Buzz
Terror groups today are infamous for their relentless, high-profile attacks, earning a reputation that’s almost unparalleled. Names like ISIS, Al-Qaeda, and Boko Haram are widely recognized, with their terrifying deeds haunting millions. However, one terror group remains under the radar: the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
FARC, a Marxist ultraleft organization, has waged a violent battle against the Colombian government for over five decades. Their reign of terror has claimed the lives of more than 250,000 people and displaced millions more.
While FARC has long been the central figure in Colombia's tragic conflict, it hasn't stood alone. Other groups like the left-wing ELN, the right-wing AUC, and Pablo Escobar's Medellin cartel have all had a significant impact. Yet, FARC has earned its reputation as perhaps the most terrifying of them all. Here’s how they became so notorious.
10. The Rise of a Revolutionary Force
In the 1940s, Colombia was ravaged by one of the deadliest civil wars of the modern era. The country’s Liberal and Conservative factions formed armed squads that hunted down their enemies in the cities, leaving a trail of massacres in their wake. Known as La Violencia, the conflict resulted in the deaths of approximately 200,000 people within a decade, fueling a political crisis that would haunt the country for years.
As part of the 1949 peace talks, both the Liberals and Conservatives agreed to a power-sharing deal that excluded other political parties from the government. In response, the Colombian Communist Party urged peasants to form militias to fight against the state. In the lawless rural areas, some of these militias grew strong enough to establish their own “independent republics,” such as the Republic of Marquetalia.
With only 1,000 residents, the Republic of Marquetalia was no more a functioning state than a remote survivalist compound might be today. However, the Colombian government was not taking any chances. In 1964, they declared war on these rebellious territories. Marquetalia was bombed to oblivion. Only 48 of the armed communists managed to escape the assault.
Defeated, impoverished, and scarred, the hunted peasants regrouped and launched a national Marxist movement. They were no longer content with controlling just one town. Their goal now was to overthrow the brutal state itself, adopting a new name: FARC.
Wondering how fewer than 50 poorly armed men could evolve into the largest terror threat in the Americas? The answer lies in Colombia’s other deeply rooted problem.
9. The Seventh Conference and the Drug Trade
From 1964 to 1982, FARC flew largely under the radar of most governments. They engaged in skirmishes with military patrols and managed to grow their numbers to 1,000, but remained a small insurgent group in a country full of them. Then came FARC’s seventh conference, marking a turning point that would change everything.
The conference marked a pivotal turning point in FARC’s strategy. Up until then, their approach had been to exploit the dissatisfaction among Colombia’s peasant population to fuel a nationwide movement. By May 1982, it became evident that this strategy was failing. So FARC shifted focus to a far more profitable venture: the cocaine trade.
That choice not only shattered FARC’s moral standing as champions of the oppressed but also catapulted them to unimaginable wealth. It was during this time that Pablo Escobar rose to become the seventh richest man alive by dominating Colombia’s major drug routes.
For a fledgling terror group, such vast sums of money brought serious power. In the following four years, FARC’s numbers would more than triple to 3,600. The conference also solidified their “centrifugal strategy,” where new units launched attacks on new locations, constantly expanding the conflict with more “fronts” than the military could keep up with.
In the ensuing turmoil, FARC plotted to encircle Bogota, tightening a stranglehold around the capital and draining its resources. Overcome by pressure, the government would have no choice but to capitulate. However, despite their newfound wealth from drug trafficking, this plan was an overly ambitious pipe dream for FARC. Fast forward a decade or so, and the world was no longer laughing.
8. Territorial Advancements
With the influx of funds, the Marxist group was able to secure support from heavyweights like the Soviet Union. During the 1980s, FARC fighters were sent to the USSR to undergo combat training. The strategies they picked up from the communist regimes transformed them from a ragtag bunch of peasants and drug dealers into a formidable military force.
By the 1990s, the guerrillas had taken over a third of Colombia’s territory—around 380,000 square kilometers (150,000 mi). To put that into perspective, it's an area larger than Germany. For comparison, at its peak in 2014, ISIS controlled an area of the Middle East roughly one-tenth of that size.
By the end of the 20th century, no major Colombian city was free from the guerrillas’ reach. All routes out of Medellin and Cali were blocked, patrolled by militants seeking wealthy and middle-class citizens to kidnap.
Bogota was nearly cut off from the rest of Colombia, surrounded by the advancing rebel forces. By 2000, FARC was so confident the capital would fall that they sent their members to public administration courses to prepare them for running the country.
For Colombians stuck in their cities, these years were a period of despair—marked by violence, fear, and constant terror. By this stage, FARC had shifted from merely targeting state employees to actively harming civilians.
7. Law 002 and the Widespread Kidnappings
Though considered a terrorist organization, FARC operated differently from groups like ISIS or other Islamic extremists. While organizations like Al-Qaeda prioritized civilian casualties, FARC aimed to keep civilians alive. The reason for this approach was simple economics: FARC earned far more from kidnapping and ransom than from killing.
This logic led to the creation of their notorious Law 002. By the late 1990s, FARC was already kidnapping 3,000 people a year. They earned nearly as much from hostage-taking as from the drug trade. In 2000, the leadership formalized abduction as part of their revolutionary legal framework.
Law 001, written in the 1960s, addressed land reform. But Law 002 was far darker. Any Colombian with assets over $1 million had to pay 10 percent of their wealth to FARC. Those who refused faced the abduction of family members.
To demonstrate their seriousness, FARC kidnapped a three-year-old boy, holding him in appalling conditions for 18 months. The tactic was effective: those wishing to protect their families ventured into rebel-held areas and surrendered their savings. As a result, FARC’s power grew while many Colombians were left in a state of fear and submission.
6. Unrestrained Bombings
A haunting sculpture of a twisted bird stands in Medellin’s San Antonio Park. Known as Pajaro de Paz ("Bird of Peace"), it memorializes the tragic event on a summer night in 1995 when FARC detonated a bomb during an outdoor concert in the park. The explosion killed 23 young people and injured many others with flying shrapnel. This horrific attack was just one of many indiscriminate acts carried out by the group.
While FARC often claimed the moral high ground and insisted on their opposition to killing, the truth was they weren’t shy about using bombs to gain media attention. In 2003, they placed a car bomb beneath a popular nightclub in Bogota and ignited it. The explosion obliterated the club, killing 32 people, including six children, and severely injuring over 200 others.
At times, FARC justified their civilian casualties as “accidents.” But this was an understatement. In the late 1990s, FARC, with help from the IRA, developed a crude new mortar made from a propane tank, dynamite, and shrapnel. Though deadly, it was designed to be highly inaccurate.
The guerrilla group gleefully displayed their new weapon to the press. The unspoken implication was clear: civilians should fear being “accidentally” struck by it. In 2002, that fear became reality. A mortar intended for a rival guerrilla faction landed in a crowded church in the remote town of Bojaya. In an instant, 79 innocent lives were lost.
5. Attacks On Leaders
Picture this: it’s 2008, and as you watch Barack Obama’s inauguration on TV, a powerful explosion rocks the ceremony. A terrorist group has just fired mortars at the new president, missing him by inches but killing dozens of civilians. While such an attack may seem unimaginable, even to a country marked by the horrors of 9/11, this is exactly what happened in Colombia in 2002 during President Alvaro Uribe’s inauguration.
Uribe, a fiercely hawkish lawyer advocating ruthless measures against FARC, had a personal vendetta against the guerrillas. In the 1980s, his father was shot and killed in the street by suspected FARC militants, and his brother narrowly escaped death.
While FARC has consistently denied their involvement, their assassination attempt on Uribe during his inauguration made it clear that they were determined to prevent his presidency. Six mortars were fired at the presidential palace. Three struck government officials. The other three missed, landing in a nearby slum and killing 11 people. Ironically, these victims were exactly the type of people FARC claimed to champion.
Other Colombian leaders weren’t spared either. That same year, the rebels abducted presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt in broad daylight. She was held captive in a filthy jungle camp for six years. When the army finally rescued her, she found her former life had disappeared, and she was left mentally shattered. The clear message of these FARC attacks was that no one— not even the country’s leaders—was safe from their reach.
4. Killing Soldiers And The Silent War
With even government officials vulnerable to kidnapping and assassination by FARC, regular soldiers and police officers stood little chance. The rebels carried out brutal attacks aimed at causing maximum casualties, hoping to demoralize Colombia’s military forces.
In 2000, one such assault took place in the critical town of Dabeiba, located near Panama. Around 500 guerrillas flooded the streets, overpowering local forces and killing 32 soldiers and two police officers. When reinforcements arrived by helicopter, FARC shot one down, claiming the lives of another 22 soldiers.
It was a day of brutal violence, yet it was just one of many similar events. In 1998, an attack at El Billar resulted in the deaths of more than 60 soldiers. Two years earlier, in 1996, FARC launched coordinated attacks that left 80 soldiers dead in a single weekend.
While tragic, such losses were unfortunately part of the grim reality of a soldier’s life. But FARC managed to bring the horrors of war to the homes of soldiers. In 1999, they initiated the “Silent War,” targeting soldiers on leave. Rebel assassins hunted them down and executed them in cold blood, far from the battlefield. By November 1999, 60 soldiers had been killed this way—murdered during what should have been their only peaceful time, away from the frontlines.
Those who managed to survive encounters with the rebels weren’t fortunate for long. FARC captured and held thousands of soldiers, subjecting them to conditions so inhumane they’ve been classified as crimes against humanity.
3. The Three-Way War
Around this time, a new force emerged in Colombia’s conflict. The AUC, a far-right paramilitary group, rose from the remnants of Escobar’s former Medellin cartel. Founded in 1993, their stated purpose was to protect the army and Colombia’s elites from FARC and the ELN. The AUC even found tacit support from President Uribe, who had close ties with the group. But in reality, the AUC’s 30,000 members were brutal, unhinged extremists.
If FARC represented pure evil, the AUC embodied something far darker. The group targeted villages that were ‘loyal’ to FARC—a euphemism for villagers paying protection money to the left-wing rebels to keep themselves alive. The AUC would capture everyone in the village and execute them in horrific ways. Some had their heads smashed with sledgehammers, others had their limbs severed with chainsaws. These acts were intended to send a message to FARC but instead sparked a deadly, three-way war.
In 2001, FARC and the AUC clashed in a brutal battle for dominance, ravaging the Colombian countryside. Meanwhile, tensions over illegal mining between FARC and the ELN led them to start their own separate conflict. This vicious three-way war involved hundreds of thousands of civilians. In one intense 2002 battle near the town of Campamento in Antioquia, over 200 people died as FARC and AUC fought for control.
For ordinary Colombians, these days must have seemed apocalyptic. The relentless fighting forced millions to flee their homes, turning around six million Colombians into refugees within their own country. Before Syria’s complete collapse in 2013, this was the largest number of refugees in any nation worldwide.
In 2006, the AUC disbanded following a peace agreement with Uribe’s government. By then, FARC had been severely weakened by the combined assault of the paramilitaries and the Colombian army. Though FARC was in its weakest state in decades, the price for achieving this was staggering.
During its brief reign, the AUC claimed more civilian lives than FARC had in four decades. By tolerating the AUC’s existence, Uribe helped bring FARC to its knees. But in doing so, he made a pact with the devil, one that ordinary Colombians would be forced to pay for.
2. A Failed Peace
FARC’s greatest achievements occurred at the close of the 1990s and the beginning of the 2000s. This was the era of the Silent War, a time when they could disrupt inaugurations with bombings and enforce the cruel Law 002. You might be surprised to discover what the Colombian government was doing while this widespread terror unfolded. They were trying to negotiate peace.
Peace is undeniably a noble pursuit. But there’s a difference between negotiating peace and committing a Neville Chamberlain. President Andres Pastrana Arango tragically chose the latter approach. During the peace talks with FARC from 1999 to 2002, Pastrana agreed to establish a “safe zone” where FARC could operate without interference.
The size of Switzerland, the zone effectively became a FARC-controlled ministate. Colombian government workers were barred from entering. Airplanes were prohibited from flying overhead, and no attacks were allowed to occur. Pastrana’s hope was to demonstrate his commitment to peace and persuade FARC to disarm. However, the rebels manipulated him with ease.
Shortly after the zone’s creation, FARC launched a massive assault, overtaking an entire town and executing 60 police officers. When Pastrana failed to act, FARC grew even more audacious.
At a winter peace conference in Sweden, Pastrana proposed a temporary ceasefire for the holidays. In response, the rebels did the opposite, intensifying their offensive. When Pastrana voiced his concerns, they told him he needed to rid his ranks of soldiers loyal to the right-wing paramilitaries operating within Colombia. Pastrana agreed. Nevertheless, FARC continued their killing spree.
By 2002, it had become evident that the rebels had never intended peace. They used the talks and the safe zone as a façade to strengthen their forces. Still, Pastrana kept conceding. When the ELN entered the “negotiations,” Pastrana granted them their own “safe zone” to exploit. By the time he left office, FARC had reached the peak of their power, and peace remained elusive.
1. Child Soldiers
At 12, most of us were in school, our biggest concern being homework. For countless children in rural Colombia, such a life would seem like a dream. Recruited and brainwashed by FARC, thousands of children spent their 12th year engaged in dangerous tasks like smuggling drugs, planting IEDs, or performing late-term abortions on pregnant female fighters.
While child soldiers were used by all parties in the Colombian conflict—including the military—FARC was particularly skilled at recruitment. Together with the left-wing ELN, they were responsible for over 70 percent of the child soldiers involved in the war.
They started recruiting them young. At just 12, children were sometimes made leaders of entire military units. By 15, they were spending hours in combat, killing for FARC’s Marxist agenda. Those who tried to escape were hunted down and executed.
The group’s recruitment strategies were especially disheartening. FARC focused on impoverished children, luring them with promises of small treats and rewards. Demobilized female child soldiers have recalled receiving new underwear or makeup kits as incentives for joining. For children living in severe poverty and unaware of the full implications, such meager rewards might have seemed worth risking their lives.
+ Disarmament
In 2012, President Juan Manuel Santos, who succeeded Uribe, shocked his former mentor by reopening peace talks with FARC. At the time, FARC was considerably weaker, and many expected Santos to continue the aggressive approach of his predecessor. However, Santos appeared less inclined to follow in Uribe’s footsteps, particularly when it came to addressing the shocking human rights abuses of the past. Despite significant public skepticism, peace negotiations resumed.
Incredibly, the peace talks seemed to have succeeded this time. By January 2016, it was revealed that the level of conflict-related violence in Colombia had dropped to its lowest point since the formation of FARC in 1964. As of early February 2016, a cease-fire was in effect, and FARC attacks were at an all-time low.
A peace process modeled in part on Britain’s Good Friday Agreement with the IRA is now in progress. Human rights violators from both FARC and the military have expressed their willingness to serve time for their crimes. In a sign of progress, Santos even requested that the US remove FARC from its terror watch list. The US, however, declined, stating that it would reconsider only once FARC had disarmed.
Both sides are expected to finalize a peace agreement by mid-2016, bringing an end to the 52-year civil war. Once this happens, one of the world’s most notorious terrorist organizations will officially cease to exist. While the peace talks have faced criticism, there is no doubt that FARC’s demobilization will improve the lives of millions of everyday Colombians.
