PCC and self-defense communities Communists were active throughout rural and urban Colombia in the period immediately following
World War I. The
Colombian Communist Party (
Partido Comunista Colombiano, PCC) was formally accredited by the
Comintern in 1930. The 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. These groups began networking together to present a defensive front against the state-supported violence of large landholders. Members organized strikes, protests, seizures of land, 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 October 1959, the United States sent a "Special Survey Team" composed of
counterinsurgency experts to investigate Colombia's internal security situation. Among other policy recommendations the US team advised that "to shield the interests of both Colombian and US authorities against 'interventionist' charges any special aid given for internal security was to be sterile and covert in nature". In February 1962, three years after the 1959 "US Special Survey Team", a Fort Bragg top-level U.S. Special Warfare team headed by Special Warfare Center commander General
William P. Yarborough, visited Colombia for a second survey. In a secret supplement to his report to the
Joint Chiefs of Staff, Yarborough encouraged the creation and deployment of a US-backed force to commit "
paramilitary,
sabotage and/or
terrorist activities against known communist proponents". The new counter-insurgency policy was instituted as
Plan Lazo in 1962 and called for both military operations and
civic action programs in violent areas. Following Yarborough's recommendations, the Colombian military recruited civilians into "civil defense" groups which worked alongside the military in its counter-insurgency campaign, as well as in civilian intelligence networks to gather information on guerrilla activity.
Doug Stokes argues that it was not until the early part of the 1980s that the Colombian government attempted to move away from the counterinsurgency strategy represented by Plan Lazo and Yarborough's 1962 recommendations.
Creation of FARC The Colombian government began attacking many of the communist groups in the early 1960s, attempting to re-assimilate the territories under the control of the national government. FARC was formed in 1964 by
Manuel Marulanda Vélez and other PCC members, after a military
attack on the community of Marquetalia. 16,000 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 the other fighters. These 48 men formed the core of FARC, which later grew in size to hundreds of fighters.
Betancur and Barco presidencies (1982–1990) Seventh Guerrilla Conference of the FARC–EP In 1982, FARC–EP held its Seventh Guerrilla Conference, 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. By 1982, increased income from the "coca boom" allowed them to expand into an irregular army, which would then stage large-scale attacks on Colombian troops. They also 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, in order 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.
La Uribe Agreement and Union Patriótica In the early 1980s, President
Belisario Betancur began discussing the possibility of peace talks with the guerrillas. This resulted in the 1984
La Uribe Agreement, which called for a
cease-fire, which ended up lasting from 1984 to 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 political reforms (known as
Apertura Democratica) such as
constitutional reform, more democratic local elections, political decentralization, and ending the domination of Colombian politics by the Liberal and Conservative parties. They also pursued socioeconomic reforms such
land redistribution, greater health and education spending, the
nationalization of foreign businesses, Colombian banks, and 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 such as the PCC. 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 other leftist party in Colombia's history. In 1986, UP candidates won 350 local council seats, 23 deputy positions in departmental assemblies, 9 seats in the House, and 6 seats in the Senate. The 1986 presidential candidate,
Jaime Pardo Leal, won 4.6% of the national vote. Since 1986, thousands of members of the UP and other leftist parties were murdered (estimates range from 4,000 to 6,000). In 1987, the President of the UP, Jaime Pardo, was murdered. In 1989 a single large landholder had over 400 UP members murdered. Over 70% of all Colombian presidential candidates in 1990—and 100% of those from center-left parties—were assassinated.
Gaviria and Samper presidencies (1990–1998) During this period, the Colombian government continued its negotiations with the FARC–EP and other armed groups, some of which were successful. Some of the groups which demobilized at this time include the
EPL, the
ERP, the Quintín Lame Armed Movement, and the
M-19. On 10 August 1990, senior leader Jacobo Arenas, an ideological leader and founder of FARC–EP, died of a heart attack at the Casa Verde compound in Colombia's eastern mountains. Towards the end of 1990, the Colombian army, with no advance warning and while negotiations were still ongoing with the group, attacked and seized four linked bases. The last of these a compound known as Casa Verde, which housed the National Secretariat of the FARC–EP, was seized on 15 December 1990. The Colombian government argued that the attack was caused by the FARC–EP's lack of commitment to the process, demonstrated by continuing its criminal activities and FARC attacks in November. On 3 June 1991, dialogue resumed between the
Simón Bolívar Guerrilla Coordinating Board and the government on neutral territory in
Caracas, Venezuela and
Tlaxcala, Mexico. However, the war did not stop, and armed attacks by both sides continued. The negotiation process was broken off in 1993 after no agreement was reached. The Coordinating Board disappeared not long after that time, and guerrilla groups continued their activities independently. Before the break off of dialogue, a letter written by a group of Colombian intellectuals (among whom were
Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez) to the Simón Bolívar Guerrilla Coordinating Board was released denouncing the approach taken by the FARC–EP and the dire consequences that it was having for the country. In the early 1990s, the FARC–EP had between 7,000 and 10,000 fighters, organized into 70 fronts spread throughout the country. From 1996 to 1998 they inflicted a series of strikes on the Colombian Army, including a three-day offensive in
Mitú (
Vaupés department), taking a large number of soldiers prisoner. On 23 September 1994, the FARC kidnapped American agricultural scientist
Thomas Hargrove and held him captive for 11 months. After his release, Hargrove wrote a book about his ordeal which inspired the 2000 film
Proof of Life starring
Meg Ryan and
Russell Crowe. Over this period in Colombia, the cultivation of different drugs expanded and there were widespread coca farmers' marches. These marches brought to a halt several major arteries in southern Colombia. Government officials said that FARC-EP had forced the protesters to participate. According to social anthropologist María Clemencia Ramírez, the relationship between the guerrillas and the marches was ambivalent: FARC-EP promoted the 1996 protests as part of their
participatory democracy policies yet also exercised
authoritarianism, which led to tensions and negotiations with peasant leaders, but the
cocalero movement brought proposals on behalf of the coca growers and defended its own interests.
Pastrana presidency (1998–2002) In March 1999 members of a local FARC contingent killed three United States–based indigenous rights activists, who were working with the U'Wa people to build a school for U'Wa children, and were fighting against encroachment of U'Wa territory by multinational oil corporations. The killings were questioned by many and condemned by many others, and led the United States to increase pressure on the Pastrana administration to crack down on FARC guerrillas.
1998–2002 peace process With the hope of negotiating a peace settlement, on 7 November 1998, President
Andrés Pastrana granted FARC-EP a safe haven meant to serve as a confidence building measure, centred on the
San Vicente del Caguán settlement. After a series of high-profile guerrilla actions, including the hijacking of an aircraft, the attack on several small towns and cities, the arrest of the Irish
Colombia Three (see below) and the alleged training of FARC-EP militants in bomb making by them, and the kidnapping of several political figures, Pastrana ended the peace talks on 21 February 2002 and ordered the armed forces to start retaking the FARC-EP controlled zone, beginning at midnight. A 48-hour respite that had been previously agreed to with the rebel group was not respected as the government argued that it had already been granted during an earlier crisis in January, when most of the more prominent FARC-EP commanders had apparently left the demilitarised zone. Shortly after the end of talks, the FARC-EP kidnapped
Oxygen Green Party presidential candidate
Íngrid Betancourt, who was travelling in Colombian territory. Betancourt was rescued by the Colombian government on 2 July 2008 (see Operation Jaque below).
The Colombia Three case On 24 April 2002, the
U.S. House of Representatives Committee on International Relations published the findings of its investigation into
IRA activities in Colombia. Their report alleged a longstanding connection between the IRA and FARC–EP, mentioned at least 15 IRA members who had been travelling in and out of Colombia since 1998, and estimated that the IRA had received at least $2 million in drug proceeds for training FARC-EP members. The IRA/FARC-EP connection was first made public on 11 August 2001, following the arrest in
Bogotá of two IRA explosives and
urban warfare experts and of a representative of
Sinn Féin who was known to be stationed in Cuba. Jim Monaghan, Martin McCauley and Niall Connolly (known as the
Colombia Three), were arrested in Colombia in August 2001 and were accused of teaching bomb-making methods to FARC–EP. On 15 February 2002, the Colombia Three were charged with training FARC-EP members in bomb-making in Colombia. The Colombian authorities had received satellite footage of the men with FARC-EP in an isolated jungle area, where they were thought to have spent five weeks. They could have spent up to 20 years in gaol if the allegations were proved. During October 2001, a key witness in the case against the three Irish republicans disappeared. This came as Sinn Féin President
Gerry Adams admitted one of the men was the party's representative in Cuba. The missing witness, a former police inspector, said he had seen Mr McCauley with FARC-EP members in 1998. Without his testimony, legal sources said the chances of convicting the three men were reduced. They were eventually found guilty of travelling on false passports in June 2004 but were acquitted of training FARC-EP members. That decision was reversed after an appeal by the
Attorney General of Colombia and they were sentenced to 17-year terms. However, they vanished in December 2004 while on bail and returned to Ireland. In 2002 and 2003, FARC broke up 10 large ranches in Meta, an eastern Colombian province, and distributed the land to local subsistence farmers. During the first two years of the Uribe administration, several FARC-EP fronts, most notably in
Cundinamarca and
Antioquia, were broken by the government's military operations. On 5 May 2003, the FARC assassinated the governor of Antioquia,
Guillermo Gaviria Correa, his advisor for peace, former defence minister
Gilberto Echeverri Mejía, and eight soldiers. The FARC had kidnapped Mr. Gaviria and Mr. Echeverri a year earlier, when the two men were leading a march for peace from Medellín to Caicedo in Antioquia. On 13 July 2004, the office of
the United Nations'
High Commissioner for Human Rights publicly condemned the group, given evidence that FARC-EP violated article 17 of the additional
Protocol II of the
Geneva Convention and international humanitarian law, as a result of the 10 July massacre of seven peasants and the subsequent displacement of 80 individuals in San Carlos, Antioquia. In early February 2005, a series of small-scale actions by the FARC-EP around the southwestern departments of Colombia, resulted in an estimated 40 casualties. The FARC–EP, in response to government military operations in the south and in the southeast, displaced its
military centre of gravity towards the
Nariño,
Putumayo and
Cauca departments. The FARC-EP originally said that they would only release the police and military members they held captive (whom they considered to be prisoners of war) through exchanges with the government for imprisoned FARC-EP members. During the duration of the
DMZ negotiations, a small humanitarian exchange took place. The group demanded a demilitarised zone including two towns (Florida and Pradera) in the strategic region of Valle del Cauca, where much of the current military action against them has taken place. This region is also an important way of transporting drugs to the Pacific coast and was even the primary location for
Norte del Valle Cartel and
Cali Cartel. This demand was rejected by the Colombian government based on previous experience during the 2002 peace talks. On 2 December 2004, the government announced the pardon of 23 FARC–EP prisoners, to encourage a reciprocal move. The prisoners to be released were all of low rank and had promised not to rejoin the armed struggle. In November 2004, the FARC–EP had rejected a proposal to hand over 59 of its captives in exchange for 50 guerrillas imprisoned by the government. In a communique dated 28 November but released publicly on 3 December, the FARC-EP declared that they were no longer insisting on the demilitarisation of San Vicente del Caguán and Cartagena del Chairá as a precondition for the negotiation of the prisoner exchange, but instead that of Florida and Pradera in the
Valle department. They state that this area would lie outside the "area of influence" of both their Southern and Eastern Blocks (the FARC-EP's strongest) and that of the military operations being carried out by the Uribe administration. They requested security guarantees both for the displacement of their negotiators and that of the guerrillas that would be freed, which were stated to number as many as 500 or more, and ask the Catholic Church to coordinate the participation of the United Nations and other countries in the process. The FARC–EP also mention in the communique that
Simón Trinidad's
extradition, would be a serious obstacle to reaching a prisoner exchange agreement with the government. On 17 December 2004, the Colombian government authorised Trinidad's extradition to the United States, but stated that the measure could be revoked if the FARC-EP released all political hostages and military captives in its possession before 30 December. The FARC-EP rejected the demand. On 25 March 2006, after a public announcement made weeks earlier, the FARC–EP released two captured policemen at La Dorada, Putumayo. The release took place some southwest of Bogotá, near the Ecuadorean border.
The Red Cross said the two were released in good health. Military operations in the area and bad weather had prevented the release from occurring one week earlier. In a separate series of events, the German government and a foreign ministry crisis team negotiated the release of civilian hostage and German citizen Lothar Hintze on 4 April 2006 after five years in captivity. Hintze had been kidnapped from a tourist center in Prado on 16 March 2001 for extortion purposes. His wife had paid multiple ransom payments with no result. One prisoner, Julian Ernesto Guevara Castro, a police officer, died of tuberculosis on 28 January 2006. He was a captain and was captured on 1 November 1998. On 29 March 2009, the FARC-EP announced that they would give Guevara's remains to his mother. The FARC handed over Guevara's remains on 1 April 2010. Another civilian hostage,
Fernando Araújo, later named Minister of Foreign Relations and formerly Development Minister, escaped his captors on 31 December 2006. Araújo had to walk through the jungle for five days before being found by troops in the hamlet of San Agustin, north of Bogotá. He was kidnapped on 5 December 2000 while jogging in the Caribbean coastal city of Cartagena. He was reunited with his family on 5 January 2007. Another prisoner,
Frank Pinchao, a police officer, escaped his captors on 28 April 2007 after nine years in captivity. He was reunited with his family on 15 May 2007.
2007 death of 11 hostage deputies On 28 June 2007, the FARC–EP reported the death of 11 out of 12 provincial deputies from the
Valle del Cauca Department whom the guerrillas had kidnapped in 2002. The guerrillas claimed that the deputies had been killed by crossfire during an attack by an "unidentified military group." The Colombian government stated that government forces had not made any rescue attempts and that the FARC–EP executed the hostages. FARC did not report any other casualties on either side and delayed months before permitting the Red Cross to recover the remains. According to the government, the guerrillas delayed turning over the corpses to let decomposition hide evidence of how they died. The Red Cross reported that the corpses had been washed and their clothing changed before burial, hiding evidence of how they were killed. The Red Cross also reported that the deputies had been killed by multiple close-range shots, many of them in the backs of the victims, and even two by shots to the head. In February 2009, Sigifredo López, the only deputy who survived and was later released by FARC, accused the group of killing the 11 captives and denied that any military rescue attempt had taken place. According to López, the unexpected arrival of another guerrilla unit resulted in confusion and paranoia, leading the rebels to kill the rest of the Valle deputies. He survived after previously being punished for insubordination and was held in chains nearby but separated from the rest of the group.
Early-2008 prisoner events On 10 January 2008, former vice presidential candidate
Clara Rojas and former congresswoman
Consuelo González were freed after nearly six years in captivity. In a Venezuela-brokered deal, a helicopter flew deep into Colombia to pick up both hostages. The women were escorted out of the jungle by armed guerrillas to a clearing where they were picked up by Venezuelan helicopters that bore
International Red Cross insignias. In a statement published on a pro-rebel Web site, the FARC-EP said the unilateral release demonstrated the group's willingness to engage the Colombian government in talks over the release of as many as 800 people who are still being held. Asked about her opinion of the FARC–EP as group, Rojas called it "a criminal organisation", condemning its kidnappings as "a total violation of human dignity" and saying some captive police and soldiers are constantly chained. The FARC–EP had called its planned release of the hostages a gesture of recognition for the mediation efforts of Chávez, who had called on the international community to recognize the rebels as
belligerents a month prior. Colombian President
Álvaro Uribe, who had tense relations with Chávez, thanked the socialist leader and called for the release of all hostages. He said Colombia was still in a fight "against terrorist actions" but was open to reconciliation.
Anti-FARC rallies On 4 February 2008, anti-FARC protests were held in 45 Colombian cities and towns, with an estimated 1.5 million people coming out in Bogotá alone. Solidarity rallies were held in some 200 cities worldwide including Berlin, Barcelona, London, Madrid, Toronto, Dubai, Miami, New York, Brisbane, and La Paz. Shortly before the rallies took place 13 demobilised
AUC paramilitary leaders, including
Salvatore Mancuso, had expressed their support of the protest through a communique. However, this move was rejected by organiser
Carlos Andrés Santiago, who stated that such an endorsement was harmful and criticised the AUC's actions. On 20 July 2008, a subsequent set of rallies against FARC included thousands of Colombians in Bogotá and hundreds of thousands throughout the rest of the country.
Deaths of Raúl Reyes and Manuel Marulanda Vélez On 1 March 2008, Raul Reyes, a member of FARC's ruling Secretariat, was killed just across the border from Colombia, in the small village of Santa Rosa, Ecuador, after Colombian planes bombarded a FARC camp there. The bombardment was "followed by troops in helicopters who recovered the bodies of Reyes and another 16 rebels." Reyes was the former FARC chief negotiator during the unsuccessful 1998–2002 peace process, and was also a key FARC hostage release negotiator. Reyes' demise marked the first time that a FARC Secretariat member had been killed in combat. Ecuador condemned the attack. The incident also resulted in diplomatic strains between the United States and Ecuador, following revelations that the
Central Intelligence Agency provided intelligence that allowed the Colombian military to locate the FARC–EP commander and ordnance used in the attack. It has been considered the biggest blow against FARC–EP in its more than four decades of existence. This event was quickly followed by the death of
Iván Ríos, another member of FARC–EP's seven-man Secretariat, less than a week later, by the hand of his own bodyguard. It came as a result of heavy Colombian military pressure and a reward offer of up to $5 million from the Colombian government. After the attack, the Colombian military forces managed to secure six laptop computers belonging to Reyes, in which they found information linking several left-wing Colombian personalities, such as politicians, journalists and human rights activists with terrorist activities. Manuel Marulanda Vélez died on 26 March 2008 after a heart attack. His death would be kept a secret, until Colombian magazine
Semana published an interview with Colombian defence minister
Juan Manuel Santos on 24 May 2008 in which Santos mentions the death of
Manuel Marulanda Vélez. The news was confirmed by FARC–EP commander
Timochenko on Latin American television station
teleSUR on 25 May 2008. Timochenko announced the new commander in chief was
Alfonso Cano After speculations in several national and international media about the "softening up" of the FARC and the announcement of Colombian President Álvaro Uribe that several FARC leaders were ready to surrender and free their captives, the secretariat of the FARC sent out a
communiqué emphasising the death of their founder would not change their approach towards the captives or the humanitarian agreement.
Late-2008 prisoner events On 11 January 2008 during the annual State of the Nation in the
Venezuelan National Assembly, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez referred to the FARC as "a real army that occupies territory in Colombia, they're not terrorists ... They have a political goal and we have to recognise that". However, on 13 January 2008, Chávez stated his disapproval of the FARC–EP strategy of armed struggle and kidnapping, saying "I don't agree with kidnapping and I don't agree with armed struggle". On 7 March at the Cumbre de Rio, Chávez stated again that the FARC–EP should lay down their arms "Look at what has happened and is happening in Latin America, reflect on this (FARC-EP), we are done with war ... enough with all this death". On 8 June Chavez repeated his call for a political solution and an end to the war, "The guerrilla war is history ... At this moment in Latin America, an armed guerrilla movement is out of place". On 2 July 2008, under a Colombian military operation called
Operation Jaque, the FARC–EP was tricked by the Colombian Government into releasing 15 captives to Colombian Intelligence agents disguised as journalists and international aid workers in a helicopter rescue. Military intelligence agents infiltrated the guerrilla ranks and led the local commander in charge of the captives,
Gerardo Aguilar Ramírez, alias Cesar, to believe they were going to take them by helicopter to Alfonso Cano, the guerrillas' supreme leader. The rescued included
Íngrid Betancourt (former presidential candidate), U.S. military contractors
Marc Gonsalves,
Thomas Howes, and
Keith Stansell, as well as eleven Colombian police officers and soldiers. The commander, Cesar and one other rebel were taken into custody by agents without incident after boarding the helicopter. On 4 July, some observers questioned whether or not this was an intercepted captive release made to look like a rescue. In a 5 July communique, FARC itself blamed rebels Cesar and Enrique for the escape of the captives and acknowledged the event as a setback but reiterated their willingness to reach future humanitarian agreements. Immediately after the captive rescue, Colombian military forces cornered the rest of FARC–EP's 1st Front, the unit which had held the captives. Colombian forces did not wish to attack the 1st Front but instead offered them amnesty if they surrender. Colombia's Program for Humanitarian Attention for the Demobilized announced in August 2008 that 339 members of Colombia's rebel groups surrendered and handed in their weapons in July, including 282 guerrillas from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.
Óscar Tulio Lizcano, a
Colombian Conservative Party congressman, was kidnapped 5 August 2000. On Sunday, 26 October 2008, the ex-congressman escaped from FARC–EP rebels. Tulio Lizcano was a
hostage for over 8 years, and escaped with a FARC–EP rebel he convinced to travel with him. They evaded pursuit for three days as they trekked through mountains and forests, encountering the military in the western coastal region of Colombia. Tulio Lizcano is the first hostage to escape since the successful military rescue of Íngrid Betancourt, and the longest held political hostage by the organization. He became the 22nd Colombian political hostage to gain freedom during 2008. During his final days in captivity, Lizcano told Santos, they had nothing to eat but wild palm hearts and
sugar cane. With the military tightening the noose, a FARC–EP rebel turned himself in and provided Colombian authorities with Lizcano's exact location in the northwest state of
Choco. As police and army troops prepared to launch a rescue operation, Lizcano escaped alongside one of his guerrilla guards who had decided to desert. The two men hiked through the rain forest for three days and nights until they encountered an army patrol. Speaking from a clinic in the western city of Cali, Mr Lizcano said that when soldiers saw him screaming from across a jungle river, they thought he was drunk and ignored him. Only when he lifted the FARC–EP rebel's Galil assault rifle did the soldiers begin to understand that he was escaping from the FARC–EP rebels. "They jumped into the river, and then I started to shout, 'I'm Lizcano'", he said.
2009 prisoner events On 21 December 2008, The FARC–EP announced that they would release civilian hostages
Alan Jara,
Sigifredo López, three low-ranking police officers and a low-ranking soldier to Senator
Piedad Córdoba as a humanitarian gesture. On 1 February 2009, the FARC–EP proceeded with the release of the four security force members, Juan Fernando Galicio Uribe, José Walter Lozano Guarnizo, Alexis Torres Zapata and William Giovanni Domínguez Castro. All of them were captured in 2007. Jara (kidnapped in 2001) was released on 3 February and López (kidnapped in 2002) was released on 5 February. On 17 March 2009, The FARC-EP released Swedish hostage Erik Roland Larsson. Larsson, paralyzed in half his body, was handed over to detectives in a rugged region of the northern state of Córdoba. Larsson was kidnapped from his ranch in Tierralta, not far from where he was freed, on 16 May 2007, along with his Colombian girlfriend, Diana Patricia Pena while paying workers. She escaped that same month following a gun battle between her captors and police. Larsson suffered a stroke while in captivity. The FARC-EP had sought a $5 million ransom. One of Larsson's sons said that the ransom was not paid. On 22 December 2009, the body of
Luis Francisco Cuéllar, the Governor of
Caquetá, was discovered, a day after he had been kidnapped from his house in
Florencia, Caquetá. Officials said the abduction and execution had been carried by the FARC. According to officials, he had been killed soon after the abduction. The kidnappers cut the governor's throat as they evaded security forces. In a statement broadcast on radio, the acting governor, Patricia Vega, said, "I no longer have any doubts that FARC has done it again." The FARC claimed responsibility for Cuéllar's kidnapping and murder in January 2010. The group said that they kidnapped him in order to "put him on trial for corruption" and blamed his death on an attempt to rescue him by force. On 16 April 2009, the FARC-EP announced that they would release Army Corporal
Pablo Emilio Moncayo Cabrera to Piedad Córdoba as a humanitarian gesture. Moncayo was kidnapped on 21 December 1997. On 28 June 2009, the FARC announced that they would release soldier Josue Daniel Calvo Sanchez. Calvo was kidnapped on 20 April 2009. Calvo was released on 28 March 2010. Moncayo was released on 30 March 2010. On 13 June 2010, Colombian troops rescued Police Colonel Luis Herlindo Mendieta Ovalle, Police Captain Enrique Murillo Sanchez and Army Sergeant Arbey Delgado Argote in an event known as Operation Chameleon, twelve years after the individuals were captured; Argote was kidnapped on 3 August 1998. Ovalle and Sanchez were kidnapped on 1 November 1998. On 14 June, Police Lieutenant William Donato Gomez was also rescued. He was also kidnapped on 3 August 1998.
Santos presidency (2010–2018) 2010–2011: Increased violence President
Juan Manuel Santos began his term with a suspected FARC bomb-blast in Bogotá. This followed the resolution of the
2010 Colombia–Venezuela diplomatic crisis which erupted over outgoing President
Álvaro Uribe's allegations of active Venezuelan support for FARC. In early September 2010, FARC-EP attacks in the
Nariño Department and
Putumayo Department in southern Colombia killed some fifty policemen and soldiers in hit-and-run assaults. According to a December report by the
Corporación Nuevo Arco Iris NGO, 473 FARC-EP guerrillas and 357 members of the Colombian security forces died in combat between January and September 2010. An additional 1,382 government soldiers or policemen were wounded during the same period, with the report estimating that the total number of casualties could reach 2,500 by the end of the year. Nuevo Arco Iris head
León Valencia considered that FARC guerrillas have reacted to a series of successful military blows against them by splitting up their forces into smaller groups and intensifying the offensive use of anti-personnel
land mines, leading to what he called a further "degradation" of the conflict. Valencia also added that both coca crops and the drug trade have "doubled" in areas with FARC-EP presence. Researcher Claudia López considered that the Colombian government is winning the strategic and aerial side of the war but not the infantry front, where both the FARC-EP and ELN continue to maintain an offensive capacity. The
International Crisis Group claimed that the military offensives carried out under former President Álvaro Uribe and President
Juan Manuel Santos had led to the number of FARC-EC combatants being reduced to around 7,000, less than half the 20,000 combatants estimated to have been employed by the FARC-EC in the early 2000s. The same organisation also stated that the military offensive had been able to reduce FARC territorial control and push
guerillas to more remote and sparsely populated regions, often close to territorial or internal borders. Colombian authorities announced the death of
Víctor Julio Suárez Rojas, also known as
Mono Jojoy, on 23 September 2010. President Juan Manuel Santos stated that the FARC commander was killed in an operation that began in the early hours of 21 September in the department of Meta, south of the capital Bogotá. According to Santos, he was "the impersonation of terror and a symbol of violence". After this event, the FARC-EP released a statement saying that defeating the group would not bring peace to Colombia and called for a negotiated solution, not surrender, to the social and political conflict. In January 2011 Juan Manuel Santos admitted that FARC-EP had killed 460 government soldiers and wounded over 2,000 in 2010. In April 2011 the Colombian congress issued a statement saying that FARC has a "strong presence" in roughly one third of the municipalities in Colombia, while their attacks have increased. Overall FARC operations, including attacks against security forces as well as kidnappings and the use of land mines, have increased every year since 2005. In the first six months of 2011 the FARC carried out an estimated 1,115 actions, which constitutes a 10% increase over the same period in 2010. By early 2011 Colombian authorities and news media reported that the FARC and the clandestine sister groups had partly shifted strategy from guerrilla warfare to "a war of militias", meaning that they were increasingly operating in civilian clothes while hiding amongst sympathizers in the civilian population. In early January 2011 the Colombian army said that the FARC has some 18,000 members, with 9,000 of those forming part of the militias. The army says it has identified at least 1,400 such militia members in the FARC strongholds of
Valle del Cauca and
Cauca in 2011. In June 2011 Colombian chief of staff Edgar Cely claimed that the FARC wants to "urbanize their actions", which could partly explain the increased guerrilla activity in Medellín and particularly Cali. Jeremy McDermott, co-director of Insight Crime, estimates that FARC may have some 30,000 'part-time fighters' in 2011, consisting of both armed and unarmed civilian supporters making up the rebel militia network, instead of full-time fighters wearing uniforms. According to
Corporación Nuevo Arco Iris, FARC-EP killed 429 members of the Colombian government's security forces between January and October 2011. During this same period, the rebel group lost 316 of its own members. The year 2011 saw over 2,000 incidents of FARC activity, which was the highest figure recorded since 1998. The NGO has stated that while most of these incidents remain defensive in nature and were not like the large offensives from years past, FARC actions grew since 2005, and the rebel group was carrying out intense operations against small and medium-sized Colombian military units in vulnerable areas. Colombian troops killed FARC leader
Alfonso Cano in a firefight on 4 November 2011. The 6th Front of the FARC, which was in charge of Cano's security at the time of his death, retaliated by killing two policemen in Suarez and Jambaló some 24 hours after the death of Cano. After the death of Alfonso Cano,
Timoleón Jiménez, nicknamed
Timochenko, took over the FARC-EP leadership. On 26 November 2011, the FARC killed Police Captain Edgar Yesid Duarte Valero, Police Lieutenant Elkin Hernández Rivas, Army Corporal Libio José Martínez Estrada, and Police
Intendant Álvaro Moreno after government troops approached the guerrilla camp where they were held in an area of the Caqueta department. Police Sergeant Luis Alberto Erazo Maya managed to escape his captors and was later rescued. The Colombian military had information indicating that there could be captives in the area and initiated Operation Jupiter in October 2011, using a 56 men Special Forces unit to carry out surveillance for preparing a future rescue mission that would involve additional troops and air support. According to the Colombian military, this same unit remained in the area for 43 days and did not find the captives until they accidentally ran into the FARC camp on the way back, which led to a shootout. Relatives of the captives, former victims and civil society groups blamed both the government and FARC for the outcome, questioning the operation as well as criticizing military rescues.
2012–2015: Peace talks and end of the armed conflict In 2012, FARC announced they would no longer participate in kidnappings for ransom and released the last ten soldiers and police officers they kept as prisoners, but it has kept silent about the status of hundreds of civilians still reported as hostages, and continued kidnapping soldiers and civilians. On 26 February 2012, the FARC announced that they would release their remaining ten political hostages. The hostages were released on 2 April 2012. The president of Colombia,
Juan Manuel Santos, said that this incident was "not enough", and asked the FARC to release the civilian hostages they possess. On 22 November 2012, the FARC released four Chinese oil workers. The hostages were working for the Emerald Energy oil company, a British-based subsidiary of China's Sinochem Group, when they were kidnapped on 8 June 2011. Their Colombian driver was also kidnapped, but released several hours later. Authorities identified the freed men as Tang Guofu, Zhao Hongwei, Jian Mingfu, and Jiang Shan. Santos announced on 27 August 2012 that the Colombian government has engaged in talks with FARC in order to seek an end to the conflict: Exploratory conversations have been held with the FARC to find an end to the conflict. I want to make very clear to Colombians that the approaches that have been carried out and the ones that will happen in the future will be carried out within the framework based on these principles: We are going to learn from the mistakes made in the past so that they are not repeated. Second, any process must lead to the end of the conflict, not making it longer. Third, operations and military presence will be maintained across the entire national territory. He also said that he would learn from the mistakes of previous leaders, who failed to secure a lasting ceasefire with FARC, though the military would still continue operations throughout Colombia while talks continued. An unnamed Colombian intelligence source said Santos has assured FARC that no one would be extradited to stand trial in another country.
Al Jazeera reported that the initiative began after Santos met with Venezuelan President
Hugo Chávez and asked him to mediate. Former President Uribe has criticized Santos for seeking peace "at any cost" and rejected the idea of holding talks.
Telesur reported that FARC and the Colombian government had signed a preliminary agreement in
Havana the same day. The first round of the talks will take place in
Oslo on 5 October and then return to Havana for approximately six months of talks before culminating in Colombia. ELN leader Nicolás Rodríguez Bautista, otherwise known as Gabino, added that his group was interested in joining the talks too: "Well we are open, it's exactly our proposal, to seek room for open dialogue without conditions and start to discuss the nation's biggest problems. But the government has said no! Santos says he has the keys to peace in his pocket, but I think he has lost them because there seems to be no possibility of a serious dialogue, we remain holding out for that." that a preliminary draft of the proposals indicated that a resolution would involve answering FARC's historic grievances including rural development and agrarian reform; democracy development via an enhancement of the number of registered political parties; security and compensation for the victims of the conflict. In these regards, the Colombian government has already passed a series of laws that entail compensation for the victims and a return of land to the displaced. FARC also indicated a willingness to give up their arms. Former
M19 member
Antonio Navarro Wolff said: "If the government wants a serious peace plan they will have to take control of the coca leaf plantations that are currently owned by the FARC because if not another criminal group will take over it." Santos later told
Al Jazeera that peace was possible if there was "goodwill" on both sides. Santos told the
General debate of the sixty-seventh session of the United Nations General Assembly on 26 September, that Venezuela and Chile were also helping in the discussion along with Cuba and Norway. Peace talks were formally started on 18 October in a hotel 30 miles north of the Norwegian capital
Oslo with a joint-press conference by both delegations. The representatives of the government, led by
Humberto de la Calle and the FARC, led by
Iván Márquez, said the so-called second phase of the peace process will be inaugurated in Oslo on 15 November, after which the delegations will go to Cuba to work on the negotiation of the peace accord, which will ultimately lead to a permanent agreement and
ceasefire. The Colombian government has also stated that they expect that a post-Chávez government will continue to support the peace process. In late 2012, FARC declared a two-month unilateral cease-fire and said that they would be open to extending it as a bilateral truce afterwards during the rest of the negotiations. The Colombian government refused to agree to a bilateral cease-fire, alleging violations of the truce by FARC. Shortly after lifting the ceasefire, FARC conducted attacks on a coal transport railway, which derailed 17 wagons and forced a suspension of operations and assaulted
Milán, Caquetá, a town in the southern
Caquetá, killing at least seven government soldiers and injuring five others. Santos has been far more responsive to threats against social leaders than his predecessors. He has also been decisive in combatting the New Illegal Armed Groups that emerged as a result of the
paramilitary process, especially in fighting threats and violence against human rights defenders and social leaders. During Santos' presidency, private security and proclaimed self-defense movements have also lost their legitimacy. This is the first time the government and FARC have reached an agreement on a substantive issue in four different negotiating attempts over 30 years. The peace process then moved on to the issue of "political participation", during which FARC insisted on its demand for an elected Constituent Assembly to rewrite Colombia's constitution. This demand has been forcefully rejected by Colombia's lead government negotiator, Humberto de la Calle. On 20 June 2013, FARC kidnapped American tourist Kevin Scott Sutay. He was released on 27 October 2013. On 1 July 2013, FARC and the second-largest guerrilla group in Colombia, ELN, announced that they would be working together to find a "political solution to the social and armed conflict." The details of this partnership, however, were far from clear;
Washington Office on Latin America's Adam Isacson explains that two issues central to peace accords with ELN—resource policy and kidnapping—are currently off the table in the talks in Havana with FARC, and the addition of these topics may complicate and slow down an already sluggish process. On 6 November 2013 the Colombian government and FARC announced that they had come to an agreement regarding the participation of political opposition and would begin discussing their next issue, the illicit drug trade. On 23 January 2014 Juan Fernando Cristo, the President of the Senate of Colombia, proposed a second Plan Colombia during a conference on the Colombian peace process in Washington, D.C. Cristo stated that this new plan should be "for the victims" and should redirect the resources from the original Plan Colombia towards supporting a post-conflict Colombia. On 28 June 2015, humanitarian and spiritual leader
Ravi Shankar, on a three-day-visit to Cuba, had several rounds of discussions with FARC members in an exercise of confidence-building in the peace process, which had many hurdles from the past three years. FARC requested Shankar to actively participate in the peace process. He said, "In this conflict, everyone should be considered as victims. And inside every culprit, there is a victim crying for help." After many discussions, FARC finally agreed to embrace the Gandhian principle of non-violence. Commander Ivan Marquez declared in the press conference that they would adopt it. The FARC agreed that hatred had derailed the peace process. Marquez said, "We will work for peace and justice for all the people of Colombia." On 8 July 2015, FARC announced a unilateral ceasefire, which began on 20 July 2015. On 30 September 2015, Ravi Shankar accused Norway of sidetracking his effort at brokering a peace deal between the Colombian government and FARC, after Norway, which was part of a four-nation group (along with Cuba, Chile and Venezuela) acting as guarantors in the talks, released a statement saying that the peace deal was a result of "painstaking efforts undertaken by a league of Western nations".
2016–2017: Ceasefire and disarming On 23 June 2016 a ceasefire accord was signed between the FARC Guerilla Army and the Colombian Government, in
Havana, Cuba. Leaders of several Latin American countries which contributed to the deal, including Cuba and Venezuela, were present. The final peace accord
required a referendum to be approved. Under the accord, the Colombian government will support massive investment for rural development and facilitate the FARC's reincarnation as a legal political party. FARC promised to help eradicate illegal drug crops, remove landmines in the areas of conflict, and offer reparations to victims. FARC leaders can avoid prosecution by acts of reparation to victims and other community work. On 2 October 2016 Colombians voted and rejected 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 announced on 12 November 2016, which would require parliamentary approval rather than a nationwide referendum. Former President and chief peace opponent
Álvaro Uribe met with President
Juan Manuel Santos and thereafter issued a noncommittal statement that he awaited release of the full text. Among the reported 60 new or modified terms was a provision for FARC assets to be distributed for victim compensation. The Colombian government and the FARC on 24 November signed a revised
peace deal, On 18 February 2017, the last FARC guerrillas arrived in a designated transition zone, where they began the process of disarming. The rebels stayed in the zones until 31 May, after which they were registered and reintegrated into civilian life. On 27 June 2017, the FARC ceased to be an armed group, with its forces disarming and handing more than 7,000 weapons to the
United Nations at a ceremony hosted by the FARC leadership, and the Colombian government, which included the Cabinet and President
Juan Manuel Santos. Peace observers had received the coordinates of 873 weapons caches hidden in Colombia's remote forests and mountains. The UN was able to remove 510 of these weapons caches, leaving the remaining 363 caches for the military to pick up. The last batch of weapons belonging to former FARC rebels has been removed under UN supervision. The United Nations collected 8,112 guns, 1.3 million bullets, 22 tons of explosives, 3,000 grenades and 1,000 land mines from the FARC. The
Special Jurisdiction of Peace (
Jurisdicción Especial para la Paz, JEP) would be the transitional justice component of the Comprehensive System, complying with Colombia's duty to investigate, clarify, prosecute and punish serious human rights violations and grave breaches of international humanitarian law which occurred during the armed conflict. Its objectives would be to satisfy victims' right to justice, offer truth to the public, contribute to the reparation of victims, contribute to the fight against impunity, adopt decisions which give full legal security to direct and indirect participants in the conflict and contribute to the achievement of a stable and lasting peace. At the end of a six-day visit to Colombia, on 9 October 2017 the UN
Assistant Secretary-General for human rights Andrew Gilmour issued statement welcoming progress in the demobilization and disarmament of the FARC. However, he expressed, "concern about problems in the implementation of the accords which relate to the continued attacks against human rights defenders and community leaders."
Duque presidency (2018–2022) Membership in Colombian Congress On 20 July 2019, ten former FARC members, including former senior leader Pablo Catatumbo, were sworn in as members of the
Congress of Colombia. All of these ex-rebels are members of the
Common Alternative Revolutionary Force political party. This position was criticized by former FARC supreme leader
Rodrigo Londoño, who assured that his party remains committed to peace agreements and that "[m]ore than 90 percent of former FARC guerrillas remain committed to the peace process". Duque also accused Venezuelan president
Nicolás Maduro of assisting FARC and providing a safe haven for militants in Venezuela.
2020–2021 General Luis Fernando Navarro asserted on January 5,
2021, that FARC lost 1,500 members in 2020. The number includes deaths, capture, and desertions. He said the FARC still had 2,500 armed members. == Financing ==