36.5.4: Colombia and the FARC

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia—People’s Army (FARC) is a guerrilla movement involved in the continuing Colombian armed conflict since 1964. It employs a variety of military tactics in addition to more unconventional methods, including terrorism. The FARC-EP, formed during the Cold War as a Marxist-Leninist peasant force, promotes a political line of agrarianism and anti-imperialism. The operations of the FARC-EP were funded by kidnap and ransom, illegal mining, extortion or taxation of various forms of economic activity, and the taxation, production, and distribution of illegal drugs. The United Nations has estimated that 12% of all killings of civilians in the Colombian conflict have been committed by FARC and ELN guerrillas, with 80% committed by right-wing paramilitaries, and the remaining eight percent committed by security forces.

History of the Conflict

Communists were active throughout rural and urban Colombia immediately following World War I. The Colombian Communist Party (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. However, many of the PCC’s attempts at organizing peasants were met with violent repression by the Colombian government and the landowning class. These groups began networking together to present a defensive front against the state-supported violence of large landholders. Members organized strikes, protests, and land seizures, 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.

In 1961, a guerrilla leader and long-time PCC organizer named Manuel Marulanda Vélez declared an independent “Republic of Marquetalia.” The Lleras government attempted unsuccessfully to drive out the guerrillas, due to fear that a revolution similar to that of Cuba’s may develop. Several army outposts were set up in the area and the Colombian government began routinely attacking communist groups in an attempt to reassimilate territories under the influence of communists. In 1964, Manuel Marulanda Vélez and other PCC members formed FARC. Sixteen thousand 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 other fighters. These 48 men formed the core of FARC, which later grew in size to hundreds of fighters.

Initially, FARC rejected any involvement in the emerging phenomenon of drug growing and trafficking, but during the 1980s, the group gradually came to accept it as it became a burgeoning business. Taxes on drug producers and traffickers were introduced as a source of funding and increased income from the “coca boom” allowed them to expand into an irregular army able to stage large-scale attacks on Colombian troops. This in part led to the Seventh Guerrilla Conference held by FARC in 1982, 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. FARC 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 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.

Uribe Agreement and the Union Patriótica

Also in the early 1980s, President Belisario Betancur began discussing the possibility of peace talks with the guerrillas. This led to the 1984 La Uribe Agreement, which called for a ceasefire that lasted from 1984 until 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 constitutional reform, more democratic local elections, political decentralization, and the end of the two-party system dominated by Liberal and Conservative parties. They also pursued socioeconomic reforms such land redistribution, greater health and education spending, the nationalization of foreign businesses, Colombian banks, 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 and socialist parties. 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 leftist party in Colombia’s history. In 1986, UP candidates won 350 local council seats, 23 deputy positions in departmental assemblies, nine seats in the House, and six seats in the Senate. The 1986 Presidential candidate, Jaime Pardo Leal, won 4.6% of the national vote.

During the ceasefire, the Colombian government continued its negotiations with the FARC-EP and other armed groups, some of which were successful. Some groups that demobilized during this period include the EPL, the ERP, the Quintin Lame Armed Movement, and the M-19. Towards the end of 1990, however, the army, with no advance warning and while negotiations were still ongoing, attacked a compound known as Casa Verde, which houses the National Secretariat of the FARC-EP. The Colombian government argued that the attack was caused by the FARC-EP’s lack of commitment to the peace process.

Peace Negotiations

On June 3, 1991, dialogue resumed between the Simon Bolivar Guerrilla Coordinating Board and the government. The conflict did not halt, however, and armed attacks by both sides continued. The renewed negotiations were broken off in 1993 when no agreement could be reached. A letter written by a group of Colombian intellectuals, including Gabriel Garcia Marquez, to the Coordinating Board was published denouncing the approach taken by the FARC-EP and the dire consequences it was having on the country. The Coordinating Board disappeared not long afterwards and the guerrilla groups continued their activities independently.

FARC guerrillas: FARC guerrillas marching in formation during the Caguan peace talks (1998–2002).

Renewed negotiations began on November 7, 1998, under President Andres Pastrana, who granted FARC-EP a 42,000-square-kilometer (16,200-square-mile) safe haven as a confidence-building measure. Unfortunately, the peace talks ended on February 21, 2002, due to a series of high-profile guerrilla actions, including the hijacking of an aircraft, sieges on a number of small towns and cities, several political kidnappings, and the arrest of the Irish Colombia Three, a group of IRA members who allegedly were training FARC-EP militants to make bombs. Pastrana ordered the armed forces to start retaking the FARC-EP controlled zone.

The Uribe and Santos Administrations

For most of the period between 2002 and 2005, the FARC-EP was believed to be in strategic withdrawal due to the increasing military and police actions of President Alvaro Uribe, 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 the guerrillas in a bid to restore confidence in the country. Uribe’s own father was killed by FARC-EP in an attempted kidnapping in 1983. Nonetheless, FARC interventions and violence continued throughout Uribe’s administration and well into that of his successor, Juan Manuel Santos.

President Álvaro Uribe intensified military operations against the FARC-EP, seeking to defeat them.

Military offensives carried out under former President Uribe and President Santos have significantly reduced the number of FARC combatants and FARC territorial control, pushing guerrillas to more remote and sparsely populated regions, often close to territorial or internal borders. On June 23, 2016, a ceasefire accord was signed between the FARC-EP and Colombian government. Under the accord, the Colombian government agreed to support massive investment for rural development and facilitate the FARC’s reincarnation as a political party. FARC promised to help to eradicate illegal drug crops, remove landmines in areas of conflict, and offer reparations to victims. FARC leaders can avoid prosecution by acts of reparation to victims and other community work. However, during a referendum held October 2, 2016, Colombians voted to reject 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 was announced on November 12, 2016, which would require parliamentary approval rather than a nationwide referendum. 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 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. Additionally, both Parliament and the Special Justice would have the ability to modify terms of the agreement as seen necessary.

The Colombian government and FARC signed the revised peace deal on November 24, 2016, and Congress approved it on November 30, 2016.

Attributions

• Colombia and the FARC
  • “FARC.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FARC. Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0.
  • “History of FARC.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_FARC. Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0.
  • “Ceasefire.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceasefire. Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0.
  • “Guerrilla warfare.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guerrilla_warfare. Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0.
  • “C381lvaro_Uribe_28cropped29.jpg.” https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%C3%81lvaro_Uribe_(cropped).jpg. Wikimedia Commons CC BY 2.0.
  • “FARC_guerrillas_marching_during_the_Caguan_peace_talks_281998-200229.jpg.” https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:FARC_guerrillas_marching_during_the_Caguan_peace_talks_(1998-2002).jpg. Wikimedia Commons Public domain.