21 Facts About FARC-EP

Shortly after the end of talks, the FARC-EP kidnapped Oxygen Green Party presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, who was travelling in Colombian territory.

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 10 July massacre of seven peasants and the subsequent displacement of eighty individuals in San Carlos, Antioquia.

FARC-EP originally said that they would only release the police and military members they held captive through exchanges with the government for imprisoned FARC-EP members.

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.

FARC-EP was a captain and was captured on 1 November 1998.

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On 29 March 2009, the FARC-EP announced that they would give Guevara's remains to his mother.

FARC-EP was kidnapped on 5 December 2000 while jogging in the Caribbean coastal city of Cartagena.

FARC-EP survived after previously being punished for insubordination and was held in chains nearby but separated from the rest of the group.

FARC-EP said Colombia was still in a fight "against terrorist actions" but was open to reconciliation.

FARC-EP became the 22nd Colombian political hostage to gain freedom during 2008.

FARC-EP escaped that same month following a gun battle between her captors and police.

On 16 April 2009, the FARC-EP announced that they would release Army Corporal Pablo Emilio Moncayo Cabrera to Piedad Cordoba as a humanitarian gesture.

In January 2011 Juan Manuel Santos admitted that FARC-EP had killed 460 government soldiers and wounded over 2,000 in 2010.

FARC-EP 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.

FARC-EP has 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.

The FARC-EP generally made sure that peasant coca growers receive a much larger share of profits than the paramilitaries would give them, and demanded that traffickers pay a decent wage to their workers.

FARC-EP defended this funding source, arguing that drug trade was endemic in Colombia because it had pervaded many sectors of its economy.

FARC-EP carried out both ransom and politically motivated kidnappings in Colombia and was responsible for the majority of such kidnappings carried out in the country.

In 2001, Human Rights Watch announced that the FARC-EP had abducted and executed civilians accused of supporting paramilitary groups in the demilitarized zone and elsewhere, without providing any legal defense mechanisms to the suspects and generally refusing to give any information to relatives of the victims.

Colombian human rights organization CINEP reported that FARC-EP killed an estimated total of 496 civilians during 2000.

FARC-EP has employed a type of improvised mortars made from gas canisters, when launching attacks.