Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia

The Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia – Ejército del Pueblo ("Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People's Army", or FARC-EP), classified internationally as a terrorist group, is Colombia's oldest, largest, most capable and equipped militant guerrilla group, established in 1964-1966 as the military wing of the Colombian Communist Party. FARC has been estimated to have roughly 12,000 to 18,000 members and maintains presence in approximately 35 to 40% of Colombia's territory, mostly in the jungles of the southeast and the plains at the base of the Andes mountains.

Historical background

During the late 1940's in rural areas of the country, isolated proto-guerrilla bands, backed by the more radical members of the Colombian Liberal Party, which were the precursors for modern-day Marxist guerrillas, formed in order to violently defend land that conservative land owners were trying to reclaim. In 1948, prominent Liberal political Jorge Eliécer Gaitán was murdered, creating deep and long-lasting wounds, becoming the basis for the most violent period in Colombia's history.

Related Topics:
Colombian Liberal Party - 1948 - Jorge Eliécer Gaitán

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The period that followed saw the loss of more than 150,000 lives and became known as La Violencia ("The Violence"). "Toward the end of La Violencia a new generation of young Colombians who had been socialized to think that violence was a normal way of life?increasingly took to banditry." By 1953, the Colombian Conservative Party government of Laureano Gómez (elected 1950 in an election boycotted by the Liberal party), unable to cope with the situation, became increasingly unpopular in the eyes of both public opinion and other political figures of both parties. In what was seen as a successful effort that sought to reestablish order, the military, under the figure of General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla, seized control of the country in 1953.

Related Topics:
1953 - Colombian Conservative Party - Gustavo Rojas Pinilla

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The new military government offered amnesty to the bandits and guerrillas that surrendered their weapons. And most did. However, some Liberal guerrilla groups included a large number of orthodox and unorthodox communists who refused to surrender their arms, but instead retreated to isolated areas of the country where they continued to operate with impunity. Jacobo Arenas, who would later become the ideological leader of the FARC, was sent by the Colombian Communist Party as a political activist in order to help organize existing self-defense and guerrilla units in a rural enclave during "La Violencia" (1948-1955).

Related Topics:
Jacobo Arenas - Colombian Communist Party - 1948 - 1955

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Main article : Jacobo Arenas

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Jacobo Arenas later wrote a book called "Diario de la resistencia de Marquetalia" ("Marquetalia Diary"). The book includes a chronicle of the events of the fight between the guerrilla fighters and the soldiers of the Colombian army brigade.

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Civilian rule was restored in 1958 after moderate Conservatives and Liberals, with the support of dissident sectors of the military, agreed to unite under a bipartisan coalition known as the National Front. (Political alternation within the coalition eventually resulted in the election of Misael Pastrana in 1970 as president, under a very criticized process which was considered to be dishonest by many in the Colombian public and media.) Meanwhile, armed self-defense groups of communists had successfully established their own government in a remote region of the country, unofficially known as the "republic" of Marquetalia.

Related Topics:
National Front - Marquetalia

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The government initially ignored the growing influence of communists until 1964 when, under pressure by Conservatives who considered such autonomous "republics" as a threat, the Colombian army was ordered to attack the communist controlled "republic".

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Following the attack the guerrillas dispersed, only to later reorganize as the "Southern Bloc" ("Bloque Sur") in 1964, officially renamed "Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia" (FARC) in 1966, which became the official military arm of the Communist Party. Jacobo Arenas and Manuel Marulanda were some of the founders of the new guerrilla group and became its two top leaders.

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Main article : Marquetalia Republic

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While the group officially came into existence in 1966, it continued to be led by former liberal and communist guerrillas, and therefore some analysts believe that, in several respects, it ?was a partial continuation of the revolutionary movement that had begun in 1948.?

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Other observers point out that, by the time that the 1964 movement was founded, different national and international realities, such as the successful example of armed revolution provided by the Cuban revolution, had come into being and had a more direct influence on the final creation and establishment of the FARC (and the contemporary National Liberation Army). As FARC continued to grow, it established itself throughout the country in semi-autonomous fronts.

Related Topics:
Cuban revolution - National Liberation Army

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