The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

History of the FARC in Colombia: from conflict to demobilization

2021-12-15T14:04:32.553Z


Where did the FARC come from, what is its role in the history of Colombia and in what state is the guerrilla now five years after the Peace Agreement?


US Removes FARC from Terrorism List 0:40

(CNN Spanish) -

A long history: 57 years after its founding, and five years after the end of the peace process that led to its demobilization, the Revolutionary Forces of Colombia (FARC) were removed at the end of November from the list of foreign terrorist organizations of the United States.

And although some dissident sectors of the former guerrilla, who did not accept the Peace Agreement and continue in hiding, were included in the same list, the departure of the FARC is one more step towards the conclusion of the violent civil conflict in Colombia that leads almost six decades and has involved different guerrilla groups, paramilitaries and state agents.

  • "Very high percentage" that alias El Paisa, former FARC leader, has died in Venezuela, says Colombian Police

Only since 1985 there have been 8.2 million internally displaced persons in Colombia due to this conflict, according to Human Rights Watch, and a total of 267,565 deaths between 1958 and 2020, according to the National Center for Historical Memory of Colombia (CNMH)

But where did the FARC come from, what is its recent history and in what state are they now?

This is what ex-guerrillas of the FARC say five years after the peace accords 2:07

History of the FARC in Colombia

(Credit: LUIS ROBAYO / AFP / Getty Images)

The origins of the FARC go back to the period of civil conflict in Colombia between 1948 and 1953 - known as "La Violencia" - which began with the assassination of Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, candidate of the Liberal Party, followed by the revolts framed in the Bogotazo, such as remember the (CNMH).

advertising

"This fact would unleash a violent war between the Conservative and Liberal parties that would lead Colombia to experience a decade of political instability and persecution against intellectuals, artists and researchers," says the CNMH.

The military dictatorship of Gustavo Rojas Pinilla (1953-1957) was followed by the return from exile of liberals and conservatives, and in this context the two most important guerrillas in Colombia were created in 1964: the FARC and the National Liberation Army ( THE N).

In the case of the FARC, its origins are in Tolima, a peasant area that saw a lot of violence and the emergence of self-defense communities in those years, as Juan Guillermo Ferro Medina and Graciela Uribe Ramón point out in their book "El Orden de la War" .

The germ of the FARC would come from one of these groups, according to researchers from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, split from the liberals to declare themselves communists, and would mature during resistance to Operation Sovereignty of the Colombian army in Marquetalia.

The words of Íngrid Betancourt to former FARC members 4:59

In the following decades it would not stop growing, and at its peak of 2008 it is believed that it reached about 35,000 members, according to researcher James J. Brittain in his book "Revolutionary Social Change in Colombia".

The long conflict with the Colombian State

The FARC began to organize in 1966 as a revolutionary movement dedicated to guerrilla warfare, with its own General Staff, and in 1982 the group adapted its name to Revolutionary Forces of Colombia-People's Army (FARC-EP) and they developed strategies to try to extend their influence outside their territories of origin and try to take power, rebuild Ferro Medina and Uribe Ramón.

The 1980s also saw the emergence of paramilitary groups and drug gangs, which would add to the already existing conflict between the guerrillas and the state. Crimes such as murder, kidnapping —including that of former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, who was held in captivity by the FARC between 2002 and 2008—, extortion, and attacks on productive infrastructure became common.

Regarding the role of the paramilitaries, analyst Claudia López (now the mayor of Bogotá) mentions in her 2013 book "Farewell to the FARC. Now what?"

Three ways of considering them: as part of the counterinsurgency strategy of the Colombian State that later got out of control due to the influence of drug trafficking;

as autonomous groups led by warlords and dedicated to seeking economic resources;

or as autonomous groups with their own ideas of state organization.

The FARC, which entrenched itself in large territories, also resorted to drug trafficking at different times in its history to finance itself, and was designated as a terrorist organization by the United States and later the European Union.

They investigate the FARC for the explosion in Cúcuta 2:45

During the government of Belisario Betancur in Colombia, an era of rapprochement with the FARC began known as the La Uribe Accords, which led to the creation of the Patriotic Union party for the political participation of guerrilla fighters.

A string of assassinations against leaders of the Patriotic Union and the subsequent Operation Green House of the Army against the FARC base in 1990 would end this peace process, but in subsequent years there were several more attempts to reach an agreement, in the midst of resurgence of violence and army operations.

The 2012 Peace Agreement and demobilization

(Credit: LUIS ROBAYO / AFP / Getty Images)

After a new failed attempt to agree to peace in 2002, during the government of President Andrés Pastrana, which led to the formation of the Distension Zone, in 2012 the Colombian authorities and the FARC met again to try to end the conflict.

For four years, negotiations between the government of Juan Manuel Santos and the FARC, led by Rodrigo Londoño, alias "Timochenko", advanced in Havana, with Cuba and Norway as guarantors, until 2016 they finally signed the Peace Agreement.

The ceasefire took effect on August 29 and the historic signing between Santos and Timochenko took place on September 26.

The Peace Agreement would, however, have one more obstacle: in the plebiscite held on October 2 to endorse the negotiations, "No" triumphed.

This was the signing of the peace agreement in Colombia 5 years ago 0:43

But after incorporating proposals from "No" supporters to a new version of the agreement, in 2017 the doors were opened to the political participation of FARC members and the demobilization and delivery of weapons began.

According to data from the United Nations Verification Mission in Colombia, by 2020, 13,394 members of the FARC had demobilized, 10,293 men and 3,101 women.

Dissent

But not all FARC fighters accepted the Peace Agreement.

Even since its entry into force in 2017, FARC fronts did not accept the demobilization, which consisted of going to the village areas, surrendering their weapons and beginning the transition to legal life.

National Police detain FARC dissident in Cali 1:21

Known as dissidents, these factions do not receive any of the benefits of the Peace Agreement and are still considered outsiders.

In 2016, people spoke especially of Front 1 "Armando Ríos" (450 members) and Front 7 (300 members), dedicated to drug trafficking and criminal mining in Meta and Guaviare, according to a report from the Colombian Attorney General's Office.

SPECIAL REPORT: The last armed days of the FARC 12:35

In 2017, dissidents even kidnapped a UN official in Colombia.

And in 2019, veteran FARC guerrillas alias Iván Márquez, Jesús Santrich, El Paisa and Romaña, appeared in an announced video that they were going into dissidence and that they would take up arms again.

In this regard, at the beginning of December the general director of the National Police of Colombia, General Jorge Luis Vargas, said that there was a high probability that "El Paisa", alias of Hernán Darío Velásquez Saldarriaga, had died in Venezuela as a result of a internal dispute.

Farc

Source: cnnespanol

All news articles on 2021-12-15

You may like

News/Politics 2024-03-11T04:59:37.194Z
News/Politics 2024-02-27T20:23:14.039Z

Trends 24h

News/Politics 2024-03-28T06:04:53.137Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.