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
Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialect ...
guerrilla group
Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare in which small groups of combatants, such as paramilitary personnel, armed civilians, or Irregular military, irregulars, use military tactics including ambushes, sabotage, Raid (military), raids ...
involved in the continuing
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 ...
starting in 1964. The FARC-EP was officially founded in 1966 from peasant self-defense groups formed from 1948 during the "Violencia" as a
peasant
A peasant is a pre-industrial agricultural laborer or a farmer with limited land-ownership, especially one living in the Middle Ages under feudalism and paying rent, tax, fees, or services to a landlord. In Europe, three classes of peasant ...
force promoting a political line of
agrarianism and
anti-imperialism. They are known to employ a variety of
military tactics, in addition to more unconventional methods, including
terrorism
Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...
.
The operations of the FARC–EP were funded by
kidnap
In criminal law, kidnapping is the unlawful confinement of a person against their will, often including transportation/asportation. The asportation and abduction element is typically but not necessarily conducted by means of force or fear: the p ...
and
ransom,
illegal mining
Illegal mining is mining activity that is undertaken without state permission, in particular in absence of land rights, mining licenses, and exploration or mineral transportation permits.
Illegal mining can be a subsistence activity, as is the ca ...
,
extortion
Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence; the bulk of this article deals with such cases. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, ...
, and taxation of various forms of economic activity, and the production and distribution of
illegal drugs
The prohibition of drugs through sumptuary legislation or religious law is a common means of attempting to prevent the recreational use of certain intoxicating substances.
While some drugs are illegal to possess, many governments regulate the ...
. They are only one actor in a complex conflict where atrocities have been committed by the state, right-wing paramilitaries, and left-wing guerrillas not limited to FARC, such as ELN, M-19, and others. Colombia's
National Centre for Historical Memory, a government agency, has estimated that between 1981 and 2012
paramilitary groups have caused 38.4% of the civilian deaths, while the Guerillas are responsible for 16.8%, 10.1% by the Colombian Security Forces and 27.7% by non-identified armed groups.
The National Centre for Historical Memory has also concluded that of the 27,023 kidnappings carried out between 1970 and 2010, the Guerillas were responsible for 90.6% of them.
The
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...
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.
The strength of the FARC–EP forces was high; in 2007, the FARC said they were an armed force of 18,000 men and women; in 2010, the Colombian military calculated that FARC forces consisted of about 13,800 members, 50 percent of whom were armed guerrilla combatants; and in 2011 the president of Colombia,
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 ...
, said that FARC–EP forces comprised fewer than 10,000 members. 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 ...
, or individually demobilized members, from the FARC between August 2002 and their collective demobilization in 2017, despite potentially severe punishment, including execution, for attempted desertion in the FARC.
FARC made 239 attacks on the energy infrastructure; however, they showed signs of fatigue. By 2014, the FARC were not seeking to engage in outright combat with the army, instead concentrating on small-scale ambushes against isolated army units. Meanwhile, from 2008 to 2017, the FARC opted to attack police patrols with home-made mortars, sniper rifles, and explosives, as they were not considered strong enough to engage police units directly. This followed the trend of the 1990s during the strengthening of
Colombian government forces.
In June 2016, the FARC signed a ceasefire accord with the
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 ...
in
Havana
Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center. . This accord was seen as an historic step to ending the war that has gone on for fifty years. On 25 August 2016, the Colombian president, Juan Manuel Santos, announced that four years of negotiation had secured a
peace deal with FARC and that a
national referendum would take place on 2 October. The referendum failed with 50.24% voting against. On November 24, 2016, the Colombian government and the FARC signed a revised
peace deal,
which the
Colombian Congress
The Congress of the Republic of Colombia ( es, Congreso de la República de Colombia) is the name given to Colombia's bicameral national legislature.
The Congress of Colombia consists of the 108-seat Senate, and the 188-seat Chamber of Re ...
approved on 30 November.
On 27 June 2017, FARC ceased to be an armed group, disarming itself and handing over its weapons to the
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...
. One month later, FARC announced its reformation as a legal political party, in accordance with the terms of the peace deal. However, about 2,000 to 2,500
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 ...
still take on FARC's original doctrine and continue with drug trafficking, though far smaller than the group at its peak.
A small faction of FARC leaders announced a return to armed activity on 29 August 2019, stating that the Colombian government did not respect peace agreements, a position Colombian officials disagreed with.
The Colombian government responded with preemptive strikes, killing FARC members planning to lead rearmament activities.
Background
''La Violencia'' and the National Front
In 1948, in the aftermath of the
assassination of the
populist
Populism refers to a range of political stances that emphasize the idea of "the people" and often juxtapose this group against " the elite". It is frequently associated with anti-establishment and anti-political sentiment. The term develop ...
politician
Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, there occurred a decade of large-scale political violence throughout Colombia, which was a Conservative – Liberal
civil war
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
that killed more than 200,000 people. In Colombian history and culture, the killings are 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 ...
'' (The Violence, 1948–58); most of the people killed were
peasant
A peasant is a pre-industrial agricultural laborer or a farmer with limited land-ownership, especially one living in the Middle Ages under feudalism and paying rent, tax, fees, or services to a landlord. In Europe, three classes of peasant ...
s and laborers in rural Colombia.
In 1957–1958, the political leadership of the Liberal Party and the Conservative Party agreed to establish a bipartisan political system known as the
National Front (Frente Nacional, 1958–74). The Liberal and the Conservative parties agreed to alternate in the exercise of government power by presenting a joint National Front candidate to each election and restricting the participation of other political movements.
The pact was ratified as a constitutional amendment by a national
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 ...
on 1 December 1957 and was supported by the Church as well as Colombia's business leaders. The initial power-sharing agreement was effective until 1974; nonetheless, with modifications, the Liberal–Conservative bipartisan system lasted until 1990.
The sixteen-year extension of the bipartisan power-sharing agreement permitted the Liberal and Conservative elites to consolidate their socioeconomic control of Colombian society, and to strengthen the military to suppress political reform and
radical politics
Radical politics denotes the intent to transform or replace the principles of a society or political system, often through social change, structural change, revolution or radical reform. The process of adopting radical views is termed radica ...
proposing alternative forms of government for Colombia.
Accelerated Economic Development
During the 1960s, the Colombian government effected a policy of Accelerated Economic Development (AED), the
agribusiness plan of
Lauchlin Currie, a Canadian-born U.S. economist who owned ranching land in Colombia. The plan promoted
industrial farm
Intensive agriculture, also known as intensive farming (as opposed to extensive farming), conventional, or industrial agriculture, is a type of agriculture, both of crop plants and of animals, with higher levels of input and output per unit of ag ...
ing that would produce great yields of agricultural and animal products for worldwide exportation, while the Colombian government would provide subsidies to large-scale
private
Private or privates may refer to:
Music
* " In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation''
* Private (band), a Denmark-based band
* "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorde ...
farms. The AED policy came at the expense of the small-scale family farms that only yielded food supplies for local consumption. Based on a
legalistic interpretation of what constituted "efficient use" of the land, thousands of peasants were forcefully evicted from their farms and migrated to the cities, where they became part of the industrial labor pool. In 1961, the dispossession of farmland had produced 40,000 landless families and by 1969 their numbers amounted to 400,000 throughout Colombia. By 1970, the ''
latifundio
A ''latifundium'' (Latin: ''latus'', "spacious" and ''fundus'', "farm, estate") is a very extensive parcel of privately owned land. The latifundia of Roman history were great landed estates specializing in agriculture destined for export: grain, o ...
'' type of industrial farm (more than 50 hectares) occupied more than 77 per cent of arable land in the country. The AED policy increased the concentration of land ownership among cattle ranchers and urban industrialists, whose businesses expanded their profits as a result of reductions in the cost of labor wages after the influx of thousands of displaced peasants into the cities.
During this period, most rural workers lacked basic medical care and
malnutrition
Malnutrition occurs when an organism gets too few or too many nutrients, resulting in health problems. Specifically, it is "a deficiency, excess, or imbalance of energy, protein and other nutrients" which adversely affects the body's tissues ...
was almost universal, which increased the rates of preventable disease and infant mortality.
History
PCC and self-defense communities
Communists were active throughout rural and urban Colombia in the period immediately following
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
.
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 ...
(''Partido Comunista Colombiano'', PCC) was formally accredited by the
Comintern in 1930. The PCC began establishing "peasant leagues" in rural areas and "popular fronts" in urban areas, calling for improved living and working conditions, education, and rights for the working class. These groups began networking together to present a defensive front against the state-supported violence of large landholders.
Members organized strikes, protests, seizures of land, and organized communist-controlled "self-defense communities" in southern Colombia that were able to resist state military forces, while providing for the subsistence needs of the populace.
Many of the PCC's attempts at organizing peasants were met with violent repression by the Colombian government and the landowning class.
U.S. military intelligence estimated that in 1962, the size of the PCC had grown to 8,000 to 10,000 active members, and an additional 28,000 supporters.
In 1961, a guerrilla leader and long-time PCC organizer named
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 ...
declared an independent "Republic of Marquetalia". The Lleras government attempted unsuccessfully to attack the communities to drive out the guerrillas, due to fears that "a Cuban-style
revolutionary situation
In Marxist terminology, a revolutionary situation is a political situation indicative of a possibility of a revolution. The concept was introduced by Vladimir Lenin in 1913, in his article "Маёвка революционного пролета ...
might develop". After the failed attacks, several army outposts were set up in the area.
In October 1959, the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
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. Among other policy recommendations the US team advised that "to shield the interests of both Colombian and US authorities against 'interventionist' charges any special aid given for internal security was to be sterile and covert in nature".
In February 1962, three years after the 1959 "US Special Survey Team", 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.
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 US-backed force to commit "
paramilitary,
sabotage
Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening a polity, effort, or organization through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. One who engages in sabotage is a ''saboteur''. Saboteurs typically try to conceal their identitie ...
and/or
terrorist
Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...
activities against known communist proponents".
The new counter-insurgency policy was instituted as
Plan Lazo
"Marquetalia Republic" was an unofficial term used to refer to one of the enclaves in rural Colombia which communist peasant guerrillas held during the aftermath of "La Violencia" (approximately 1948 to 1958). Congressmen of the Colombian Conse ...
in 1962 and called for both military operations and
civic action program
A civic action program also known as civic action project is a type of operation designed to assist an area by using the capabilities and resources of a military force or civilian organization to conduct long-term programs or short-term projects. ...
s in violent areas. Following Yarborough's recommendations, the Colombian military recruited civilians into "civil defense" groups which worked alongside the military in its counter-insurgency campaign, as well as in civilian intelligence networks to gather information on guerrilla activity.
Doug Stokes
Doug Stokes is a Professor in International Security and Strategy in the Department of Politics at the University of Exeter. He was born in 1972 in Hackney, East London. His father was a gardener and sign writer, his mother a cleaner and secretar ...
argues that it was not until the early part of the 1980s that the Colombian government attempted to move away from the counterinsurgency strategy represented by Plan Lazo and Yarborough's 1962 recommendations.
Creation of FARC
The Colombian government began attacking many of the communist groups in the early 1960s, attempting to re-assimilate the territories under the control of the national government. FARC was formed in 1964 by
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 ...
and other PCC members, after a military
attack on the community of Marquetalia. 16,000 Colombian troops attacked the community, which only had 48 armed fighters. Marulanda and 47 others fought against government forces at Marquetalia and then escaped into the mountains along with the other fighters. These 48 men formed the core of FARC, which later grew in size to hundreds of fighters.
Betancur and Barco presidencies (1982–1990)
Seventh Guerrilla Conference of the FARC–EP
In 1982, FARC–EP held its Seventh Guerrilla Conference, which called for a major shift in FARC's strategy. FARC had historically been doing most of its fighting in rural areas and was limited to small-scale confrontations with Colombian military forces. By 1982, increased income from the "coca boom" allowed them to expand into an irregular army, which would then stage large-scale attacks on Colombian troops. They also began sending fighters to Vietnam and the Soviet Union for advanced military training. They also planned to move closer to middle-sized cities, as opposed to only remote rural areas, and closer to areas rich in natural resources, in order to create a strong economic infrastructure. It was also at this conference that FARC added the initials "EP", for "''Ejército del Pueblo''" or "People's Army", to the organization's name.
''La Uribe'' Agreement and ''Union Patriótica''
In the early 1980s, 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 ...
began discussing the possibility of peace talks with the guerrillas. This resulted in the 1984 ''La Uribe'' Agreement, which called for a
cease-fire
A ceasefire (also known as a truce or armistice), also spelled cease fire (the antonym of 'open fire'), is a temporary stoppage of a war in which each side agrees with the other to suspend aggressive actions. Ceasefires may be between state act ...
, which ended up lasting from 1984 to 1987.
In 1985, members of the FARC–EP, along with a large number of other leftist and communist groups, formed a political party known as the ''
Union Patriótica'' ("Patriotic Union", UP). The UP sought political reforms (known as ''Apertura Democratica'') such as
constitutional reform
A constitutional amendment is a modification of the constitution of a polity, organization or other type of entity. Amendments are often interwoven into the relevant sections of an existing constitution, directly altering the text. Conversely, ...
, more democratic local elections, political decentralization, and ending the domination of Colombian politics by the Liberal and Conservative parties. They also pursued socioeconomic reforms such
land redistribution
Land reform is a form of agrarian reform involving the changing of laws, regulations, or customs regarding land ownership. Land reform may consist of a government-initiated or government-backed property redistribution, generally of agricultural ...
, greater health and education spending, the
nationalization of foreign businesses, Colombian banks, and transportation, and greater
public access to mass media. While many members of the UP were involved with the FARC–EP, the large majority of them were not and came from a wide variety of backgrounds such as
labor unions
A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits (su ...
and socialist parties such as the PCC.
In the cities, the FARC–EP began integrating itself with the UP and forming ''Juntas Patrióticas'' (or "solidarity cells") – small groups of people associated with labor unions, student activist groups, and peasant leagues, who traveled into the ''barrios'' discussing social problems, building support for the UP, and determining the sociopolitical stance of the urban peasantry.
The UP performed better in elections than any other leftist party in Colombia's history. In 1986, UP candidates won 350 local council seats, 23 deputy positions in departmental assemblies, 9 seats in the House, and 6 seats in the Senate. The 1986 Presidential candidate,
Jaime Pardo Leal
Jaime Pardo Leal (March 28, 1941 October 11, 1987) was a Colombian lawyer, union leader, and politician, who ran as candidate of the Patriotic Union party for the presidency of Colombia in the 1986 elections, and was later assassinated.
Biog ...
, won 4.6% of the national vote.
Since 1986, thousands of members of the UP and other leftist parties were murdered (estimates range from 4,000 to 6,000). In 1987, the President of the UP, Jaime Pardo, was murdered. In 1989 a single large landholder had over 400 UP members murdered. Over 70% of all Colombian presidential candidates in 1990—and 100% of those from center-left parties—were assassinated.
Gaviria and Samper presidencies (1990–1998)
During this period, the Colombian government continued its negotiations with the FARC–EP and other armed groups, some of which were successful. Some of the groups which demobilized at this time include the
EPL, the
ERP, the Quintín Lame Armed Movement, and the
M-19.
On 10 August 1990, senior leader Jacobo Arenas, an ideological leader and founder of FARC–EP, died of a heart attack at the Casa Verde compound in Colombia's eastern mountains.
Towards the end of 1990, the army, with no advance warning and while negotiations were still ongoing with the group, attacked and seized four linked bases. The last of these a compound known as Casa Verde, which housed the National Secretariat of the FARC–EP, was seized on 15 December 1990. The Colombian government argued that the attack was caused by the FARC–EP's lack of commitment to the process, demonstrated by continuing its criminal activities and FARC attacks in November.
On 3 June 1991, dialogue resumed between the
Simón Bolívar Guerrilla Coordinating Board
The Simón Bolívar Guerrilla Coordinating Board ( es, Coordinadora Guerrillera Simón Bolívar or CGSB) was an umbrella group of guerrilla organizations in Colombia from 1987 to the early 1990s. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the 1 ...
and the government on neutral territory in
Caracas, Venezuela 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. However, the war did not stop, and armed attacks by both sides continued. The negotiation process was broken off in 1993 after no agreement was reached. The Coordinating Board disappeared not long after that time, and guerrilla groups continued their activities independently.
Before the break off of dialogue, a letter written by a group of Colombian intellectuals (among whom were
Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez
Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez (; 6 March 1927 – 17 April 2014) was a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter, and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo () or Gabito () throughout Latin America. Considered one ...
) to the Simón Bolívar Guerrilla Coordinating Board was released denouncing the approach taken by the FARC–EP and the dire consequences that it was having for the country.
In the early 1990s, the FARC–EP had between 7,000 and 10,000 fighters, organized into 70 fronts spread throughout the country. From 1996 to 1998 they inflicted a series of strikes on the Colombian Army, including a three-day offensive in
Mitú
Mitú () is the capital town of the department of Vaupés in Colombia. It is a small town located in South eastern Colombia in the Amazon Basin. Founded in 1936, Mitú lies next to the Vaupés River at 180 meters above sea level. It is where th ...
(
Vaupés department Vaupés may refer to:
* Vaupés River
Vaupés River (Uaupés River) is a tributary of the Rio Negro in South America. It rises in the Guaviare Department of Colombia, flowing east through Guaviare and Vaupés Departments. It forms part of the int ...
), taking a large number of soldiers prisoner.
On 23 September 1994, the FARC kidnapped American agricultural scientist
Thomas Hargrove
Thomas Rex Hargrove (3 March 1944 – 22 January 2011) was an American agricultural scientist and journalist, who was kidnapped in Colombia by FARC narco-guerillas in 1994. Throughout the 11 months he was captive, Hargrove secretly kept a diary wh ...
and held him captive for 11 months. After his release, Hargrove wrote a book about his ordeal which inspired the 2000 film ''
Proof of Life
''Proof of Life'' is a 2000 American action thriller film directed and produced by Taylor Hackford. The title refers to a phrase commonly used to indicate proof that a kidnap victim is still alive. The film's screenplay was written by Tony Gilr ...
'' starring
Meg Ryan
Meg Ryan (born Margaret Mary Emily Anne Hyra; November 19, 1961) is an American actress. She began her acting career in 1981 when she made her acting debut in the drama film ''Rich and Famous''. She later joined the cast of the CBS soap oper ...
and
Russell Crowe.
Over this period in Colombia, the cultivation of different drugs expanded and there were widespread coca farmers' marches. These marches brought to a halt several major arteries in southern Colombia. Government officials said that FARC-EP had forced the protesters to participate.
According to social anthropologist María Clemencia Ramírez, the relationship between the guerrillas and the marches was ambivalent: FARC-EP promoted the 1996 protests as part of their
participatory democracy
Participatory democracy, participant democracy or participative democracy is a form of government in which citizens participate individually and directly in political decisions and policies that affect their lives, rather than through elected repr ...
policies yet also exercised
authoritarianism
Authoritarianism is a political system characterized by the rejection of political plurality, the use of strong central power to preserve the political ''status quo'', and reductions in the rule of law, separation of powers, and democratic voti ...
, which led to tensions and negotiations with peasant leaders, but the ''
cocalero
Cocaleros are the coca leaf growers of Peru and Bolivia. In response to U.S.-funded attempts to eradicate and fumigate coca crops in the Chapare region of Bolivia, cocaleros joined with other grassroots indigenous organizations in the country, su ...
'' movement brought proposals on behalf of the coca growers and defended its own interests.
French sociologist Alain Labrousse, who has conducted extensive research on the illicit narcotics industry in Latin America and Central Asia, has noted similarities in the reliance on the drug trade by both the FARC-EP and the
Taliban
The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalist, militant Islamist, jihadist, and Pasht ...
. In his thesis, Labrousse asserts that the FARC-EP leadership, like that of the Taliban, explicitly bans the use of drugs by its membership and within the local population, but vigorously advocates for legalization of drug trafficking as a tool to finance its military objectives. In both cases, the insurgency groups manage to garner significant political support of farmers who serve to benefit from the illicit drug trade, prompting grassroots mobilization, political activism, and agitation to demand legalization by the government.
Pastrana presidency (1998–2002)
In March 1999 members of a local FARC contingent killed three USA-based indigenous rights activists, who were working with the U'Wa people to build a school for U'Wa children, and were fighting against encroachment of U'Wa territory by multinational oil corporations. The killings were questioned by many and condemned by many others, and led the United States to increase pressure on the Pastrana administration to crack down on FARC guerrillas.
1998–2002 peace process
![FARC guerrillas marching during the Caguan peace talks (1998-2002)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/82/FARC_guerrillas_marching_during_the_Caguan_peace_talks_%281998-2002%29.jpg)
With the hope of negotiating a peace settlement, on 7 November 1998, President
Andrés Pastrana granted FARC-EP a safe haven meant to serve as a confidence building measure, centred on the
San Vicente del Caguán
San Vicente del Caguán () is a town and municipality in Amazonian Caquetá Department, southern Colombia.
Religion
Its Marian Catedral Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes (dedicated to the Virgin of Mercy) is the cathedral episcopal see of t ...
settlement.
After a series of high-profile guerrilla actions, including the hijacking of an aircraft, the attack on several small towns and cities, the arrest of the Irish
Colombia Three
The Colombia Three are three individuals – Niall Connolly, James Monaghan and Martin McCauley – who are currently living in the Republic of Ireland, having fled from Colombia, where they had been sentenced to prison terms of seventeen years ...
(see below) and the alleged training of FARC-EP militants in bomb making by them, and the kidnapping of several political figures, Pastrana ended the peace talks on 21 February 2002 and ordered the armed forces to start retaking the FARC-EP controlled zone, beginning at midnight. A 48-hour respite that had been previously agreed to with the rebel group was not respected as the government argued that it had already been granted during an earlier crisis in January, when most of the more prominent FARC-EP commanders had apparently left the demilitarised zone. Shortly after the end of talks, the FARC-EP kidnapped
Oxygen Green Party
The Oxygen Green Party ( es, Partido Verde Oxígeno) is a political party in Colombia founded in 1998. After Íngrid Betancourt, one of its most prominent members, was kidnapped in 2002, the party's popular support began to fade. In 2005, a p ...
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) ...
, who was travelling in Colombian territory. Betancourt was rescued by the Colombian government on 2 July 2008 (see Operation Jaque below).
The Colombia Three case
On 24 April 2002, the
U.S. House of Representatives Committee on International Relations published the findings of its investigation into
IRA
Ira or IRA may refer to:
*Ira (name), a Hebrew, Sanskrit, Russian or Finnish language personal name
*Ira (surname), a rare Estonian and some other language family name
*Iran, UNDP code IRA
Law
*Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, US, on status of ...
activities in Colombia. Their report alleged a longstanding connection between the IRA and FARC–EP, mentioned at least 15 IRA members who had been travelling in and out of Colombia since 1998, and estimated that the IRA had received at least $2 million in drug proceeds for training FARC-EP members. The IRA/FARC-EP connection was first made public on 11 August 2001, following the arrest in
Bogotá of two IRA explosives and
urban warfare
Urban warfare is combat conducted in urban areas such as towns and cities. Urban combat differs from combat in the open at both the operational and the tactical levels. Complicating factors in urban warfare include the presence of civilians a ...
experts and of a representative of
Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin ( , ; en, " eOurselves") is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active throughout both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
The original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur G ...
who was known to be stationed in
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 ...
. Jim Monaghan, Martin McCauley and Niall Connolly (known as the
Colombia Three
The Colombia Three are three individuals – Niall Connolly, James Monaghan and Martin McCauley – who are currently living in the Republic of Ireland, having fled from Colombia, where they had been sentenced to prison terms of seventeen years ...
), were arrested in Colombia in August 2001 and were accused of teaching bomb-making methods to FARC–EP.
On 15 February 2002, the Colombia Three were charged with training FARC-EP members in bomb-making in Colombia. The Colombian authorities had received satellite footage of the men with FARC-EP in an isolated jungle area, where they were thought to have spent five weeks. They could have spent up to 20 years in gaol if the allegations were proved.
During October 2001, a key witness in the case against the three Irish republicans disappeared. This came as Sinn Féin President
Gerry Adams
Gerard Adams ( ga, Gearóid Mac Ádhaimh; born 6 October 1948) is an Irish republican politician who was the president of Sinn Féin between 13 November 1983 and 10 February 2018, and served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for Louth from 2011 to 2020. ...
admitted one of the men was the party's representative in Cuba. The missing witness, a former police inspector, said he had seen Mr McCauley with FARC-EP members in 1998. Without his testimony, legal sources said the chances of convicting the three men were reduced.
They were eventually found guilty of travelling on false passports in June 2004 but were acquitted of training FARC-EP members. That decision was reversed after an appeal by the
Attorney General of Colombia
The Office of the Attorney General of Colombia ( es, Fiscalía General de la Nación; literally "General Prosecutorial Office of the Nation") is the Colombian institution part of the Colombian judicial branch of Government with administrative a ...
and they were sentenced to 17-year terms.
However, they vanished in December 2004 while on bail and returned to Ireland.
Tánaiste
The Tánaiste ( , ) is the deputy head of the government of Ireland and thus holder of its second-most senior office. The Tánaiste is appointed by the President of Ireland on the advice of the Taoiseach. The current office holder is former Tao ...
Mary Harney
Mary Harney (born 11 March 1953) is an Irish former politician and the current Chancellor of the University of Limerick.
She was leader of the Progressive Democrats party between 1993 and 2006 and again from 2007 to 2008, resuming the role aft ...
said no deal had been done with Sinn Féin or the IRA over the three's return to Ireland adding that the Irish government would consider any request from the Colombian authorities for their
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 ...
.
Colombian vice-president
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 ...
did not rule out allowing them to serve their sentences in Ireland.
Uribe Presidency (2002–2010)
2002–2007
![FARC commanders during the Caguan peace talks (1998-2002)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7f/FARC_commanders_during_the_Caguan_peace_talks_%281998-2002%29.jpg)
For most of the period between 2002 and 2005, the FARC-EP was in a strategic withdrawal due to the increasing military and
police
The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and th ...
actions of new 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 ...
, which led to the capture or desertion of many fighters and medium-level commanders. Uribe ran for office on an anti-FARC-EP platform and was determined to defeat FARC-EP in a bid to create "confidence" in the country. Uribe's own father had been killed by FARC-EP in an attempted kidnapping in 1983.
In 2002 and 2003, FARC broke up ten large ranches in Meta, an eastern Colombian province, and distributed the land to local subsistence farmers.
During the first two years of the Uribe administration, several FARC-EP fronts, most notably in
Cundinamarca and
Antioquia, were broken by the government's military operations.
On 5 May 2003, the FARC assassinated the governor of Antioquia,
Guillermo Gaviria Correa
Guillermo Gaviria Correa (November 27, 1962, Medellín – May 5, 2003) was the state governor of Antioquia, a province of over 6 million people in northwestern Colombia. Kidnapped by FARC guerrillas during a march against violence on April 21, ...
, his advisor for peace, former defence minister
Gilberto Echeverri Mejía, and eight soldiers. The FARC had kidnapped Mr. Gaviria and Mr. Echeverri a year earlier, when the two men were leading a march for peace from Medellín to Caicedo in Antioquia.
On 13 July 2004, the office of
the United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizi ...
'
High Commissioner for Human Rights
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, commonly known as the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) or the United Nations Human Rights Office, is a department of the Secretariat of the United Nati ...
publicly condemned the group, given evidence that FARC-EP violated article 17 of the additional
Protocol II
Protocol II is a 1977 amendment protocol to the Geneva Conventions relating to the protection of victims of ''non-international'' armed conflicts. It defines certain international laws that strive to provide better protection for victims of ...
of the
Geneva Convention
upright=1.15, Original document in single pages, 1864
The Geneva Conventions are four treaties, and three additional protocols, that establish international legal standards for humanitarian treatment in war. The singular term ''Geneva Conve ...
and international humanitarian law, as a result of 10 July massacre of seven peasants and the subsequent displacement of eighty individuals in San Carlos, Antioquia.
In early February 2005, a series of small-scale actions by the FARC-EP around the southwestern departments of Colombia, resulted in an estimated 40 casualties. The FARC–EP, in response to government military operations in the south and in the southeast, displaced its
military centre of gravity towards the
Nariño,
Putumayo and
Cauca departments.
The FARC-EP originally said that they would only release the police and military members they held captive (whom they considered to be prisoners of war) through exchanges with the government for imprisoned FARC-EP members. During the duration of the
DMZ
A demilitarized zone (DMZ or DZ) is an area in which treaties or agreements between nations, military powers or contending groups forbid military installations, activities, or personnel. A DZ often lies along an established frontier or bounda ...
negotiations, a small humanitarian exchange took place.
The group demanded a demilitarised zone including two towns (Florida and Pradera) in the strategic region of Valle del Cauca, where much of the current military action against them has taken place; this region is also an important way of transporting drugs to the Pacific coast. This demand was rejected by the Colombian government based on previous experience during the 2002 peace talks.
On 2 December 2004, the government announced the pardon of 23 FARC–EP prisoners, to encourage a reciprocal move. The prisoners to be released were all of low rank and had promised not to rejoin the armed struggle. In November 2004, the FARC–EP had rejected a proposal to hand over 59 of its captives in exchange for 50 guerrillas imprisoned by the government.
In a communique dated 28 November but released publicly on 3 December, the FARC-EP declared that they were no longer insisting on the demilitarisation of San Vicente del Caguán and Cartagena del Chairá as a precondition for the negotiation of the prisoner exchange, but instead that of Florida and Pradera in the
Valle
Valle may refer to:
* Valle (surname)
Geography
*"Valle", the cultural and climatic zone of the dry subtropical Interandean Valles of the Andes of Peru, Bolivia, and northwest Argentina
*University of Valle, a public university in Cali, Colombia ...
department. They state that this area would lie outside the "area of influence" of both their Southern and Eastern Blocks (the FARC-EP's strongest) and that of the military operations being carried out by the Uribe administration.
They requested security guarantees both for the displacement of their negotiators and that of the guerrillas that would be freed, which were stated to number as many as 500 or more, and ask the Catholic Church to coordinate the participation of the United Nations and other countries in the process.
The FARC–EP also mention in the communique that
Simón Trinidad's
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 ...
, would be a serious obstacle to reaching a prisoner exchange agreement with the government.
On 17 December 2004, the Colombian government authorised Trinidad's extradition to the United States, but stated that the measure could be revoked if the FARC-EP released all political hostages and military captives in its possession before 30 December. The FARC-EP rejected the demand.
On 25 March 2006, after a public announcement made weeks earlier, the FARC–EP released two captured policemen at La Dorada, Putumayo. The release took place some southwest of Bogotá, near the Ecuadorean border.
The Red Cross said the two were released in good health. Military operations in the area and bad weather had prevented the release from occurring one week earlier.
In a separate series of events, civilian hostage and German citizen Lothar Hintze was released by FARC–EP on 4 April 2006, after five years in captivity. Hintze had been kidnapped for extortion purposes, and his wife had paid three ransom payments without any result.
One prisoner, Julian Ernesto Guevara Castro, a police officer, died of tuberculosis on 28 January 2006. He was a captain and was captured on 1 November 1998.
On 29 March 2009, the FARC-EP announced that they would give Guevara's remains to his mother. The FARC handed over Guevara's remains on 1 April 2010.
Another civilian hostage,
Fernando Araújo, later named Minister of Foreign Relations and formerly Development Minister, escaped his captors on 31 December 2006. Araújo had to walk through the jungle for five days before being found by troops in the hamlet of San Agustin, north of Bogotá. He was kidnapped on 5 December 2000 while jogging in the Caribbean coastal city of Cartagena. He was reunited with his family on 5 January 2007.
Another prisoner,
Frank Pinchao, a police officer, escaped his captors on 28 April 2007 after nine years in captivity. He was reunited with his family on 15 May 2007.
2007 death of 11 hostage deputies
On 28 June 2007, the FARC–EP reported the death of 11 out of 12 provincial deputies from the
Valle del Cauca Department whom the guerrillas had kidnapped in 2002. The guerrillas claimed that the deputies had been killed by crossfire during an attack by an "unidentified military group." The Colombian government stated that government forces had not made any rescue attempts and that the FARC–EP executed the hostages. FARC did not report any other casualties on either side and delayed months before permitting the Red Cross to recover the remains. According to the government, the guerrillas delayed turning over the corpses to let decomposition hide evidence of how they died. The Red Cross reported that the corpses had been washed and their clothing changed before burial, hiding evidence of how they were killed. The Red Cross also reported that the deputies had been killed by multiple close-range shots, many of them in the backs of the victims, and even two by shots to the head.
In February 2009, Sigifredo López, the only deputy who survived and was later released by FARC, accused the group of killing the 11 captives and denied that any military rescue attempt had taken place. According to López, the unexpected arrival of another guerrilla unit resulted in confusion and paranoia, leading the rebels to kill the rest of the Valle deputies. He survived after previously being punished for insubordination and was held in chains nearby but separated from the rest of the group.
Early-2008 prisoner events
On 10 January 2008, former vice presidential candidate
Clara Rojas
Clara Leticia Rojas González (born December 20, 1964) is a Colombian lawyer, university lecturer, and campaign manager for former senator and presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt. She was kidnapped along with Betancourt by the FARC guer ...
and former congresswoman
Consuelo González
Operation Emmanuel ( es, Operación Emmanuel) was a humanitarian operation that rescued politician Clara Rojas, her son Emmanuel (born in captivity), and former senator Consuelo González from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in ...
were freed after nearly six years in captivity.
In a
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 ...
-brokered deal, a helicopter flew deep into Colombia to pick up both hostages. The women were escorted out of the jungle by armed guerrillas to a clearing where they were picked up by Venezuelan helicopters that bore
International 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 ...
insignias.
In a statement published on a pro-rebel Web site, the FARC-EP said the unilateral release demonstrated the group's willingness to engage the Colombian government in talks over the release of as many as 800 people who are still being held.
In a televised speech, Colombia's U.S.-allied 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 ...
, thanked Chávez for his efforts.
During the period she was held kidnapped in the jungle in 2004, Clara Rojas gave birth to her son by
Caesarean. At 8 months old, the baby was removed from the area and Rojas didn't hear of the boy again until 31 December, when she heard Colombian President Álvaro Uribe say on the radio that the child was no longer with her captors.
DNA tests later confirmed the boy, who had been living in a Bogotá
foster home for more than two years under a different name, was hers. She reclaimed her son.
Asked about her opinion of the FARC–EP as group, Rojas called it "a criminal organisation", condemning its kidnappings as "a total violation of human dignity" and saying some captive police and soldiers are constantly chained.
On 31 January 2008, the FARC–EP announced that they would release civilian hostages Luis Eladio Perez Bonilla,
Gloria Polanco
Gloria Polanco is a Colombian woman and former First Lady of the Huila Department as wife of then Governor of Huila Jaime Lozada Perdomo. She rose to prominence after being kidnapped by the FARC-EP along with two of her sons and other members ...
, and Orlando Beltran Cuellar to Venezuelan President
Hugo Chávez as a humanitarian gesture. On 27 February 2008, the three hostages and Jorge Eduardo Gechem Turbay (who was added to the list due to his poor health) were released by FARC–EP. With the authorization of the Colombian government and the participation of the
International 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 ...
, a
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 ...
n helicopter transported them to
Caracas from
San José del Guaviare
San José del Guaviare () is a town and municipality in Colombia, capital of the department of Guaviare by the Guaviare River
The Guaviare is a tributary of the Orinoco in Colombia. It flows together with the upper Orinoco (until here also ca ...
. The FARC–EP had called its planned release of the hostages a gesture of recognition for the mediation efforts of Chávez, who had called on the international community to recognize the rebels as
belligerents a month prior. 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 ...
, who had tense relations with Chávez, thanked the socialist leader and called for the release of all hostages. He said Colombia was still in a fight "against terrorist actions" but was open to reconciliation.
Anti-FARC rallies
![Logo web](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8a/Logo_web.jpg)
On 4 February 2008, anti-FARC protests were held in 45 Colombian cities and towns, with an estimated 1.5 million people coming out in Bogotá alone. Solidarity rallies were held in some 200 cities worldwide including Berlin, Barcelona, London, Madrid, Toronto, Dubai, Miami, New York, Brisbane, and La Paz.
The protests were originally organised through Facebook and were also supported by local Colombian media outlets as well as the Colombian government. Participation estimates vary from the hundreds of thousands to several millions of people in Colombia and thousands worldwide.
Kiraz Janicke of the leftist and
chavista
''Chavismo'' (from es, chavismo), also known in English as Chavism or Chavezism, is a left-wing political ideology based on the ideas, programs and government style associated with the Venezuelan President between 1999 and 2013 Hugo Chávez th ...
website
Venezuelanalysis
Venezuelanalysis is a pro-Bolivarian Revolution website Also available aZnet./ref> that describes itself as "an independent website produced by individuals who are dedicated to disseminating news and analysis about the current political situation ...
criticised the rallies, claiming that "right-wing paramilitary leaders featured prominently" in their organisation and arguing that workers were also pressured to attend the gatherings. According to her, the purpose of the protests was to promote "
Uribe's policy of perpetuating Colombia's decades-long civil war." Shortly before the rallies took place thirteen demobilised
AUC paramilitary leaders, including
Salvatore Mancuso
Salvatore Mancuso Gómez, also known as "el Mono Mancuso", "Santander Lozada" or "Triple Cero" (i.e. "Triple Zero", or, "000"), among other names (born August 17, 1964 in Montería, Córdoba) is a Colombian paramilitary leader, once second in ...
, had expressed their support of the protest through a communique. However, this move was rejected by organiser
Carlos Andrés Santiago, who stated that such an endorsement was harmful and criticised the AUC's actions.
On 20 July 2008, a subsequent set of rallies against FARC included thousands of Colombians in Bogotá and hundreds of thousands throughout the rest of the country.
Deaths of Raúl Reyes and Manuel Marulanda Vélez
![Raulreyesfarc](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bb/Raulreyesfarc.png)
On 1 March 2008, Raul Reyes, a member of FARC's ruling Secretariat, in the small village of Santa Rosa, Ecuador, was killed just across the border from Colombia, after Colombian planes bombarded a FARC camp there. The bombardment was "followed by troops in helicopters who recovered the bodies of Reyes and another 16 rebels." Reyes was the former FARC chief negotiator during the unsuccessful 1998–2002 peace process, and was also a key FARC hostage release negotiator. Reyes' demise marked the first time that a FARC Secretariat member had been killed in combat.
This incident led to a breakdown in diplomatic relations between Ecuador and Colombia, and between Venezuela and Colombia.
Ecuador condemned the attack. The incident also resulted in diplomatic strains between the United States and Ecuador, following revelations that the
Central Intelligence Agency
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, ...
provided intelligence that allowed the Colombian military to locate the FARC–EP commander and ordnance used in the attack.
It has been considered the biggest blow against FARC–EP in its more than four decades of existence.
This event was quickly followed by the death of
Iván Ríos
José Juvenal Velandia, a.k.a. Iván Ríos, a.k.a. Manuel Jesús Muñoz Ortiz, (19 December 1961 – 3 March 2008), born in San Francisco, Putumayo, Colombia, was the Head of the Central Bloc of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC- ...
, another member of FARC–EP's seven-man Secretariat, less than a week later, by the hand of his own bodyguard. It came as a result of heavy Colombian military pressure and a reward offer of up to $5 million from the Colombian government.
After the attack, the Colombian military forces managed to secure six laptop computers belonging to Reyes, in which they found information linking several left-wing Colombian personalities, such as politicians, journalists and human rights activists with terrorist activities.
Manuel Marulanda Vélez died on 26 March 2008 after a heart attack. His death would be kept a secret, until Colombian magazine ''
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 defence 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 ...
on 24 May 2008 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–EP commander "
Timochenko" on Latin American television station
teleSUR on 25 May 2008. "Timochenko" announced the new commander in chief was
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 ...
After speculations in several national and international media about the "softening up" of the FARC and the announcement of Colombian President Álvaro Uribe that several FARC leaders were ready to surrender and free their captives, the secretariat of the FARC sent out a
communiqué
A press release is an official statement delivered to members of the news media for the purpose of providing information, creating an official statement, or making an announcement directed for public release. Press releases are also considere ...
emphasising the death of their founder would not change their approach towards the captives or the humanitarian agreement.
Late-2008 prisoner events
On 11 January 2008 during the annual State of the Nation in the
Venezuelan National Assembly
The National Assembly ( es, Asamblea Nacional) is the legislature for Venezuela that was first elected in 2000. It is a unicameral body made up of a variable number of members, who were elected by a "universal, direct, personal, and secret" vo ...
, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez referred to the FARC as "a real army that occupies territory in Colombia, they're not terrorists ... They have a political goal and we have to recognise that".
However, on 13 January 2008, Chávez retracted his previous statement and stated his disapproval of the FARC–EP strategy of armed struggle and kidnapping, saying "I don't agree with kidnapping and I don't agree with armed struggle". President Hugo Chávez repeatedly expressed his disapproval of the practice of kidnapping stating on 14 April: "If I were a guerrilla, I wouldn't have the need to hold a woman, a man who aren't soldiers ... Free the civilians who don't have anything to do with the war. I don't agree with that." On 7 March at the Cumbre de Rio, Chávez stated again that the FARC–EP should lay down their arms "Look at what has happened and is happening in Latin America, reflect on this (FARC-EP), we are done with war ... enough with all this death". On 8 June Chavez repeated his call for a political solution and an end to the war, "The guerrilla war is history ... At this moment in Latin America, an armed guerrilla movement is out of place".
On 2 July 2008, under a Colombian military operation called
Operation Jaque }
Operation Jaque ( es, Operación Jaque), named after the first letter of the month of the operation, July, and referencing check in chess, was a Colombian military operation that resulted in the successful rescue of 15 hostages, including former ...
, the FARC–EP was tricked by the Colombian Government into releasing 15 captives to Colombian Intelligence agents disguised as journalists and international aid workers in a helicopter rescue. Military intelligence agents infiltrated the guerrilla ranks and led the local commander in charge of the captives,
Gerardo Aguilar Ramírez, alias Cesar, to believe they were going to take them by helicopter to Alfonso Cano, the guerrillas' supreme leader. The rescued included
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) ...
(former presidential candidate), U.S. military contractors
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 ...
, as well as eleven Colombian police officers and soldiers. The commander, Cesar and one other rebel were taken into custody by agents without incident after boarding the helicopter. On 4 July, some observers questioned whether or not this was an intercepted captive release made to look like a rescue. In a 5 July communique, FARC itself blamed rebels Cesar and Enrique for the escape of the captives and acknowledged the event as a setback but reiterated their willingness to reach future humanitarian agreements. Immediately after the captive rescue, Colombian military forces cornered the rest of FARC–EP's 1st Front, the unit which had held the captives. Colombian forces did not wish to attack the 1st Front but instead offered them amnesty if they surrender. Colombia's Program for Humanitarian Attention for the Demobilized announced in August 2008 that 339 members of Colombia's rebel groups surrendered and handed in their weapons in July, including 282 guerrillas from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.
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 ...
, a
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 ...
congressman, was kidnapped 5 August 2000. On Sunday, 26 October 2008, the ex-congressman escaped from FARC–EP rebels. Tulio Lizcano was a
hostage
A hostage is a person seized by an abductor in order to compel another party, one which places a high value on the liberty, well-being and safety of the person seized, such as a relative, employer, law enforcement or government to act, or refr ...
for over 8 years, and escaped with a FARC–EP rebel he convinced to travel with him. They evaded pursuit for three days as they trekked through mountains and jungles, encountering the military in the western coastal region of Colombia. Tulio Lizcano is the first hostage to escape since the successful military rescue of Íngrid Betancourt, and the longest held political hostage by the organization. He became the 22nd Colombian political hostage to gain freedom during 2008.
During his final days in captivity, Lizcano told Santos, they had nothing to eat but wild palm hearts and
sugar cane
Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of (often hybrid) tall, perennial grass (in the genus '' Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with stout, jointed, fibrous stalk ...
. With the military tightening the noose, a FARC–EP rebel turned himself in and provided Colombian authorities with Lizcano's exact location in the northwest state of
Choco. As police and army troops prepared to launch a rescue operation, Lizcano escaped alongside one of his guerrilla guards who had decided to desert. The two men hiked through the rain forest for three days and nights until they encountered an army patrol.
Speaking from a clinic in the western city of Cali, Mr Lizcano said that when soldiers saw him screaming from across a jungle river, they thought he was drunk and ignored him. Only when he lifted the FARC–EP rebel's Galil assault rifle did the soldiers begin to understand that he was escaping from the FARC–EP rebels. "They jumped into the river, and then I started to shout, 'I'm Lizcano'", he said.
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.
2009 prisoner events
On 21 December 2008, The FARC–EP announced that they would release civilian hostages
Alan Jara
Alan Edmundo Jara Urzola (born 17 July 1957) is a Colombian civil engineer, and current Governor of the Department of Meta. He was kidnapped by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People' ...
,
Sigifredo López, three low-ranking police officers and a low-ranking soldier to 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 ...
as a humanitarian gesture. On 1 February 2009, the FARC–EP proceeded with the release of the four security force members, Juan Fernando Galicio Uribe, José Walter Lozano Guarnizo, Alexis Torres Zapata and William Giovanni Domínguez Castro. All of them were captured in 2007. Jara (kidnapped in 2001) was released on 3 February and López (kidnapped in 2002) was released on 5 February.
On 17 March 2009, The FARC-EP released Swedish hostage Erik Roland Larsson. Larsson, paralyzed in half his body, was handed over to detectives in a rugged region of the northern state of Córdoba. Larsson was kidnapped from his ranch in Tierralta, not far from where he was freed, on 16 May 2007, along with his Colombian girlfriend, Diana Patricia Pena while paying workers. She escaped that same month following a gun battle between her captors and police. Larsson suffered a stroke while in captivity. The FARC-EP had sought a $5 million ransom. One of Larsson's sons said that the ransom was not paid.
On 22 December 2009, the body of
Luis Francisco Cuéllar, the Governor of
Caquetá, was discovered, a day after he had been kidnapped from his house in
Florencia, Caquetá
Florencia (, en, Florence) is a municipality and capital city of the Department of Caquetá, Colombia. It is the most populous city in southwest Colombia. It lies on the Orteguaza River which flows into the Caqueta River. Its population is ...
. Officials said the abduction and execution had been carried by the FARC. According to officials, he had been killed soon after the abduction. The kidnappers cut the governor's throat as they evaded security forces. In a statement broadcast on radio, the acting governor, Patricia Vega, said, "I no longer have any doubts that FARC has done it again." The FARC claimed responsibility for Cuéllar's kidnapping and murder in January 2010. The group said that they kidnapped him in order to "put him on trial for corruption" and blamed his death on an attempt to rescue him by force.
On 16 April 2009, the FARC-EP announced that they would release Army Corporal
Pablo Emilio Moncayo
Gustavo Guillermo Moncayo Rincón (29 November 1952 – 15 November 2022),[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 ...]
began his term with a suspected FARC bomb-blast in Bogotá. This followed the resolution of the
2010 Colombia–Venezuela diplomatic crisis which erupted over outgoing 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 ...
's allegations of active Venezuelan support for FARC.
In early September 2010, FARC-EP attacks in the
Nariño Department and
Putumayo Department
Putumayo () is a department of Southern Colombia. It is in the south-west of the country, bordering Ecuador and Peru. Its capital is Mocoa.
The word ''putumayo'' comes from the Quechua languages. The verb ''p'utuy'' means "to spring forth" ...
in southern Colombia killed some fifty policemen and soldiers in hit-and-run assaults.
According to a December report by the
Corporación Nuevo Arco Iris NGO, 473 FARC-EP guerrillas and 357 members of the Colombian security forces died in combat between January and September 2010. An additional 1,382 government soldiers or policemen were wounded during the same period, with the report estimating that the total number of casualties could reach 2,500 by the end of the year. Nuevo Arco Iris head
León Valencia considered that FARC guerrillas have reacted to a series of successful military blows against them by splitting up their forces into smaller groups and intensifying the offensive use of anti-personnel
land mine
A land mine is an 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 detonated automati ...
s, leading to what he called a further "degradation" of the conflict. Valencia also added that both coca crops and the drug trade have "doubled" in areas with FARC-EP presence. Researcher Claudia López considered that the Colombian government is winning the strategic and aerial side of the war but not the infantry front, where both the FARC-EP and ELN continue to maintain an offensive capacity.
The
International Crisis Group claimed that the military offensives carried out under former President Álvaro Uribe and 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 ...
had led to the number of FARC-EC combatants being reduced to around 7,000, less than half the 20,000 combatants estimated to have been employed by the FARC-EC in the early 2000s. The same organisation also stated that the military offensive had been able to reduce FARC territorial control and push
guerillas
Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare in which small groups of combatants, such as paramilitary personnel, armed civilians, or irregulars, use military tactics including ambushes, sabotage, raids, petty warfare, hit-and-run tacti ...
to more remote and sparsely populated regions, often close to territorial or internal borders.
Colombian authorities announced the death of
Víctor Julio Suárez Rojas
Víctor Julio Suárez Rojas (2 January 1953 – 22 September 2010) — a.k.a. Jorge Briceño Suárez a.k.a. Mono Jojoy — was a high-ranking member of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a Colombian guerrilla organization. He was ...
, also known as ''
Mono Jojoy
Mono may refer to:
Common meanings
* Infectious mononucleosis, "the kissing disease"
* Monaural, monophonic sound reproduction, often shortened to mono
* Mono-, a numerical prefix representing anything single
Music Performers
* Mono (Japanese b ...
'', on 23 September 2010. President Juan Manuel Santos stated that the FARC commander was killed in an operation that began in the early hours of 21 September in the department of Meta, south of the capital Bogotá. According to Santos, he was "the impersonation of terror and a symbol of violence". After this event, the FARC-EP released a statement saying that defeating the group would not bring peace to Colombia and called for a negotiated solution, not surrender, to the social and political conflict.
In January 2011 Juan Manuel Santos admitted that FARC-EP had killed 460 government soldiers and wounded over 2,000 in 2010. In April 2011 the Colombian congress issued a statement saying that FARC has a "strong presence" in roughly one third of the municipalities in Colombia, while their attacks have increased. Overall FARC operations, including attacks against security forces as well as kidnappings and the use of land mines, have increased every year since 2005. In the first six months of 2011 the FARC carried out an estimated 1,115 actions, which constitutes a 10% increase over the same period in 2010.
By early 2011 Colombian authorities and news media reported that the FARC and the clandestine sister groups had partly shifted strategy from guerrilla warfare to "a war of militias", meaning that they were 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 both armed and unarmed civilian supporters making up the rebel militia network, instead of full-time fighters wearing uniforms.
According to
Corporación Nuevo Arco Iris, FARC-EP killed 429 members of the Colombian government's security forces between January and October 2011. During this same period, the rebel group lost 316 of its own members. The year 2011 saw over 2,000 incidents of FARC activity, which was the highest figure recorded since 1998. The NGO has stated that while most of these incidents remain defensive in nature and were not like the large offensives from years past, FARC actions grew since 2005, and the rebel group was carrying out intense operations against small and medium-sized Colombian military units in vulnerable areas.
Colombian troops killed FARC leader
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 a firefight on 4 November 2011. The 6th Front of the FARC, which was in charge of Cano's security at the time of his death, retaliated by killing two policemen in Suarez and Jambaló some 24 hours after the death of Cano.
On 26 November 2011, the FARC killed Police Captain Edgar Yesid Duarte Valero, Police Lieutenant Elkin Hernández Rivas, Army Corporal Libio José Martínez Estrada, and Police
Intendant Álvaro Moreno after government troops approached the guerrilla camp where they were held in an area of the Caqueta department. Police Sergeant Luis Alberto Erazo Maya managed to escape his captors and was later rescued.
The Colombian military had information indicating that there could be captives in the area and initiated Operation Jupiter in October 2011, using a 56 men Special Forces unit to carry out surveillance for preparing a future rescue mission that would involve additional troops and air support. According to the Colombian military, this same unit remained in the area for 43 days and did not find the captives until they accidentally ran into the FARC camp on the way back, which led to a shootout. Relatives of the captives, former victims and civil society groups blamed both the government and FARC for the outcome, questioning the operation as well as criticizing military rescues.
2012–2015: Peace talks and end of the armed conflict
In 2012, FARC announced they would no longer participate in kidnappings for ransom and released the last ten soldiers and police officers they kept as prisoners, but it has kept silent about the status of hundreds of civilians still reported as hostages, and continued kidnapping soldiers and civilians. On 26 February 2012, the FARC announced that they would release their remaining ten political hostages. The hostages were released on 2 April 2012. The president of Colombia,
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 ...
, said that this incident was "not enough", and asked the FARC to release the civilian hostages they possess.
On 22 November 2012, the FARC released four Chinese oil workers. The hostages were working for the Emerald Energy oil company, a British-based subsidiary of China's Sinochem Group, when they were kidnapped on 8 June 2011. Their Colombian driver was also kidnapped, but released several hours later. Authorities identified the freed men as Tang Guofu, Zhao Hongwei, Jian Mingfu, and Jiang Shan.
Santos announced on 27 August 2012 that the Colombian government has engaged in talks with FARC in order to seek an end to the conflict:
Exploratory conversations have been held with the FARC to find an end to the conflict. I want to make very clear to Colombians that the approaches that have been carried out and the ones that will happen in the future will be carried out within the framework based on these principles: We are going to learn from the mistakes made in the past so that they are not repeated. Second, any process must lead to the end of the conflict, not making it longer. Third, operations and military presence will be maintained across the entire national territory.
He also said that he would learn from the mistakes of previous leaders, who failed to secure a lasting ceasefire with FARC, though the military would still continue operations throughout Colombia while talks continued.
An unnamed Colombian intelligence source said Santos has assured FARC that no one would be extradited to stand trial in another country.
''Al Jazeera'' reported that the initiative began after Santos met with Venezuelan President
Hugo Chávez and asked him to mediate. Former President Uribe has criticized Santos for seeking peace "at any cost" and rejected the idea of holding talks. ''
Telesur'' reported that FARC and the Colombian government had signed a preliminary agreement in
Havana
Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center. the same day. The first round of the talks will take place in
Oslo
Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population ...
on 5 October and then return to Havana
for approximately six months of talks before culminating in Colombia.
However, Santos later ruled out a ceasefire pending the talks in Oslo and reiterated that offensive operations against FARC would continue.
ELN leader
Nicolás Rodríguez Bautista, otherwise known as Gabino, added that his group was interested in joining the talks too: "Well we are open, it's exactly our proposal, to seek room for open dialogue without conditions and start to discuss the nation's biggest problems. But the government has said no! Santos says he has the keys to peace in his pocket, but I think he has lost them because there seems to be no possibility of a serious dialogue, we remain holding out for that."
Colombia's
RCN Radio reported on 29 September
that a preliminary draft of the proposals
indicated that a resolution would involve answering FARC's historic grievances including rural development and agrarian reform; democracy development via an enhancement of the number of registered political parties; security and compensation for the victims of the conflict. In this regards, the Colombian government has already passed a series of laws that entail compensation for the victims and a return of land to the displaced. FARC also indicated a willingness to give up their arms. Former
M19 member
Antonio Navarro Wolff
Antonio José Navarro Wolff (born 9 July 1948) is an engineer, a former combatant and a Colombian politician.
Navarro used to be a former Commandant and leader of the 19th of April Movement (M-19), a former guerrilla movement that operated in C ...
said: "If the government wants a serious peace plan they will have to take control of the coca leaf plantations that are currently owned by the FARC because if not another criminal group will take over it."
Santos later told ''Al Jazeera'' that peace was possible if there was "goodwill" on both sides. Santos told the
on 26 September, that Venezuela and Chile were also helping in the discussion along with Cuba and Norway.
Peace talks were formally started on 18 October in a hotel 30 miles north of the Norwegian capital
Oslo
Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population ...
with a joint-press conference by both delegations.
The representatives of the government, led by
Humberto de la Calle
Humberto de la Calle Lombana (; born 14 July 1946) is a Colombian lawyer and politician. He served as Vice President of Colombia from 1994 to 1997. De La Calle served in the cabinet as Interior Minister under two Presidents, Andrés Pastrana ...
and the FARC, led by
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 ...
, said the so-called second phase of the peace process will be inaugurated in Oslo on 15 November, after which the delegations will go to
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 ...
to work on the negotiation of the peace accord, which will ultimately lead to a permanent agreement and
ceasefire
A ceasefire (also known as a truce or armistice), also spelled cease fire (the antonym of 'open fire'), is a temporary stoppage of a war in which each side agrees with the other to suspend aggressive actions. Ceasefires may be between state act ...
. The Colombian government has also stated that they expect that a post-Chávez government will continue to support the peace process. In late 2012, FARC declared a two-month unilateral cease-fire and said that they would be open to extending it as a bilateral truce afterwards during the rest of the negotiations. The Colombian government refused to agree to a bilateral cease-fire, alleging violations of the truce by FARC.
Shortly after lifting the ceasefire, FARC conducted attacks on a coal transport railway, which derailed 17 wagons and forced a suspension of operations and assaulted
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
, a town in the southern
Caquetá, killing at least seven government soldiers and injuring five others.
Santos has been far more responsive to threats against social leaders than his predecessors. He has also been decisive in combatting the New Illegal Armed Groups that emerged as a result of the
paramilitary process, especially in fighting threats and violence against human rights defenders and social leaders. During Santos' presidency, private security and proclaimed
self-defense movements have also lost their legitimacy.
On 27 May 2013, it was announced that one of the most contentious issues had been resolved. Land reform and compensation was tackled with promises to compensate those who had lost land.
This is the first time the government and FARC have reached an agreement on a substantive issue in four different negotiating attempts over 30 years. The peace process then moved on to the issue of "political participation", during which FARC insisted on its demand for an elected Constituent Assembly to rewrite Colombia's constitution. This demand has been forcefully rejected by Colombia's lead government negotiator, Humberto de la Calle.
On 1 July 2013, FARC and the second-largest guerrilla group in Colombia, ELN, announced that they would be working together to find a "political solution to the social and armed conflict." The details of this partnership, however, were far from clear;
Washington Office on Latin America
The Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) is a United States non-governmental organization (NGO) whose stated goal is to promote human rights, democracy, and social and economic justice in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The Washington Offi ...
's Adam Isacson explains that two issues central to peace accords with ELN—resource policy and kidnapping—are currently off the table in the talks in Havana with FARC, and the addition of these topics may complicate and slow down an already sluggish process.
On 6 November 2013 the Colombian government and FARC announced that they had come to an agreement regarding the participation of political opposition and would begin discussing their next issue, the illicit drug trade.
On 23 January 2014 Juan Fernando Cristo, the President of the Senate of Colombia, proposed a second Plan Colombia during a conference on the Colombian peace process in Washington, D.C.
Cristo stated that this new plan should be "for the victims" and should redirect the resources from the original Plan Colombia towards supporting a post-conflict Colombia.
On 16 May 2014, the Colombian government and the FARC rebels agreed to work together against drug trafficking, added to the development of these peace talks.
On 28 June 2015, humanitarian and spiritual leader
Ravi Shankar
Ravi Shankar (; born Robindro Shaunkor Chowdhury, sometimes spelled as Rabindra Shankar Chowdhury; 7 April 1920 – 11 December 2012) was an Indian sitarist and composer. A sitar virtuoso, he became the world's best-known export of North In ...
, on a three-day-visit to Cuba, had several rounds of discussions with FARC members in an exercise of confidence-building in the peace process, which had many hurdles from the past three years.
FARC requested Shankar to actively participate in the peace process. He said, "In this conflict, everyone should be considered as victims. And inside every culprit, there is a victim crying for help."
After many discussions, FARC finally agreed to embrace the Gandhian principle of non-violence. Commander Ivan Marquez declared in the press conference that they would adopt it. The FARC agreed that hatred had derailed the peace process. Marquez said, "We will work for peace and justice for all the people of Colombia."
On 8 July 2015, FARC announced a unilateral ceasefire, which began on 20 July 2015.
On 30 September 2015, Ravi Shankar accused Norway of sidetracking his effort at brokering a peace deal between the Colombian government and FARC, after Norway, which was part of a four-nation group (along with Cuba, Chile and Venezuela) acting as guarantors in the talks, released a statement saying that the peace deal was a result of "painstaking efforts undertaken by a league of Western nations".
2016–2017: Ceasefire and disarming
On 23 June 2016 a ceasefire accord was signed between the FARC Guerilla Army and the Colombian Government, in
Havana
Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center. ,
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 ...
. Leaders of several Latin American countries which contributed to the deal, including Cuba and
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 ...
, were present. The final peace accord
required a referendum to be approved.
Under the accord, the Colombian government will support massive investment for rural development and facilitate the FARC's reincarnation as a legal political party. FARC promised to help eradicate illegal drug crops, remove landmines in the areas of conflict, and offer reparations to victims. FARC leaders can avoid prosecution by acts of reparation to victims and other community work.
On 2 October 2016 Colombians voted and rejected the peace deal with FARC by 50.2% to 49.8%.
The government met with victims and peace opponents after the referendum was rejected, receiving over 500 proposed changes, and continued to negotiate with FARC.
A revised agreement announced on 12 November 2016, which would require parliamentary approval rather than a nationwide referendum.
Former President and chief peace opponent
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 ...
met with 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 ...
and thereafter issued a noncommittal statement that he awaited release of the full text. Among the reported 60 new or modified terms was a provision for FARC assets to be distributed for victim compensation.
FARC members would be able to establish a political party, and would in general be granted full immunity for full confession and cooperation, although drug trafficking would be assessed on a case-by-case basis. Peace terms would be enforced by a Special Justice for the Peace, who would report to the Constitutional Court and not to an international body, and both Parliament and the Special Justice would have the ability to modify the terms of the agreement as seen necessary.
The Colombian government and the FARC on 24 November signed a revised
peace deal,
which Congress approved on 30 November.
On 18 February 2017, the last FARC guerrillas arrived in a designated transition zone, where they began the process of disarming. The rebels stayed in the zones until 31 May, after which they were registered and reintegrated into civilian life.
On 27 June 2017, the FARC ceased to be an armed group, with its forces disarming and handing more than 7,000 weapons to the
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...
at a ceremony hosted by the FARC leadership, and the Colombian government, which included the Cabinet and 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 ...
. Peace observers had received the coordinates of 873 weapons caches hidden in Colombia's remote jungles and mountains. The UN was able to remove 510 of these weapons caches, leaving the remaining 363 caches for the military to pick up.
The last batch of weapons belonging to former FARC rebels has been removed under UN supervision. The United Nations collected 8,112 guns, 1.3 million bullets, 22 tons of explosives, 3,000 grenades and 1,000 land mines from the FARC.
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 which occurred during the armed conflict. Its objectives would be to satisfy victims' right to justice, 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.
At the end of a six-day visit to Colombia, on 9 October 2017 the UN
Assistant Secretary-General
An under-secretary-general of the United Nations (USG) is a senior official within the United Nations System, normally appointed by the General Assembly on the recommendation of the secretary-general for a renewable term of four years. Under- ...
for human rights Andrew Gilmour issued statement welcoming progress in the demobilization and disarmament of the FARC. However, he expressed, "concern about problems in the implementation of the accords which relate to the continued attacks against human rights defenders and community leaders."
Duque presidency (2018–present)
Membership in Colombian Congress
On 20 July 2019, ten former FARC members, including former senior leader Pablo Catatumbo, were sworn in as members of the
Congress of Colombia
The Congress of the Republic of Colombia ( es, Congreso de la República de Colombia) is the name given to Colombia's bicameral national legislature.
The Congress of Colombia consists of the 108-seat Senate, and the 188-seat Chamber of Repre ...
.
All of these ex-rebels are members of the
Common Alternative Revolutionary Force
The Commons ( es, Comunes), previously Common Alternative Revolutionary Force ( es, Fuerza Alternativa Revolucionaria del Común, FARC) until 24 January 2021, is a communist political party in Colombia, established in 2017 as the political suc ...
political party.
Five of these ten ex FARC rebels were sworn in as members of 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 ...
, while the other five were sworn in as members of the
Senate.
As part of the peace agreement, these ten seats will remain under control of members from the Common Alternative Revolutionary Force until 2026.
2019: Attempt to reinstate FARC
![Ivan-Marquez-GoraHerria](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b9/Ivan-Marquez-GoraHerria.jpg)
In a video published on 29 August 2019, former second-in-command FARC leader Iván Márquez announced his return to arms in the name of the guerrilla movement. Márquez denounced that the Government did not comply with its part of the Havana accord, with 667 local activists and 150 former guerrillas killed since the peace accord was signed.
This position was criticized by former FARC supreme leader
Rodrigo Londoño, who assured that his party remains committed to peace agreements and that "
re than 90 percent of former FARC guerrillas remain committed to the peace process".
Londoño also criticized Márquez, stating that the majority of former guerrillas killed were
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 ...
who continued armed actions.
After the announcement, President Iván Duque authorized the Joint Special Operations Command to start an offensive operation. Government forces conducted a bombing raid in
San Vicente del Caguán
San Vicente del Caguán () is a town and municipality in Amazonian Caquetá Department, southern Colombia.
Religion
Its Marian Catedral Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes (dedicated to the Virgin of Mercy) is the cathedral episcopal see of t ...
in which twelve people identified as FARC dissidents were killed. According to Duque, one of them, Gildardo Cucho, was the leader of the group which would be joining Iván Márquez in the rearmament.
Duque also accused Venezuelan president
Nicolás Maduro of assisting FARC and providing a safe haven for militants in Venezuela.
[
A Truth Commission report released in 2022 shows that the drug trafficking charges against ]Jesús Santrich
Seuxis Pausias Hernández Solarte, aka Jesús Santrich (31 July 1967 – 17 May 2021) was a guerrilla leader of Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia–People's Army (FARC–EP). He was a member of the Chamber of Representatives of Colombia unti ...
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.
2020–2021
General Luis Fernando Navarro asserted on January 5, 2021
File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 coup in Sudan; Crowd shortly after t ...
that FARC lost 1,500 members in 2020. The number includes deaths, capture, and desertions. He said the FARC still had 2,500 armed members.
Financing
FARC received most of its funding—which was estimated to average some US$300 million per year—from taxation of the 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 ...
and other activities, ransom kidnappings, bank robberies, and extortion of large landholders, multinational corporations, and agribusiness. From taxation of illegal drugs and other economic activity, FARC was estimated to receive US$60–100 million per year.
Means of financing
The guerillas's main means of financing was through the drug trade which includes both direct and indirect participation; taxation, administration or control of areas of production and trafficking. A large but often difficult to estimate portion of funding comes from the taxation of businesses and even local farmers, often lumped in with or defined by its opponents as extortion.
Drug trade
FARC was not initially involved in direct drug cultivation, trafficking, or trans-shipment prior to or during the 1980s. Instead, it maintained a system of taxation on the production that took place in the territories that they controlled, in exchange for protecting the growers and establishing law and order in these regions by implementing its own rules and regulations. During the 1990s, FARC expanded its operations, in some areas, to include trafficking and production, which had provided a significant portion of its funding. Right-wing paramilitary groups also receive a large portion of their income from drug trafficking and production operations.
A 1992 Central Intelligence Agency
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, ...
report "acknowledged that the FARC had become increasingly involved in drugs through their "taxing" of the trade in areas under their geographical control and that in some cases the insurgents protected trafficking infrastructure to further fund their insurgency", but also described the relationship between the FARC and the drug traffickers as one "characterized by both cooperation and friction"'' and concluded that ''"we do not believe that the drug industry n Colombia
N, or n, is the fourteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''en'' (pronounced ), plural ''ens''.
History
...
would be substantially disrupted in the short term by attacks against guerrillas. Indeed, many traffickers would probably welcome, and even assist, increased operations against insurgents."
In 1994, the Drug Enforcement Administration
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 ...
(DEA) came to three similar conclusions. First, that any connections between drug trafficking organizations and Colombian insurgents were "ad hoc 'alliances of convenience'". Second, that "the independent involvement of insurgents in Colombia's domestic drug productions, transportation, and distribution is limited ... there is no evidence that the national leadership of either the FARC or the ELN has directed, as a matter of policy, that their respective organizations directly engage in independent illicit drug production, transportation, or distribution." Third, the report determined that the DEA "has no evidence that the FARC or ELN have been involved in the transportation, distribution, or marketing of illegal drugs in the United States. Furthermore it is doubtful that either insurgent group could develop the international transportation and logistics infrastructure necessary to establish independent drug distribution in the United States or Europe ... DEA believes that the insurgents never will be major players in Colombia's drug trade."
FARC had called for crop substitution programs that would allow coca farmers to find alternative means of income and subsistence. In 1999, FARC worked with a United Nations alternative development project to enable the transition from coca production to sustainable food production. On its own, the group had also implemented agrarian reform Agrarian reform can refer either, narrowly, to government-initiated or government-backed redistribution of agricultural land (see land reform) or, broadly, to an overall redirection of the agrarian system of the country, which often includes land ...
programs in Putumayo.
In those FARC controlled territories that do produce coca, it is generally grown by peasants on small plots; in paramilitary or government controlled areas, coca is generally grown on large plantations. The FARC-EP generally made sure that peasant coca growers receive a much larger share of profits than the paramilitaries would give them, and demanded that traffickers pay a decent wage to their workers. When growers in a FARC-controlled area were caught selling coca to non-FARC brokers, they were generally forced to leave the region, but when growers were caught selling to FARC in paramilitary-controlled areas, they were generally killed. Lower prices paid for raw coca in paramilitary-controlled areas lead to significantly larger profits for the drug processing and trafficking organizations, which means that they generally prefer that paramilitaries control an area rather than FARC.
In 2000, FARC Spokesman Simon Trinidad
Simon may refer to:
People
* Simon (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name Simon
* Simon (surname), including a list of people with the surname Simon
* Eugène Simon, French naturalist and the genu ...
said that taxes on drug laboratories represented an important part of the organization's income, although he didn't say how much it was. He defended this funding source, arguing that drug trade was endemic in Colombia because it had pervaded many sectors of its economy.
After 21 April 2001 capture of Brazilian drug lord Luiz Fernando da Costa
Comando Vermelho (, ''Red Command'' or ''Red Commando''), also known as C.V. is a Brazilian criminal organization engaged primarily in drug trafficking, arms trafficking, protection racketeering, kidnappings-for- ransom, armored truck hijacki ...
(a.k.a. Fernandinho Beira-Mar) in Colombia, Colombian and Brazilian authorities accused him of cooperating with FARC-EP through the exchange of weapons for cocaine. They also claimed that he received armed protection from the guerrilla group.
On 18 March 2002 the Attorney General of the United States John Ashcroft
John David Ashcroft (born May 9, 1942) is an American lawyer, lobbyist and former politician who served as the 79th U.S. Attorney General in the George W. Bush administration from 2001 to 2005. A former U.S. Senator from Missouri and the 50th ...
indicted leaders of the FARC after an 18-month investigation into their narcotics trafficking. Tomás Molina Caracas, the commander of the FARC's 16th Front, led the 16th Front's drug-trafficking activities together with Carlos Bolas and a rebel known as Oscar El Negro. Between 1994 and 2001, Molina and other 16th Front members controlled Barranco Minas, where they collected cocaine from other FARC fronts to sell it to international drug traffickers for payment in currency, weapons and equipment.
On 22 March 2006 the Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announced the indictment of fifty leaders of FARC for exporting more than $25 billion worth of cocaine to the United States and other countries. Several of the FARC leaders appeared on the Justice Department's Consolidated Priority Organization target list, which identifies the most dangerous international drug trafficking organizations. Recognizing the increased profits, the FARC moved to become directly involved in the manufacture and distribution of cocaine by setting the price paid for cocaine paste and transporting it to jungle laboratories under FARC control. The charged FARC leaders ordered that Colombian farmers who sold paste to non-FARC buyers would be murdered and that U.S. fumigation planes should be shot down.
On 11 October 2012 Jamal Yousef, a.k.a. "Talal Hassan Ghantou", a native of Lebanon
Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to Lebanon–Syria border, the north and east and Israel to Blue ...
, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for conspiring to provide military-grade weapons to the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (the FARC), in exchange for over a ton of 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 ...
. Yousef pleaded guilty in May 2012 to one count of providing material support to the FARC.
Kidnappings
The FARC-EP carried out both ransom and politically motivated kidnappings
In criminal law, kidnapping is the unlawful confinement of a person against their will, often including transportation/ asportation. The asportation and abduction element is typically but not necessarily conducted by means of force or fear: the ...
in Colombia and was responsible for the majority of such kidnappings carried out in the country.
The guerrillas initially targeted the families of drug traffickers, the wealthy upper-class and foreigners but the group later expanded its kidnapping and extortion operations to include the middle-class.
During the 1984 peace negotiations, FARC pledged to stop kidnapping and condemned the practice. However, hostage-taking by FARC increased in the years following this declaration. In a 1997 interview, FARC-EP Commander 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 ...
argued that some guerrilla units continued to do so for "political and economic reasons" in spite of the prohibition issued by the leadership.
In 2000, the FARC-EP issued a directive called "Law 002" which demanded a "tax" from all individuals and corporations with assets worth at least US$1 million, warning that those who failed to pay would be detained by the group. In 2001, FARC Commander Simón Trinidad claimed that the FARC-EP does not engage in kidnapping but instead "retains ndividualsin order to obtain resources needed for our struggle". Commander Trinidad said he did not know how many people had been taken by FARC or how much money was collected by the organization in exchange for their freedom. In addition, FARC spokesperson Joaquín Gómez stated that the payment demanded was a tax which many people paid "voluntarily", with kidnapping undertaken because "those who have the resources must pay their share".
In 2002, Amnesty International sent a letter to FARC-EP Commander Manuel Marulanda
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'' ...
condemning kidnapping and hostage-taking as well as rejecting the threats directed at municipal or judicial officials and their families, arguing that they are civilians who are protected by 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 ...
as long as they do not participate in hostilities.
According to Amnesty International, the number of kidnappings decreased in the last years of the conflict, but the human rights organization estimated that FARC and ELN guerrillas continued to be behind hundreds of cases until their disarming. In 2008, press reports estimated that about 700 hostages continued to be held captive by FARC. According to the ''Fundación País Libre'' anti-kidnapping NGO, an estimated total of 6,778 people were kidnapped by FARC between 1997 and 2007. In 2009, the state's anti-kidnapping agency ''Fondelibertad'' reviewed 3,307 officially unsettled cases and removed those that had already been resolved or for which there was insufficient information. The agency concluded that 125 hostages remained in captivity nationwide of whom 66 were being held by the FARC–EP. The government's revised figures were considered "absurdly low" by ''Fundación País Libre'', which has argued that its own archives suggest an estimated 1,617 people taken hostage between 2000 and 2008 remain in the hands of their captors, including hundreds seized by FARC. FARC claimed at the time that it was holding nine people for ransom in addition to hostages kept for a prisoner exchange.
In 2008, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez expressed his disagreement with FARC-EP's resorting to kidnappings. Former President Fidel Castro of Cuba also criticized the use of hostage-taking by the guerrillas as "objectively cruel" and suggested that the group free all of its prisoners and hostages.
In February 2012, FARC announced that it would release ten members of the security forces, who it described as political prisoners, representing the last such captives in its custody. It further announced the repeal of Law 002, bringing to an end its support for the practice of kidnapping for ransom. However, it was not clear from the FARC statement what would happen to the civilians it still held in captivity. Colombian 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 ...
used Twitter to welcome the move as a "necessary, if insufficient, step in the right direction".
Human rights concerns
FARC was accused of committing violations of human rights by numerous groups, including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the United Nations as well as by the Colombian, U.S. and European Union governments.
A February 2005 report from the United Nations' High Commissioner for Human Rights
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, commonly known as the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) or the United Nations Human Rights Office, is a department of the Secretariat of the United Nati ...
mentioned that, during 2004, "FARC-EP continued to commit grave breaches f human rightssuch as murders of protected persons, torture and hostage-taking, which affected many civilians, including men, women, returnees, boys and girls, and ethnic groups."
Extrajudicial executions
FARC consistently carried out attacks against civilians specifically targeting suspected supporters of paramilitary groups, political adversaries, journalists, local leaders, and members of certain indigenous groups since at least as early as 1994. From 1994 to 1997 the region of Urabá in Antioquia Department was the site of FARC attacks against civilians. FARC has also executed civilians for failing to pay "war taxes" to their group.
In 2001, Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...
(HRW) announced that the FARC-EP had abducted and executed civilians accused of supporting paramilitary groups in the demilitarized zone
A demilitarized zone (DMZ or DZ) is an area in which treaties or agreements between nations, military powers or contending groups forbid military installations, activities, or personnel. A DZ often lies along an established frontier or bounda ...
and elsewhere, without providing any legal defense mechanisms to the suspects and generally refusing to give any information to relatives of the victims. The human rights NGO directly investigated three such cases and received additional information about over twenty possible executions during a visit to the zone.
According to HRW, those extrajudicial executions would qualify as forced disappearances
An enforced disappearance (or forced disappearance) is the secret abduction or imprisonment of a person by a state or political organization, or by a third party with the authorization, support, or acquiescence of a state or political organiza ...
if they had been carried out by agents of the government or on its behalf, but nevertheless remained "blatant violations of the FARC-EP's obligations under international humanitarian law and in particular key provisions of article 4 of Protocol II, which protects against violence to the life, physical, and mental well-being of persons, torture, and ill-treatment".
The Colombian human rights organization CINEP reported that FARC-EP killed an estimated total of 496 civilians during 2000.
Use of gas cylinder mortars and landmines
The FARC-EP has employed a type of improvised mortars
Mortar may refer to:
* Mortar (weapon), an indirect-fire infantry weapon
* Mortar (masonry), a material used to fill the gaps between blocks and bind them together
* Mortar and pestle, a tool pair used to crush or grind
* Mortar, Bihar, a villag ...
made from gas canisters (or cylinders), when launching attacks.
According to Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...
, the FARC-EP has killed civilians not involved in the conflict through the use of gas cylinder mortars and its use of landmines.
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...
considers that "the FARC-EP's continued use of gas cylinder mortars shows this armed group's flagrant disregard for lives of civilians...gas cylinder bombs are impossible to aim with accuracy and, as a result, frequently strike civilian objects and cause avoidable civilian casualties."
According to the ICBL
The International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) is a coalition of non-governmental organizations whose stated objective is a world free of anti-personnel mines and cluster munitions, where mine and cluster munitions survivors see their righ ...
Landmine and Cluster Munitions Monitor, "FARC is probably the most prolific current user of antipersonnel mines among rebel groups anywhere in the world." Furthermore, FARC use child soldiers to carry and deploy antipersonnel mines.
Treatment of women
Female membership of the group is around 30 to 40 percent and while FARC's official policy forbids sexual assault of any kind, female members have experienced rape, sex slavery, and forced abortions. In a 2011 Colombia Police report, 112 women had deserted FARC and reported instances of being forced to have sex with commanding officers which lead to the spread of sexually transmitted diseases as well as pregnancy. Members who became pregnant were forced to have abortions at any stage of gestation, with an estimated 80 to 90 percent of ex-FARC female members having had at least one abortion, some having up to four. The report also claims that girls as young as 13 were recruited by FARC to fill a quota of women because “The women are onsiderednecessary to maintain the discipline of the FARC." In an interview with Reuters
Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world.
The agency was esta ...
, Claudia Roa, who joined FARC when she was 14, told how she was unknowingly given pills to induce birth when she was 8 months pregnant, after which her child was suffocated to death. According to Rao, many other women faced similar treatment, but those who became girlfriends to commanders were awarded special privileges, including the right to have children. One Colombian newspaper, after reviewing uncovered FARC documents and speaking with investigators, estimated that 1,000 forced abortions occur each year in FARC camps. In 2015, the Colombian attorney general opened an investigation into 150 cases of ex-FARC women being forced to terminate their pregnancies.
Violence against indigenous people
FARC sometimes threatened or assassinated indigenous Colombian leaders for attempting to prevent FARC incursions into their territory and resisting the forcible recruitment by FARC of indigenous youth. Between 1986 and 2001, FARC was responsible for 27 assassinations, 15 threats, and 14 other abuses of indigenous people in Antioquia Department.
In March 1999 members of a local FARC contingent killed 3 indigenous rights activists, who were working with the U'Wa people to build a school for U'Wa children, and were fighting against encroachment of U'Wa territory by multinational oil corporations. The killings were almost universally condemned, and seriously harmed public perceptions of FARC.
Members of indigenous groups have demanded the removal of military bases set up by the Colombian government and guerrilla encampments established by FARC in their territories, claiming that both the Colombian National 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 ...
and the FARC should respect indigenous autonomy and international humanitarian law. According to a 2012 research from the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia
The National Indigenous Organization of Colombia ( es, Organización Nacional Indígena de Colombia or ) is an organization representing the indigenous peoples of Colombia, who, according to the 2018 census, comprise some 1,905,617 people or appro ...
(ONIC), 80,000 members of indigenous communities have been displaced from their native lands since 2004 because of FARC-related violence.
Luis Evelis, an indigenous leader and ONIC representative, has stated that "the armed conflict is still in force, causing damages to the indigenous. Our territories are self-governed and we demand our autonomy. During the year 2011, fifty-six indigenous people have been killed." The United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples has indicated that no military activities may be carried out within indigenous territories without first undertaking an "effective consultation" with indigenous representatives and authorities from the communities involved.
The Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca (CRIC) issued a statement concerning the release of two hostages taken by FARC in 2011: "Compared to past statements made by the national government, it is important to reiterate that the presence of armed groups in our territories is a fact that has been imposed by force of arms, against which our communities and their leaders have remained in peaceful resistance." The CRIC also indicated that neither the Colombian government nor the mediators and armed groups involved consulted with the indigenous people and their authorities about the hostage release, raising concerns about the application of national and international law guaranteeing their autonomy, self-determination and self-government. The indigenous organization also demanded the immediate end of all violence and conflict within indigenous territories and called for a negotiated solution to the war.
Official Colombian government statistics show that murders of indigenous people between January and May 2011 have increased 38% compared to the same timeframe in 2010. Colombia is home to nearly 1 million indigenous people, divided into around 100 different ethnicities. The Colombian Constitutional Court has warned that 35 of those groups are in danger of dying out. The Permanent Assembly for the Defense of Life and Territorial Control has stated that the armed conflict "is not only part of one or two areas, it is a problem of all the indigenous people."
Organization and structure
FARC–EP was the largest and oldest insurgent group in the Americas. According to the Colombian government, FARC–EP had an estimated 6,000–8,000 members in 2008, down from 16,000 in 2001, and lost much of its fighting force since 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 ...
took office in 2002. Political analyst and former guerrilla estimated that FARC's numbers were reduced to around 11,000 from their 18,000 peak but cautioned against considering the group a defeated force. In 2007, FARC–EP Commander 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 ...
claimed that their force consisted of 18,000 guerrillas.
According to a report from Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...
in 2006, approximately 10–15% of the recruits were minors, some of whom were forced to join the FARC, while women comprise around 40 percent of the guerilla army.
FARC was organized hierarchically into military units
Military organization or military organisation is the structuring of the armed forces of a state so as to offer such military capability as a national defense policy may require. In some countries paramilitary forces are included in a nation ...
as follows:
* ''Central High Command'' – composed of a five-member Secretariat (one of them being the Commander-in-Chief) and two "supplements". Coordinated the activities of the individual blocks, and determined overall strategy of FARC–EP.
* ''Estado Mayor Central'' – 25 members, who also coordinated the activities of blocks
* ''Block'' – 5+ fronts, with each block corresponding to one of Colombia's geographical regions: south, central, east, west, Middle Magdalena, Caribbean, and Cesar
* ''Front'' – 1+ columns. Within each front, there were combat, support, and infrastructure elements.
* ''Column'' – 2+ companies
* ''Company'' – 2+ guerrillas
* ''Guerrilla'' – 2 squads
* ''Squad'' – +/- 12 combatants
The FARC–EP secretariat was led by 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 ...
and six others after the death of Manuel Marulanda
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'' ...
(Pedro Antonio Marín), also known as "Tirofijo", or Sureshot, in 2008. The "international spokesman" of the organization was 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 ...
, who was killed in a Colombian army raid against a guerrilla camp in 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 1 March 2008. Cano was killed in a military operation on 4 November 2011.
FARC–EP was open to a negotiated solution to the nation's conflict through dialogue with a flexible government that agreed to certain conditions, such as the demilitarization
Demilitarisation or demilitarization may mean the reduction of state armed forces; it is the opposite of militarisation in many respects. For instance, the demilitarisation of Northern Ireland entailed the reduction of British security and military ...
of certain areas, cessation of paramilitary and government violence against rural peasants, social reforms to reduce poverty and inequality, and the release of all jailed (and extradite
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 jurisdic ...
d) FARC–EP rebels. It said that until these conditions surfaced, the armed revolutionary struggle would remain necessary to fight against Colombia's elites. The FARC–EP said it would continue its armed struggle because it perceived the Colombian government as an enemy because of historical politically motivated violence against its members and supporters, including members of the Patriotic Union, a FARC–EP-created political party.
Territorial operations
The largest concentrations of FARC–EP guerrillas were located in the southeastern parts of Colombia's of jungle and in the plains at the base of the Andean mountains. However, the FARC and the ELN lost control of much of their territory, especially in urban areas, forcing them to relocate to remote areas in the jungle and the mountains.
Relations between the FARC-EP and local populations vary greatly depending on the history and specific characteristics of each region. In rural areas where the guerrillas have maintained a continuous presence for several decades, there are often organic links between the FARC and peasant communities. Such ties include shared generational membership and historical struggles dating back to the period of ''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 ...
''. These areas have traditionally been located in the departments of Caquetá, Meta, Guaviare and Putumayo, and – to a lesser extent – portions of Huila, Tolima and Nariño. Within remote locations under FARC control and where the national government is generally absent, the group can function as a revolutionary vanguard and institutes its ''de facto
''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with ''de jure'' ("by la ...
'' rule of law by carrying out activities that aim to combat corruption and reduce small-scale crime.
The FARC had also been able to provide limited social services in these regions, such as health care and education, including building minor infrastructure works in the form of rural roads. Peasants who have grown up in areas under historical FARC control may become accustomed to accepting them as the local authority. The guerrillas also attempt to keep the peace between peasants and drug traffickers in addition to regulating other aspects of daily life and economics.
In other rural regions of the country, where a FARC presence had only been established within the last twenty years of the conflict and primarily remained military in nature, there was often a level of distrust between FARC rebels and the local peasant communities, which lack historical ties to the group. Civilians in these locations also tended to get caught in the middle of the conflict between FARC and its government or paramilitary opponents. In the populated urban areas where the Colombian state has maintained a solid historical presence, some FARC sympathies may have existed in the poorest neighborhoods and among certain progressive sectors of the middle class, but most city inhabitants tended to view the guerrillas as one of Colombia's main problems.
By the end of 2010, FARC-EP influence was significantly reduced in the regions where it had only carried out a recent military-focused expansion during the 1980s and 1990s, in part due to the failure to establish close social ties with local populations. Government offensives eradicated much of the visible guerrilla presence in northern and central Colombia as well as in Guainía, Vaupés and Amazonas, limiting FARC to clandestine operations. Similar military setbacks and retreats occurred even within its traditional strongholds, forcing the FARC to move towards the most remote areas, but there the guerrillas did appear to maintain popular support among the peasants that had developed organic links to the insurgency.
FARC dissidents
The 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 ...
refers to a group formerly part of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, who have refused to lay down their arms after the FARC-government peace treaty came into effect in 2016. The dissidents number some 1,200 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
The Clan del Golfo (English: The Gulf Clan), also known as Gaitanist Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (Autodefensas Gaitanistas de Colombia – AGC) and formerly called Los Urabeños and Clan Úsuga, is a prominent Colombian Paramilitarism in Colo ...
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 y alias Julián Chollo. The FARC dissidents have been responsible for several attacks on the Colombian armed forces. Dissidents of FARC's 1st Front are located in the eastern plains of Colombia. John 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
The Putumayo Province is one of the eight provinces in the Loreto Region of Peru
, image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg
, image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg
, other_symbol = Great Seal of the State
, ot ...
, an area bordering both Colombia and Ecuador. On the first day alone, more than 50 individuals were arrested in the operation, with the majority being Colombian nationals, while four cocaine labs were dismantled.
International response
The FARC were a violent non-state actor
In international relations, violent non-state actors (VNSAs), also known as non-state armed actors or non-state armed groups (NSAGs), are individuals or groups that are wholly or partly independent of governments and which threaten or use viole ...
(VNSA) whose formal recognition
Recognition may refer to:
*Award, something given in recognition of an achievement
Machine learning
*Pattern recognition, a branch of machine learning which encompasses the meanings below
Biometric
* Recognition of human individuals, or biomet ...
as legitimate belligerent forces is disputed by some organizations. As such, the FARC has been classified as a terrorist organization
A number of national governments and two international organizations have created lists of organizations that they designate as terrorist. The following list of designated terrorist groups lists groups designated as terrorist by current and fo ...
by the governments of Colombia, (since 1997) the United States (until 2021), Canada, Chile, (since 2010) New Zealand, Venezuela (Guaido-led government, since 2019) and (until 2016) 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 ...
; whereas the governments of Venezuela (Maduro-led government), Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador, and Nicaragua do not. In 2008, Venezuelan President
The president of Venezuela ( es, Presidente de Venezuela), officially known as the President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, Presidente de la República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is the head of state and head of government in Ven ...
Hugo Chávez recognized the FARC–EP as a proper army. President Chávez also asked the Colombian government and their allies to recognize the FARC as a belligerent force, arguing that such political recognition would oblige the FARC to forgo kidnapping and terrorism as methods of civil war and to abide by the Geneva Convention
upright=1.15, Original document in single pages, 1864
The Geneva Conventions are four treaties, and three additional protocols, that establish international legal standards for humanitarian treatment in war. The singular term ''Geneva Conve ...
. 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 ...
followed a middle path by recognizing in 2011 that there is an "armed conflict" in Colombia although his predecessor, 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 ...
, strongly disagreed.
The FARC built a deep relationship with the Gaddafi government in Libya, throughout the 1990s and 2000s until the latter's overthrow in 2011. The FARC in 2000 requested a $100 million loan from Tripoli, FARC commanders were hosted in Libya and FARC soldiers were allegedly seen fighting for Gaddafi in the First Libyan Civil War
The First Libyan Civil War was an armed conflict in 2011 in the North African country of Libya that was fought between forces loyal to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and rebel groups that were seeking to oust his government. It erupted with the Libya ...
.
See also
* Eastern Bloc of the FARC-EP The Eastern Bloc of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, from September 2010 known as ''Bloque Comandante Jorge Briceño'', in honour of the slain guerrilla leader, was considered to be the strongest military faction of the guerrilla group. ...
* List of political hostages held by FARC
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) was a self-proclaimed Marxist-Leninist revolutionary guerrilla organization, listed internationally as a terrorist group by a number of countries. Estimates claim that the FARC at one point had h ...
* Terrorism in Colombia
Terrorism in Colombia has occurred repeatedly during the last several decades, largely due to the ongoing armed conflict the country has been involved in since 1964. Perpetrators of terrorist acts in the country range from leftist guerilla forc ...
* Terrorism in Ecuador
Terrorism in Ecuador is a rare occurrence as the country, despite recurrent periods of economic and political instability, has been traditionally known as a peaceful state in Latin America, unlike its neighbor states; Peru and Colombia, which have ...
Notes
References
Further reading
Books
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* ''The Suicide of Colombia'', Foreign Policy Research Institute
The Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI) is an American think tank based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that conducts research on geopolitics, international relations, and international security in the various regions of the world as well as ...
, 1998
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Articles
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External links
Overview of Colombian-FARC Peace Process (English)
FARC Official Website
(Spanish)
Official website of the peace delegation of FARC
(English)
Second FARC Official Website
(Spanish)
FARC profile
''Colombia Reports''
– by Paul Wolf (collection of declassified U.S. government documents online)
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the Illicit Drug Trade
Ricardo Vargas Meza, Transnational Institute (TNI), June 1999
Interview with Alfonso Lopez Caballero
''The Alligator'', 2 February 2009
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.
Government/NGO reports
Human Rights Watch – Humanitarian Law and its Application to the Conduct of the FARC-EP
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights – Colombia 2005 Report
(Spanish and English)
{{Authority control
Organizations established in 1964
1964 establishments in Colombia
Colombian guerrilla movements
Communism in Colombia
Far-left politics in Colombia
Defunct communist militant groups
Organizations formerly designated as terrorist by the European Union
Organizations based in Latin America designated as terrorist
Organizations based in South America designated as terrorist
Terrorism in Brazil
Terrorism in Colombia
Terrorism in Ecuador
Terrorism in Peru
Organizations designated as terrorist by Canada
Organisations designated as terrorist by New Zealand
Organizations designated as terrorist by the United States
Terrorism in Venezuela
Drug cartels in Colombia