100 Facts About FARC

The FARC–EP was formed during the Cold War period as a peasant force promoting a political line of agrarianism and anti-imperialism.

In 2012, the FARC made 239 attacks on the energy infrastructure; however, they showed signs of fatigue.

Meanwhile, from 2008 to 2017, the FARC opted to attack police patrols with home-made mortars, sniper rifles, and explosives, as they were not considered strong enough to engage police units directly.

In June 2016, the FARC signed a ceasefire accord with the President of Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos in Havana.

On November 24,2016, the Colombian government and the FARC signed a revised peace deal, which the Colombian Congress approved on 30 November.

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On 27 June 2017, FARC ceased to be an armed group, disarming itself and handing over its weapons to the United Nations.

One month later, FARC announced its reformation as a legal political party, in accordance with the terms of the peace deal.

Small faction of FARC leaders announced a return to armed activity on 29 August 2019, stating that the Colombian government did not respect peace agreements, a position Colombian officials disagreed with.

FARC was formed in 1964 by Manuel Marulanda Velez and other PCC members, after a military attack on the community of Marquetalia.

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.

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.

On 23 September 1994, the FARC kidnapped American agricultural scientist Thomas Hargrove and held him captive for 11 months.

In March 1999 members of a local FARC contingent killed three USA-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.

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

In 2002 and 2003, FARC broke up ten large ranches in Meta, an eastern Colombian province, and distributed the land to local subsistence farmers.

On 5 May 2003, the FARC assassinated the governor of Antioquia, Guillermo Gaviria Correa, his advisor for peace, former defence minister Gilberto Echeverri Mejia, and eight soldiers.

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.

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.

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.

On 25 March 2006, after a public announcement made weeks earlier, the FARC–EP released two captured policemen at La Dorada, Putumayo.

FARC 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.

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

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.

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FARC did not report any other casualties on either side and delayed months before permitting the Red Cross to recover the remains.

In February 2009, Sigifredo Lopez, 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.

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

On 31 January 2008, the FARC–EP announced that they would release civilian hostages Luis Eladio Perez Bonilla, Gloria Polanco, and Orlando Beltran Cuellar to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez as a humanitarian gesture.

The FARC–EP had called its planned release of the hostages a gesture of recognition for the mediation efforts of Chavez, who had called on the international community to recognize the rebels as belligerents a month prior.

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

On 4 February 2008, anti-FARC protests were held in 45 Colombian cities and towns, with an estimated 1.

On 20 July 2008, a subsequent set of rallies against FARC included thousands of Colombians in Bogota and hundreds of thousands throughout the rest of the country.

On 1 March 2008, Raul Reyes, a member of FARC's ruling Secretariat, in the small village of Santa Rosa, Ecuador, was killed just across the border from Colombia, after Colombian planes bombarded a FARC camp there.

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.

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

On 21 December 2008, The FARC–EP announced that they would release civilian hostages Alan Jara, Sigifredo Lopez, three low-ranking police officers and a low-ranking soldier to Senator Piedad Cordoba 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, Jose Walter Lozano Guarnizo, Alexis Torres Zapata and William Giovanni Dominguez Castro.

FARC 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.

On 28 June 2009, the FARC announced that they would release soldier Josue Daniel Calvo Sanchez.

Nuevo Arco Iris head Leon 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.

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

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.

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 Medellin and particularly Cali.

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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.

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.

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 Jambalo some 24 hours after the death of Cano.

On 26 November 2011, the FARC killed Police Captain Edgar Yesid Duarte Valero, Police Lieutenant Elkin Hernandez Rivas, Army Corporal Libio Jose Martinez Estrada, and Police Intendant Alvaro Moreno after government troops approached the guerrilla camp where they were held in an area of the Caqueta department.

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.

FARC 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.

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.

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 Milan, a town in the southern Caqueta, killing at least seven government soldiers and injuring five others.

FARC 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 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.

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 16 May 2014, the Colombian government and the FARC rebels agreed to work together against drug trafficking, added to the development of these peace talks.

FARC requested Shankar to actively participate in the peace process.

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 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".

FARC promised to help eradicate illegal drug crops, remove landmines in the areas of conflict, and offer reparations to victims.

On 18 February 2017, the last FARC guerrillas arrived in a designated transition zone, where they began the process of disarming.

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.

On 20 July 2019, ten former FARC members, including former senior leader Pablo Catatumbo, were sworn in as members of the Congress of Colombia.

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Five of these ten ex FARC rebels were sworn in as members of the House of Representatives, while the other five were sworn in as members of the Senate.

Duque accused Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro of assisting FARC and providing a safe haven for militants in Venezuela.

Truth Commission report released in 2022 shows that the drug trafficking charges against Jesus Santrich and his arrest in 2019 were a plot by the DEA and Colombian Attorney General Nestor Humberto Martinez to jeopardize the peace agreement, incite the FARC to take up arms again, and send a message to the public that the peace agreement had failed.

FARC was not initially involved in direct drug cultivation, trafficking, or trans-shipment prior to or during the 1980s.

FARC had called for crop substitution programs that would allow coca farmers to find alternative means of income and subsistence.

In 1999, FARC worked with a United Nations alternative development project to enable the transition from coca production to sustainable food production.

In those FARC controlled territories that do produce coca, it is generally grown by peasants on small plots; in paramilitary or government controlled areas, coca is generally grown on large plantations.

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

Several of the FARC leaders appeared on the Justice Department's Consolidated Priority Organization target list, which identifies the most dangerous international drug trafficking organizations.

The charged FARC leaders ordered that Colombian farmers who sold paste to non-FARC buyers would be murdered and that US fumigation planes should be shot down.

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.

FARC claimed at the time that it was holding nine people for ransom in addition to hostages kept for a prisoner exchange.

In February 2012, FARC announced that it would release ten members of the security forces, who it described as political prisoners, representing the last such captives in its custody.

FARC was accused of committing violations of human rights by numerous groups, including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the United Nations as well as by the Colombian, US and European Union governments.

FARC consistently carried out attacks against civilians specifically targeting suspected supporters of paramilitary groups, political adversaries, journalists, local leaders, and members of certain indigenous groups since at least as early as 1994.

FARC has executed civilians for failing to pay "war taxes" to their group.

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.

The report claims that girls as young as 13 were recruited by FARC to fill a quota of women because “The women are [considered] necessary to maintain the discipline of the FARC.

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Between 1986 and 2001, FARC was responsible for 27 assassinations, 15 threats, and 14 other abuses of indigenous people in Antioquia Department.

In March 1999 members of a local FARC contingent killed 3 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.

FARC–EP was the largest and oldest insurgent group in the Americas.

Political analyst and former guerrilla Leon Valencia estimated that FARC's numbers were reduced to around 11,000 from their 18,000 peak but cautioned against considering the group a defeated force.

FARC–EP was open to a negotiated solution to the nation's conflict through dialogue with a flexible government that agreed to certain conditions, such as the demilitarization of certain areas, cessation of paramilitary and government violence against rural peasants, social reforms to reduce poverty and inequality, and the release of all jailed FARC–EP rebels.

The FARC–EP said it would continue its armed struggle because it perceived the Colombian government as an enemy because of historical politically motivated violence against its members and supporters, including members of the Patriotic Union, a FARC–EP-created political party.

FARC had been able to provide limited social services in these regions, such as health care and education, including building minor infrastructure works in the form of rural roads.

In other rural regions of the country, where a FARC presence had only been established within the last twenty years of the conflict and primarily remained military in nature, there was often a level of distrust between FARC rebels and the local peasant communities, which lack historical ties to the group.

Similar military setbacks and retreats occurred even within its traditional strongholds, forcing the FARC to move towards the most remote areas, but there the guerrillas did appear to maintain popular support among the peasants that had developed organic links to the insurgency.

FARC dissidents refers to a group formerly part of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, who have refused to lay down their arms after the FARC-government peace treaty came into effect in 2016.

The FARC dissidents have become "an increasing headache" for the Colombian armed forces, as they have to fight them, the EPL, ELN and Clan del Golfo at the same time.

FARC dissidents are led by former mid-level commanders such as alias Gentil Duarte, alias Euclides Mora, alias John 40, alias Giovanny Chuspas y alias Julian Chollo.

The FARC dissidents have been responsible for several attacks on the Colombian armed forces.

FARC were a violent non-state actor whose formal recognition as legitimate belligerent forces is disputed by some organizations.

FARC built a deep relationship with the Gaddafi government in Libya, throughout the 1990s and 2000s until the latter's overthrow in 2011.