Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)

FARC is the best equipped, trained and funded guerrilla force in Latin America with its main source of funding being from the drug industry. Although its stronghold is in southern Columbia with almost half the country under its control, it also has members operating in the rest of Columbia, Mexico, Peru, Bolivia as well as numerous other South American countries. They have been involved in a lasting civil war with the Columbian government for decades and without an end to this war, a solution to the drug problem seems to be an unlikely possibility. Even though the FARC has started suffering its first major losses in recent years, they are far from losing.

Their origins can be traced back to 1948 when a number of Communist Party sympathizers sought refuge from a civil war between the Liberal and Conservative parties which would last 15 years and leave 200 000 people dead in southern Colombia. They would first be reoffered to as the in FARC 1966. As of today, the FARC has control over a territory the size of Switzerland in Southern Columbia has thousands of loyal supporters.

During the course of their existence the FARC has constantly revolutionized their strategy to cope with the changing circumstances. In the 1970’s they started imposing taxes on a handful of marijuana growers in the south of the country and had expanded those taxes to include cocaine laboratories within the area of control.

In 1984, in an apparent strive for peace, the FARC would start peace talks with the Colombian government and would launch a party, the Patriotic Union (PU). Their presidential candidate of 1986 would win 300 000 votes which remains a record for any left candidate with the party getting a handful of seats in the Columbian congress. During Colombia’s first municipal elections in 1988, the UP would win 16 mayoral and 247 city council posts greatly angering drug lords and opposition within the government who carried out assassinations of 3000 UP members over a six year period and all talks of peace were ceased. However, during the hay day of UP from 1984 to 1988, the FARC managed to double in size due to numerous reasons including attacks on UP members which forced many to abandon hopes of peace and to pledge allegiance to the FARC

During the early 1990’s the FARC were forced by the Colombian government to spread its assets throughout the countryside and to employ a more offensive strategy following an aerial bombing of their headquarters in 1991. During the mid 1990’s which was arguably the height of power for the FARC, they managed to conduct numerous perfectly executed operations on policemen and battalions of soldiers leading to the capture of hundreds of soldiers and policemen which would later be traded for large chunks of area in Caquetá and Meta which is more or less equivalent to the size of Switzerland in are. In February 2003, the FARC captured 3 US contractors doing surveillance in the area after their plane crashed.

Although the FARC has ahs a centralized command, they have along the lines of 70 devolved units who are in charge of their own affairs and the central command i.e. Secretariat only has control of special units which tend to be stationed where they are most needed or where they are on an special operation. FARC also has command of militias in some Colombian cities and can call upon the expertise of vast amounts of logistics experts in bombing, kidnapping, human trafficking and so on.

In the eyes of many, the FARC is preparing for a lengthy war with the Colombian government by employing a strategy similar to those of the Japanese during the battle of Iwo Jima and the Vietcong in Vietnam by building roads and tunnels.