The Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia – Ejército del Pueblo (FARC-EP) was a Marxist-Leninist guerrilla movement founded in 1964 under the leadership of Manuel Marulanda Vélez ("Tirofijo") and Jacobo Arenas, growing out of peasant self-defense groups linked to the Colombian Communist Party during the period of partisan violence known as La Violencia.
For more than five decades the FARC fought the Colombian state, financing itself through kidnapping for ransom, extortion ("vacunas"), illegal mining, and taxation of the cocaine trade. At its peak in the late 1990s and early 2000s it fielded an estimated 16,000–20,000 combatants and controlled large rural areas, including a Switzerland-sized demilitarized zone (the zona de despeje around San Vicente del Caguán) granted by President Andrés Pastrana during failed 1998–2002 peace talks.
The group was designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the United States (1997) and the European Union (2002). Under President Álvaro Uribe's Seguridad Democrática policy (2002–2010), and with U.S. support via Plan Colombia, the FARC suffered severe military setbacks, including the 2008 killing of Raúl Reyes in Ecuador and Operation Jaque, which freed Ingrid Betancourt and three U.S. contractors.
Formal peace negotiations opened in Havana in 2012 under President Juan Manuel Santos, mediated by Cuba and Norway. A final accord was signed on 24 November 2016 in Bogotá's Teatro Colón after Colombian voters narrowly rejected an earlier version in an October 2016 plebiscite. The deal created the Jurisdicción Especial para la Paz (JEP) for transitional justice, a truth commission, and a path for FARC disarmament under UN monitoring. Santos received the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize.
The demobilized organization reconstituted as a political party, initially called Fuerza Alternativa Revolucionaria del Común and renamed Comunes in 2021, holding guaranteed congressional seats through 2026. Dissident factions ("FARC-EP Segunda Marquetalia" and the Estado Mayor Central) rejected the accord and remain active, complicating President Gustavo Petro's "paz total" agenda.
Example
In November 2016, FARC commander Rodrigo Londoño ("Timochenko") and Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos signed a revised peace accord in Bogotá, ending the Western Hemisphere's longest-running insurgency.
Frequently asked questions
The main organization demobilized after the 2016 accord and became a political party (Comunes). However, dissident factions such as the Segunda Marquetalia and the Estado Mayor Central rejected the deal and continue armed activity, particularly in coca-growing and border regions.
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