Conflict in Colombia: Fifty Years of FARC and a So-Called Peace

“Today is the day you die. Our orders are to finish off all of you.” These were the words of a FARC rebel as he viciously killed a youth in a manner too grizzly to print.

The killing and mutilation continued for decades.

A slow-burning asymmetric war, known simply as the Colombian conflict, has wreaked humanitarian mayhem across the countryside since the Cold War in 1964. While many groups share responsibility, the Colombian government has been fighting several ideological factions for increased national influence. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) have proven to be the most formidable anti-governmental force throughout the conflict. The guerrilla militia group formed as a Marxist-Leninist peasant coalition promoting agrarianism and anti-imperialism. FARC has funded their operations throughout the conflict through violent and illegal means. They have ransomed victims of kidnapping, mined illegally, and manufactured and distributed cocaine as well as other illicit drugs.

U.S. intervention hovers as a dark cloud over the conflict’s origins. In May 1964, as part of President John F. Kennedy’s Alliance for Progress, the CIA-initiated Plan LAZO which trained Colombian soldiers to invade peasant enclaves. These American-trained commandos then unleashed aircraft-loads of Napalm over the perceived leftist threat. Numerous armed inhabitants of the enclaves escaped, forming the FARC militia two years later. FARC is the longest-enduring and largest revolutionary guerilla movement in the Western Hemisphere. Critics accused the U.S. government of focusing too intensely on destroying FARC and other left-wing guerrilla movements, ultimately ignoring and even supporting other destabilizing elements in Colombian society. Washington aimed to curb the spread of communism in Latin America by bolstering economic and political development. Colombia received millions of dollars worth of loans to finance projects promoting peaceful social change, but the U.S. prioritized short-term financial goals over long-term reform, outright ignoring the left-fueled FARC’s fire.

Incumbent President Ivan Duque was ineligible to run in the June 2022 presidential election due to term limits, leaving an opening for newly-elected Gustavo Petro to add a leftist edge to the conflict’s stalemate. With the political right out of power for the first time, the U.S. must reassess its position in Colombian politics.

The death toll has been immense as violence continues. Casualties from the Colombian conflict have reached 40,000 fighters, but more tragically, 177,000 civilians were caught in both literal and metaphorical crossfire, losing their lives at the hands of ruthless actors on both sides. The fighting forced 5 million civilians from their homes between 1985 and 2012 alone, generating the world’s second-largest population of internally displaced persons. The war has directly victimized 16.9% of Colombia’s population, displaced 2.3 million children from their homes, and killed 45,000 youths. In total, according to the Colombian Unit for Comprehensive Attention and Reparation of Victims, one in three of the 7.6 million registered victims of the conflict are children, and since 1985, 8,000 minors have disappeared.

The FARC has not acted alone in propagating the abhorrent death toll, but their sign-on to a 2016 peace agreement was a crucial step in bringing the half-century humanitarian tragedy to an end. The agreement, reached after four years of painstaking talks, was supposed to address the conflict’s root causes: rural underdevelopment, unemployment, undernourishment, insufficient housing, poverty, and the absence of government services. Unfortunately, after five and a half years, these promises remain unfulfilled, and victims continue to die.

Garnering support for peace from the 80% of Colombians living in cities has proven a challenge. Gunfights and terrorized farmers in the countryside are not the top concern for Bogotano city dwellers and policymakers, leading to a general lack of popular support for the unfulfilled peace agreement.

Yet there is hope. Some 13,000 ex-guerrillas have begun reintegrating into civilian life and are engaging with the democratic system and society. Superficially, this is a step in the right direction for conflict-ridden Colombia, but policymakers still lack a strategy to address the root causes of the issue. The government promised rural citizens support through the transition away from growing the illicit drug industry’s coca plant. As the effects from the 2016 peace talks fade, small armed groups are once again proliferating and adding recruits while social leaders increasingly become targets of homicide.

President Petro will need to overcome resistance from the privileged classes that have been unwilling to budge. The violent opposition to the agreement prolongs Columbia’s status as the most dangerous country in the world for those who wish to pursue human rights and environmental activism. Speaking out in rural Colombia still means death. Children, farmers, or any Colombian for that matter, should not have to die in fear.

The U.S. has signaled support for reconciliation efforts by the recent removal of the FARC from the list of foreign terrorist organizations. There remains an opportunity for an uptick in funding for rural development from international agencies and the arrest of militia murderers by Colombian authorities. The U.S., instrumental in planting the roots of this conflict and humanitarian tragedy, has a chance to reexamine relations with a newly elected Colombian president and usher in the peace and prosperity that its residents have long wanted.