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.

Overview

The FARC-EP is governed by a secretariat, led by septuagenarian Manuel Marulanda Vélez (Pedro Antonio Marín), a.k.a. "Tirofijo", and seven others, including senior military commander Jorge Briceño, a.k.a. "Mono Jojoy". It is organized along military lines and includes several urban fronts. The "-EP" (Ejército del Pueblo) was added to the group's official name in 1982 during the Seventh Guerrilla Conference, as a sign of their expected progression from guerrilla warfare into conventional military action that was outlined on that occasion.

Related Topics:
Manuel Marulanda Vélez - Pedro Antonio Marín - Jorge Briceño - 1982 - Guerrilla warfare

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See also: Military Structure of the FARC-EP

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The FARC-EP has proclaimed itself as a politico-military Marxist-Leninist organization of Bolivarian inspiration http://www.rebelion.org/plancolombia/040407urbano.htm. It claims that it represents the rural poor against Colombia's wealthy classes and opposes United States influence in Colombia (particularly, but not limited to, Plan Colombia), the privatization of natural resources, multinational corporations, and rightwing paramilitary violence. The FARC-EP has stated that these objectives currently motivate them to seize power in Colombia through an armed revolution. It funds itself by various activities including kidnappings, extortion, diverting funds from legal enterprises, and direct and indirect participation in the cocaine trade.

Related Topics:
Marxist-Leninist - Bolivarian - United States - Plan Colombia - Privatization - Multinational - Paramilitary - Cocaine

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See also: Socio-economic Structure of the FARC-EP

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The FARC-EP has also stated that it remains open to a negotiated solution of the conflict, through a dialogue with a flexible government that agrees to certain conditions, such as the demilitarization of a number of locations and the release of all jailed (and extradited) FARC rebels. At the same time, it claims that until the proper conditions for such a negotiation surface, the armed revolutionary struggle would remain necessary in order to implement their desired policy changes, because of what the FARC-EP still perceives to be a closed political environment in Colombia and because of past politically motivated violence against its members or former members, including those that were part of the Unión Patriótica (Colombia). Existing legal leftwing and independent parties in Colombia, which are themselves not immune from threats and violent actions from rightwing extremists, tend to directly disagree with the FARC's conclusions on this matter.

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National and international critics often characterize the FARC-EP group as a terrorist organization. According to polls and studies, a majority of Colombians would consider FARC to be terrorist in the sense that it employs terrorism in addition to being an armed insurgency, and it is often implied that its original cause and ideology may have degenerated due to its use of such methods. There is strong evidence that it, like the right-wing paramilitary groups that are their sworn enemies (e.g. AUC), has attacked and kidnapped civilian targets. The FARC also frequently recruits children as soldiers and informants: "By Human Rights Watch's estimate, the FARC has the majority of child combatants in Colombia. A conservative estimate is that 20 to 30 percent of all FARC combatants are under 18 years old."http://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/02/22/colomb10202.htmhttp://www.hrw.org/reports/2003/colombia0903/4.htm#_Toc05

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The United States Department of State includes FARC on its list of foreign terrorist organizations, as does the European Union.

Related Topics:
United States Department of State - Foreign terrorist organizations - European Union

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