The People's Revolutionary Army (, ERP) was a small
Marxist
Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...
guerrilla
Guerrilla warfare is a form of unconventional warfare in which small groups of irregular military, such as rebels, Partisan (military), partisans, paramilitary personnel or armed civilians, which may include Children in the military, recruite ...
organization in
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...
. The group originated in the municipality of
Venadillo,
Tolima Department
Tolima () is one of the 32 departments of Colombia, located in the Andean region, in the center-west of the country. It is bordered on the north and the west by the department of Caldas; on the east by the department of Cundinamarca; on the ...
in c. 1985 as a splinter group of the
National Liberation Army and was commanded by its founder
Édgar Castellanos, a.k.a. "Gonzalo" until his death in January 2007. The group became a military objective of
paramilitary
A paramilitary is a military that is not a part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. The Oxford English Dictionary traces the use of the term "paramilitary" as far back as 1934.
Overview
Though a paramilitary is, by definiti ...
. The Colombian government wanted the group for rebellion, kidnappings and extortion crimes.
[El Tiempo: Catorce guerrilleros del Erp en el Tolima entregaron las armas para reintegrarse a la vida civil]
eltiempo.com Accessed 15 September 2007.
It operated mostly in the vicinity of the city of
Ibagué
Ibagué () (referred to as San Bonifacio de Ibagué del Valle de las Lanzas during the New Kingdom of Granada, Spanish period) is the capital of Tolima Department, Tolima, one of the 32 departments that make up the Republic of Colombia. The city ...
capital of the Tolima Department and in the mountainous area of the
Montes de MarĂa in the
Colombian Caribbean region, between the
departments
Department may refer to:
* Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility
Government and military
* Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...
of
Sucre
Sucre (; ) is the ''de jure'' capital city of Bolivia, the capital of the Chuquisaca Department and the sixth most populous city in Bolivia. Located in the south-central part of the country, Sucre lies at an elevation of . This relatively high ...
and
BolĂvar which demobilized in June, 2007. The ERP lost its marxist political background with the years and concentrated on criminal practices such as kidnappings and extortion and went down on the number of members to end up with 14 guerrillas which demobilized on September 15, 2007.
[El Tiempo: Guerrilla del Ejército Revolucionario del Pueblo (Erp) quedó desintegrada, dijo Ministo de Defensa]
eltiempo.com Accessed 15 September 2007.
References
External links
Terrorism knowledge base: ERP
Colombian guerrilla movements
Military history of Colombia
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