was arrested at his lavish estate in Cereté while holding a party under quarantine during the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
.
Álvarez was described as the "brain" of the cartel,
and by this point was reported to have taken charge of the cartel's Caribbean operations.
On June 26, Clan del Golfo and FARC dissidents were confirmed be in a direct armed conflict in northern Antioquia known as ''Operation Mil.''
The Gulf's Clan, which dispatched 1,000 of its paramilitaries from Urabá, southern Córdoba and Chocó, hopes to remove FARC dissent from northern Antioquia and take control of the entire municipality of Ituango.
On January 2, 2022, an
infight occurred between the ELN and FARC dissidents in Arauca, leaving 23 people dead.
FARC dissidents
FARC dissidents
FARC dissidents (Spanish: ''Disidencias de las Farc''), also known as Carlos Patino Front, refers to a group, formerly part of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), who have refused to lay down their arms after the Colombian peace pro ...
are a group formerly part of the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People's Army ( es, link=no, Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de ColombiaEjército del Pueblo, FARC–EP or FARC) is a Marxist–Leninist guerrilla group involved in the continuing Colombian confl ...
, who have refused to lay down their arms after the FARC-government peace treaty came into effect in 2016. The dissidents number some 1200 armed combatants
with an unknown number of civilian militia supporting them. The FARC dissidents have become "an increasing headache" for the Colombian armed forces, as they have to fight them, the
EPL,
ELN and
Clan del Golfo at the same time.
FARC dissidents are led by former mid-level commanders such as alias Gentil Duarte, alias Euclides Mora, alias John 40, alias Giovanny Chuspas and alias Julián Chollo. The FARC dissidents have been responsible for several attacks on the Colombian armed forces. These fighters are believed to be heavily involved in the production and sale of cocaine. Dissidents of FARC's 1st Front are located in the eastern plains of Colombia. Jhon 40 and their dissident 43rd Front moved into the
Amazonas state of western Venezuela.
Venezuela
Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...
has served as the primary location for many FARC dissidents.
On 15 July 2018, the Colombian and Peruvian governments launched a joint military effort known as Operation Armageddon to combat FARC dissidents.
Peru
, image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg
, image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg
, other_symbol = Great Seal of the State
, other_symbol_type = National seal
, national_motto = "Firm and Happy f ...
issued a 60-day state of emergency in the
Putumayo Province, an area bordering both Colombia and Ecuador. On the first day alone, more than 50 individuals were arrested in the operation, while four cocaine labs were dismantled. The group has attempted to recruit locals in the
Putumayo Province in Peru to take up their cause.
On 28 July 2019, during the XXV
São Paulo Forum
São Paulo Forum (FSP), also known as the Foro de São Paulo, is a conference of left-wing political parties and other organizations from the Americas, primarily Latin America and the Caribbean. It was launched by the Workers' Party ( pt-BR, P ...
hosted in
Caracas,
Nicolás Maduro declared that the FARC-EP dissidents leaders
Iván Márquez
Luciano Marín Arango, aka "Iván Márquez" (born June 16, 1955) is a Colombian guerrilla leader, member of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), part of its secretariat higher command and advisor to the Northwestern and Caribbea ...
and
Jesús Santrich were "welcome" in Venezuela and to the São Paulo Forum.
Economic impact
Direct economic effects
Physical Infrastructure
The destruction of physical infrastructure has represented high costs for several sectors of the economy, directly altering production and distribution networks. The costs generated by damage to the oil infrastructure have shown a substantial increase since 1990. This is mainly explained by the increase in attacks on oil pipelines by groups outside the law. According to data from
Ecopetrol, between 1999 and 2003, the costs assumed by the hydrocarbon exploitation sector grew by approximately 59%, amounting to $817,654.5 million. This equates to 23.6% of the total royalties that
Ecopetrol turned to 20 departments and 110 municipalities, destined to improve the quality of life of the inhabitants. For 2004, costs decreased substantially to $11,015.5 million. This is the first sector most affected by the terrorist actions of groups outside the law. The costs are mainly derived from the spilled oil, "
..from the repair of the pipeline, from the environmental decontamination and from the oil stopped producing 60% of the total expenses incurred." During the 1999–2003 period, costs against electrical and telecommunications towers increased substantially, representing $134,871.2 million. This is equivalent to 5.4% of 2003 GDP for the electricity, gas and water sector.
On the other hand, according to data from the National Institute of Roads (
INVÍAS
The National Roads Institute (INVÍAS) is an agency of the Executive Branch of the Government of Colombia in charge of allocating, regulating and supervising contracts for highway
A highway is any public or private road or other public way ...
), between 1993 and 1995, groups outside the law demolished eleven tolls and a bridge, and its reconstruction cost $378,476,248. This amount increased significantly during the 1999–2003 period, when the costs generated by the reconstruction of bridges represented $18,455.7 million. These costs are equivalent to 1.71% of the total INVÍAS budget for 2003. For 2004, costs for damages to the road infrastructure dropped substantially to $680 million.
The partial interruption of the roads directly affects the transport sector, food and other private guilds, which in turn assume costs for these damages. However, generally these have not been quantified, because of the difficulty they have to be directly calculated. This tends to present itself as a generalized problem in quantifying the costs associated with conflict. This is explained, in part, by the tendency in the various economic sectors not to denounce this type of actions that, in one way or another, interrupt the normal functioning of economic activities.
The costs of kidnaps and extortions
Colombia is the country in which more people are and have been kidnapped.
Kidnapping, as one of the manifestations that underlie the armed conflict, carries both direct and indirect costs. The former comprise mainly the payment of ransoms and the expenses assumed by the State to control and prevent it. Indirect costs include, "
..the loss of human capital for the duration of the detention and for the death of the kidnapped during his captivity".
There are two types of kidnapping: a) kidnapping for extortion and political purposes; and b) simple kidnapping. According to data from the Directorate of Justice and Security of the DNP, this phenomenon shows an increasing trend. With respect to the costs of sequestration, the sources suggest an increasing behavior between 1996 and 2003. In such a way that "the average annual growth rate is 9.3%, the highest rate is observed in 1998 (46.2%), and in 2000 (37.2%) year in which the number of kidnappings also it is significantly high
..reaching its peak in the year 2000 with 1,938 cases."
From then on, the trend becomes decreasing (except for a peak in 2002 with 1,542 cases) until reaching the 350 kidnappings (the lowest figure since 1996) in 2005. Within these costs, 64.4% are direct, representing US$167.4 million. 35.6% of the remaining costs are indirect, and represent US$92.7 million. In 2004, the costs of sequestration were reduced to $109,519 million, representing 0.27% of GDP in 2003.
Costs of Defense and National Security
While spending on defense and security becomes very important to examine when dealing with a country immersed in an armed conflict, the analysis on this issue are relatively recent. This can be explained because until the beginning of the second half of the nineties, defense and security spending had a significant growth. Spending on defense and security includes, on the one hand, the means by which the State must have to defend sovereignty and territorial integrity, and on the other, the costs involved in maintaining internal security. Various studies of National Planning suggest that the Colombian State spends a much greater percentage in defense and security than other Latin American countries. Between 1991 and 1996, the estimated value of these resources was $3.7 billion. That is, 2.6% of GDP, while for Latin America the average of this expenditure was 1.7% of GDP. A study carried out by the
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) for the year 2001 "
..shows that Colombia ranked 24th in the countries with the largest participation in military spending, out of a total of 116 investigated."The figure for the participation of military expenditures in GDP was 3.8% for Colombia while in the countries of the American continent the closest figure is that of the United States with 3.1% followed by Chile with 2.9%, Ecuador with 2.1% and the rest of countries below 2.0% ".
Thus, for the period 1999–2003, defense and security spending was $8,463,611.0 million, equivalent to 10.5% of GDP in 2003. The excess of said expense, compared to the average cost of neighboring countries, It was close to 0.79% of GDP. A Fedesarrollo study states that the Spending on defense and security carried out during 2004 "
..represented 4.5% of GDP
.." which does not have precedents in the history of
Colombia. This is directly related to the
Security Policy Democratic undertaken by the government of the current president
Álvaro Uribe
Álvaro Uribe Vélez (born 4 July 1952) is a Colombian politician who served as the 31st President of Colombia from 7 August 2002 to 7 August 2010.
Uribe started his political career in his home department of Antioquia. He held offices in t ...
, who focuses on hitting militarily to groups outside the law, in order to regain security national. On the other hand, for the year 2004, the expenses of the Colombian Government in war and security were 6.59%, placing the country between the tenth that invest the most in war as proportion of GDP .
Indirect economic effects
Productivity loss
The estimated loss of human capital and productivity due to labor absenteeism in 2003 amounted to $366.2 billion".
On the other hand, the loss of land productivity, which translates into a negative impact on administration, investment in physical and social capital, and the price of land in subsectors such as livestock and commercial agriculture is one of the consequences associated with the presence of an armed conflict.
This cost is mainly assumed by farmers who experience the pressure of armed actions in their areas of operation. Within this context, the most serious consequences are related to the devaluation of the properties, the loss of productivity of the land -represented in the products that could potentially have been cultivated in these lands- and the difficulty in managing the efficient production of the lands. According to a study of National Planning, the estimated costs for the loss of productivity of land represented, between 1999 and 2003, $140,443.5 million,
equivalent to 1.28% of the GDP of the agricultural sector of 2003.
Impact on income distribution
The duration and expansion of the national conflict has had a significant impact on the distribution of income and wealth in Colombia. According to an investigation by the CEDE of the
Universidad de los Andes, "as a result of the displacement, the displaced households have left behind a little more than four million hectares, which correspond to 6.7 times of the total hectares granted by the program. of Agrarian Reform during the period between 1993 and 2000, and represent a total value of $ 2.6 billion." In this context, the enormous concentration of rural property in the hands of a few individuals is not only the result of the purchase of land by drug traffickers and the illegal appropriation by groups outside the law, but also the consequence of acquisition of properties devalued due to the armed conflict
.. It is estimated that 1.3% of the owners control 48% of the best lands.
On the other hand, a study carried out by the
United Nations Development Program
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)french: Programme des Nations unies pour le développement, PNUD is a United Nations agency tasked with helping countries eliminate poverty and achieve sustainable economic growth and human dev ...
(UNDP) states that the Colombian conflict has had a negative effect on the income of the population. According to this study, because of the conflict, Colombia has lost 17% of its per capita income in the last ten years. That is to say, "
..the money wasted every year corresponds to about 4.6 times what the community welfare homes programs, children's homes and school restaurants of the social support network cos."
Decrease in investments
Although the agents adjust their investment behavior, that is, they internalize the phenomenon of violence, assuming it as a change in the structures of the economy
in the long term the investment of both the State and the private sector is diminished in substantial ways. In the Colombian case, the loss in private investment has been estimated at 0.53 points of the annual GDP, due to the public order conditions that arise directly from the presence of an armed conflict. A 1% increase in the homicide rate reduces private investment by 0.66%. Thus, we can observe that the high levels of violence directly affect the transaction costs and levels of uncertainty in society. Likewise, they reduce to a certain degree the profitability of investments. A study by Corporación Invertir en Colombia (Coinvertir) and the National Planning Department (DNP) shows that insecurity hinders the development of new foreign investments, especially in the financial, oil and gas, and electric power sectors.
One of the biggest problems to invest in Colombia is that it is necessary to devote a large part of the budget to security and protection controls, which is very difficult to justify before the house. In this sense, the economic environment affected by the violence translates into a tax on investment." On the other hand, within the studies on the costs of the conflict, specific sectors such as the private sector have begun to be studied, taking into account the high costs they have had to assume due to the existence of this phenomenon. The large companies and those that operate at the national level assume the highest costs associated with the existence of the conflict. This is because they are more attractive for someone who wants to extort for example, and also those who lose most in adverse conditions. Appealing to the economic arguments that underlie the conflict, various state and international aid and cooperation institutions seek to establish the scope and potential benefits of a peaceful situation. This argument has mobilized and sensitized various sectors of society to understand that peace is also an economic necessity.
In Colombia, as shown in the studies that have estimated the costs of the conflict, since the nineties it has imposed increasingly higher costs to various productive sectors of the economy and society in general.
Among the sectors most affected by the conflict are the exploitation of hydrocarbons, electricity and livestock. This is explained, in part, because the areas where the operations and activities of these sectors take place, in parallel, are the territories where groups outside the law exert a very strong presence. Likewise, for the Colombian private sector, indirect costs have more impact on their activities than direct costs. With respect to indirect costs, although there is a clear difficulty to be quantified, the various studies suggest that they have been significantly high and that they have had a representative impact on society as such.
Illegal drug trafficking
The drug trafficking sales have gone up in Colombia since the 1970s due to the conflict. Many Mexican
drug cartels
A drug cartel is any criminal organization with the intention of supplying drug trafficking operations. They range from loosely managed agreements among various drug traffickers to formalized commercial enterprises. The term was applied when the l ...
have been spotted to operate in the area including the
Sinaloa Cartel
The Sinaloa Cartel ( es, link=no, Cártel de Sinaloa), also known as the CDS, the Guzmán-Loera Organization, the Pacific Cartel, the Federation and the Blood Alliance, is a large, international organized crime syndicate that specializes in il ...
,
Gulf Cartel,
Beltrán Leyva Cartel,
CJNG, and
Los Zetas
Los Zetas (, Spanish for "The Zs") is a Mexican criminal syndicate, regarded as one of the most dangerous of Mexico's drug cartels. They are known for engaging in brutally violent "shock and awe" tactics such as beheadings, torture, and indiscr ...
. The
Medellín Cartel
The Medellín Cartel ( es, Cartel de Medellín) was a powerful and highly organized Colombian drug cartel and terrorist organization originating in the city of Medellín, Colombia that was founded and led by Pablo Escobar. It is often considered ...
and
Cali Cartel
The Cali Cartel ( es, Cartel de Cali) was a drug cartel based in southern Colombia, around the city of Cali and the Valle del Cauca. Its founders were the brothers Gilberto Rodríguez Orejuela and Miguel Rodríguez Orejuela. They broke away f ...
were the first drug trafficking organizations in Colombia and had alliances with the
Guadalajara Cartel
The Guadalajara Cartel ( es, Cártel de Guadalajara) also known as The Federation ( es, La Federación, link=no) was a Mexican drug cartel which was formed in the late 1970s by Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, Rafael Caro Quintero, and Ernesto Fo ...
,
Los Valencia Organization, and
Amezcua Cartel.
Role of the United States
![William P](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b1/William_P._Yarborough2.jpg)
The United States has been heavily involved in the conflict since its beginnings, when in the early 1960s the U.S. government encouraged the Colombian military to attack leftist militias in rural Colombia. This was part of the U.S. fight against communism.
In October 1959, the United States sent a "Special Survey Team", composed of
counterinsurgency
Counterinsurgency (COIN) is "the totality of actions aimed at defeating irregular forces". The Oxford English Dictionary defines counterinsurgency as any "military or political action taken against the activities of guerrillas or revolutionari ...
experts, to investigate Colombia's internal security situation.
[Rempe, 1995](_blank)
In February 1962, a Fort Bragg top-level U.S. Special Warfare team headed by Special Warfare Center commander General
William P. Yarborough, visited Colombia for a second survey.
[Livingstone, 2004: p. 155] In a secret supplement to his report to the
Joint Chiefs of Staff
The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) is the body of the most senior uniformed leaders within the United States Department of Defense, that advises the president of the United States, the secretary of defense, the Homeland Security Council and the ...
, Yarborough encouraged the creation and deployment of a paramilitary force to commit sabotage and terrorist acts against communists:
![Colpolwpowell](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/32/Colpolwpowell.png)
The first paramilitary groups were organized following recommendations made by U.S. military counterinsurgency advisers who were sent to Colombia during the Cold War to combat leftist political activists and armed guerrilla groups.
One multinational corporation has also been directly tied to paramilitary death squads.
Chiquita Brands International was fined $25 million as part of a settlement with the United States Justice Department for having ties to paramilitary groups.
In 2016, Judge
Kenneth Marra of the
Southern District of Florida ruled in favor of allowing Colombians to sue former Chiquita Brand International executives for the company's funding of the outlawed right-wing paramilitary organization that murdered their family members. He stated in his decision that "'profits took priority over basic human welfare' in the banana company executives' decision to finance the illegal death squads, despite knowing that this would advance the paramilitaries' murderous campaign."
In December 2013, ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' revealed a covert CIA program, started in the early 2000s, which provides the Colombian government with intelligence and GPS guidance systems for
smart bomb
Smart or SMART may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Smart'' (Hey! Say! JUMP album), 2014
* Smart (Hotels.com), former mascot of Hotels.com
* ''Smart'' (Sleeper album), 1995 debut album by Sleeper
* ''SMart'', a children's television ser ...
s.
As of August 2004, the US had spent $3 billion in Colombia, more than 75% of it on military aid. Before the Iraq war, Colombia was the third largest recipient of US aid only after Egypt and Israel, and the U.S. has 400 military personnel and 400 civilian contractors in Colombia. Currently, however, Colombia is not a top recipient of U.S. aid; while it was under the first five years of the Plan Colombia, Colombia today no longer ranks among the top ten.
In March 2015, it was revealed
DEA
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA; ) is a United States federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Justice tasked with combating drug trafficking and distribution within the U.S. It is the lead agency for domestic en ...
agents were participating in drug cartel-funded sex parties with prostitutes. Agents were provided with expensive gifts, weapons and money from drug cartel members. The head of the US Drug Enforcement Administration,
Michele Leonhart
Michele Marie Leonhart (born February 27, 1956) is an American career law enforcement officer and the former Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). After the resignation of Administrator Karen P. Tandy in the fall of 2007, L ...
announced her retirement. Leonhart's tenure as DEA Administrator was marked with controversy and scandals including a prostitution scandal.
If the peace talks underway in Havana are successful in bringing peace to Colombia, this U.S. aid to the military will likely need to be reallocated to help support a lasting peace.
[Ending 50 Years of Conflict in Colombia: The Challenges Ahead and the U.S. Role](_blank)
, WOLA
Wola (, ) is a district in western Warsaw, Poland, formerly the village of Wielka Wola, incorporated into Warsaw in 1916. An industrial area with traditions reaching back to the early 19th century, it underwent a transformation into an office (co ...
, April 14, 2014.
A Truth Commission report released in 2022 shows that the drug trafficking charges against
Jesús Santrich and his arrest in 2019 were a plot by the
DEA
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA; ) is a United States federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Justice tasked with combating drug trafficking and distribution within the U.S. It is the lead agency for domestic en ...
and Colombian Attorney General Néstor Humberto Martínez to jeopardize the peace agreement, incite the FARC to take up arms again, and send a message to the public that the peace agreement had failed.
Statistics about victims of war
![Centro de Memoria Histórica - Bogotá](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2f/Centro_de_Memoria_Hist%C3%B3rica_-_Bogot%C3%A1.jpg)
According to a study by
Colombia's National Centre for Historical Memory, 220,000 people have died in the conflict between 1958 and 2013, most of them civilians (177,307 civilians and 40,787 fighters) and more than five million civilians were forced from their homes between 1985 and 2012, generating the world's second largest population of
internally displaced person
An internally displaced person (IDP) is someone who is forced to leave their home but who remains within their country's borders. They are often referred to as refugees, although they do not fall within the legal definitions of a refugee.
...
s (IDPs). The report shows that the humanitarian crisis in Colombia is extremely serious in terms of both lethal and nonlethal violence. The report examines the widespread use of sexual violence against women and girls as a weapon of war, as well as the invisibility of this phenomenon.
16.9% of the population in Colombia has been a direct victim of the war.
2.3 million children have been displaced from their homes, and 45,000 children killed, according to national figures cited by
Unicef
UNICEF (), originally called the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund in full, now officially United Nations Children's Fund, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing humanitarian and developmental aid to ...
. In total, one in three of the 7.6 million registered victims of the conflict are children, and since 1985, 8,000 minors have disappeared. Since the peace talks with the FARC began four years ago, some 1,000 children have been forcibly recruited by some of the myriad armed groups in the country, 75 have been killed, and 65 schools have been damaged by fighting.
According to the report "Basta ya", written in 2013 by Colombia's National Centre for Historical Memory, 80% of victims affected by conflict-related violence and landmines were civilians. The report documents 1,982 massacres between 1980 and 2012.
The Government also began a process of assistance, attention and comprehensive reparation for victims of conflict.
During his visit to Colombia,
Pope Francis
Pope Francis ( la, Franciscus; it, Francesco; es, link=, Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 17 December 1936) is the head of the Catholic Church. He has been the bishop of Rome and sovereign of the Vatican City State since 13 March 2013. ...
brought with him a message of peace and paid tribute to the victims of the conflict.
The
Special Jurisdiction of Peace (''Jurisdicción Especial para la Paz'', JEP) would be the transitional justice component of the Comprehensive System, complying with Colombia's duty to investigate, clarify, prosecute and punish serious human rights violations and grave breaches of
international humanitarian law
International humanitarian law (IHL), also referred to as the laws of armed conflict, is the law that regulates the conduct of war ('' jus in bello''). It is a branch of international law that seeks to limit the effects of armed conflict by pro ...
which occurred during the armed conflict. Its objectives would be to satisfy victims' right to
justice
Justice, in its broadest sense, is the principle that people receive that which they deserve, with the interpretation of what then constitutes "deserving" being impacted upon by numerous fields, with many differing viewpoints and perspective ...
, offer truth to the public, contribute to the reparation of victims, contribute to the fight against impunity, adopt decisions which give full legal security to direct and indirect participants in the conflict and contribute to the achievement of a stable and lasting peace.
The Special Unit for the Search of Missing Persons in the context and due to the armed conflict (''Unidad especial para la búsqueda de personas dadas por desaparecidas en el contexto y en razón del conflicto armado'') would be a special high-level unit created following the signature of the
final agreement. It would direct and coordinate efforts to search for and locate missing persons, or find their remains so that they may be returned to their families. To carry out its work, the search unit would collect the necessary information about missing persons, analyze the information collected, strengthen and streamline processes for identifying mortal remains in coordination with the National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences, guarantee families' participation and present an official report to families informing them of the fate of missing relatives.
The search unit would be administrative and financially independent and autonomous, complementing the other components of the Comprehensive System.
Use of land mines
Since 1990, over 11,000 people have been killed or wounded by
landmines in Colombia. Between 1982 and the end of 2012, 2,038 people have been killed by landmines, according to the Presidential Program for Mine Action.
Since 2000, casualties from landmines in Colombia have ranged from 1,300 a year to just around 550.
In the past, the Colombian government laid landmines around 34 military bases to protect key infrastructure, but it renounced their use in 1997. Landmines are primarily used by the rebel groups to protect their home bases and illegal drug crops, which fund the conflict. FARC and ELN have deployed antipersonnel mines throughout an estimated area of up to 100 square kilometers. In March 2015, FARC stated that it would begin humanitarian demining in selected parts of Colombia.
FARC's rebel diplomacy
The
far-left guerrilla group
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People's Army ( es, link=no, Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de ColombiaEjército del Pueblo, FARC–EP or FARC) is a Marxist–Leninist guerrilla group involved in the continuing Colombian confl ...
(FARC), was one of the most powerful violent groups with which the Colombian government had to deal during the
Colombian Conflict
The Colombian conflict ( es, link=no, Conflicto armado interno de Colombia) began on May 27, 1964, and is a low-intensity asymmetric war between the government of Colombia, far-right paramilitary groups, crime syndicates, and far-left gue ...
. They gained so much strength and influence that they started to look for mechanisms that helped them grow even stronger. In that sense, they developed a "Rebel Diplomacy", understood as a rebel group's conduct of foreign affairs during the development civil war for the purpose of advancing its military and political objective. This diplomacy was used as an strategie that they engaged with various international actors in the seek for any type of support during different stages of the conflict. Among these international actors we can find other countries governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and multinational corporations.
The guerrilla made intelligent and strategic use of social networks, using them as a means through which to offer the international public witnessing the conflict a vision of their own narrative of the conflict and to present themselves as a credible and preferable alternative to the Colombian government. In this way, the FARC designed a web page and obtained support from press agencies and independent digital media, mostly European.
Rebel diplomacy often emerges as a kind of counter diplomacy aimed at discrediting the State against which the insurgent group is fighting, it is a way of taking the battle to the political arena and waging it in the international arena.
[Huang, R. (2016). Rebel diplomacy in civil war. International Security, vol. 40, n.° 4, p. 89-126. https:// doi.org/10.1162/ISEC_a_00237] This occurred in the case of the FARC, which beyond defending its political proposal and ideology, its international discourse focused on a frontal attack on the Government.
See also
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Colombian peace process
The Colombian peace process is the peace process between the Colombian government of President Juan Manuel Santos and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC–EP) to bring an end to the Colombian conflict, which eventually led to t ...
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National Liberation Army (Colombia)
The National Liberation Army (Spanish: ''Ejército de Liberación Nacional'', ELN) is a Marxist–Leninist guerrilla group involved in the continuing Colombian conflict,
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Right-wing paramilitarism in Colombia
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2003 El Nogal Club Terrorist attack
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Operation Traira
Operation Traíra was the response of the Brazilian Armed Forces, with support from the Colombian Army, to an attack on their detachment on the bank of the Taraíra River, Traíra River by FARC in February 1991.
Background
The Traíra Detachme ...
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Colombian diaspora
Emigration from Colombia is a migratory phenomenon that started in the early 20th century.
Overview
Immigration from Colombia was determined mostly by security issues linked mainly to the Colombian armed conflict. From 1980-2000, emigration from ...
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Alliance for Progress
The Alliance for Progress ( es, Alianza para el Progreso, links=no), initiated by U.S. President John F. Kennedy on March 13, 1961, ostensibly aimed to establish economic cooperation between the U.S. and Latin America. Governor Luis Muñoz Marí ...
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Plan Colombia
Plan Colombia was a United States foreign aid, military aid, and diplomatic initiative aimed at combating Colombian drug cartels and left-wing insurgent groups in Colombia. The plan was originally conceived in 1999 by the administrations of Col ...
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Gustavo Moncayo
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Mexican Drug War
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Paraguayan People's Army insurgency
The insurgency in Paraguay, also known as the Paraguayan People's Army insurgency and the EPP rebellion (from the group's name in Spanish: Ejército del Pueblo Paraguayo), is an ongoing low-level armed conflict in northeastern Paraguay. Between ...
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Internal conflict in Peru
The internal conflict in Peru is an ongoing armed conflict between the Government of Peru and the Maoist guerilla group Shining Path. The conflict began on 17 May 1980, and from 1982 to 1997 the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement waged its ow ...
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2021 Apure clashes
Notes
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DF file#
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#
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# Stokes, p. 26, quoting Marc Grossman, U.S. undersecretary of state for political affairs.
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# Livingstone, (Foreword by Pearce, Jenny), p. xvii (f24)
# Livingstone, p. 5;
# Pearce's forward in Livingstone, p. xx
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# Legrand, p. 165. See Note #15 for more on women in the conflict.
# Legrand, p. 165. See Note #18 for more on peasant support for the guerrillas. (see also Ortiz 2001; Reyes Posada and A. Bejarano 1988; Archila N. 1996)", Notes.
# Legrand, p. 165. Lengrand states: "Some observers noted that this percentage of supposed paramilitary supporters elected to congress in March 2002 corresponded to the number of representatives elected from Uraba and the Atlantic coast where the paramilitaries are strong. (El Tiempo March 13–14, 2002)", see Notes.
#
DF file#
DF filebr />
#
DF file# Livingstone, p. 5;
# Livingstone, p. 110.
# Livingstone, p. 7; Quoting: ''Colombia: Inseguridad, Violencia, y Desempeño Económico en las Areas Rurales, Consejería para la Paz de la Presidencia de la República'', Colombia, 1999, Director de Investigación: Jesus Antonio Bejarano Avila.
# Livingstone, p. 5
# Livingstone, p. 5; Canby, p 31
# Livingstone, p. 6;
# Livingstone, p. 6; Source: Colombian Commission of Jurists;
# Livingstone, p. 6; Source: Colombian Commission of Jurists;
# Livingstone, p. 7; Source: Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad (DAS);
# Livingstone, p. 7; Richani, p. 87
# Livingstone, p. 7
References
Further reading
Books
=English
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Meernik, DeMerritt and Uribe-Lopez (eds.). 2019. ''As War Ends: What Colombia Can Tell Us About the Sustainability of Peace and Transitional Justice''. Cambridge University Press.*
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Steele, Abbey. 2018. Democracy and Displacement in Colombia's Civil War. Cornell University Press.*
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=Other languages
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Journals and periodicals
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* Sherman, John W. "Political Violence in Colombia: Dirty Wars Since 1977." ''History Compass'' (Sep 2015) 13#9 pp 454–465.
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Government/NGO reports
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* ''Extensive ideas on solutions to the Colombia conflict''
* ''(Spanish and English)''
* ''(Spanish and English)''
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News
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* ''Guests: Ezequiel Vitonas, former mayor of Toribio, and Manuel Rozental, human rights activist. Interviewers:
Juan Gonzalez and
Amy Goodman
Amy Goodman (born April 13, 1957) is an American broadcast journalist, syndicated columnist, investigative reporter, and author. Her investigative journalism career includes coverage of the East Timor independence movement, Morocco's occupation ...
. Segment available in and via streaming real audio , 128k streaming Real Video or MP3 download.''
The Colombian Miracle
External links
Overview of Colombian–FARC Peace Process Who are the victims? – The aftermath of violence in Colombia– (Former combatants in Colombia's internal armed conflict spent two years painting their experiences. They face difficult decisions about what to remember, what to forget and how to forgive)
* ''(Ongoing reporting on the Colombian conflict and active criminal groups)''
* ''(collection of declassified U.S. documents online)''
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Plan Colombia by Carmen Guhn-Knight*
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* ''(In Spanish and English with chronology and key texts and agreements)''
* Colombian-based private research center that studies the conflict ''(In Spanish and English)''
* ''(In Spanish and English)''
* ''(In Spanish and English)''
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* Maps of the conflict.
* ''(in Spanish)''
* ''(in Spanish and English)'' – No longer available online (censored by U.S. government)
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* (PDF) Is the Colombia conflict a civil war?
* ''(in German and English)''
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* by Doug Stokes
Red Resistencia*
from
Reuters AlertNet
{{DEFAULTSORT:Colombian conflict
Guerrilla wars
Wars involving Colombia
Civil wars involving the states and peoples of South America
Civil wars post-1945
Revolution-based civil wars
Military history of Colombia
FARC
Rebellions in South America
20th century in Colombia
21st century in Colombia
Communism-based civil wars
20th-century conflicts
21st-century conflicts
Conflicts in 2022
Anti-communist terrorism
Proxy wars
Communism in Colombia
Communist rebellions