Sucitha
A Short History of the FARC
Over a period of many decades, the FARC has grown from a small peasant organization to its present unprecedented military strength. In part, this growth has been facilitated by profit from the FARC's taxation of illicit drug production. Support for the FARC, however, is also a product of the lack of government response to the severe hardships faced by peasant farmers in the region.
The history of regional guerrilla movements in Colombia began with the peasant struggles of the 1920s and 1930s. Peasant and indigenous groups organized in response to harsh working conditions imposed on day-workers by coffee plantation owners and conflicts over land tenure. These groups coalesced in the rural area of southern Tolima - with its nucleus in Chaparral, Viotá - the hub of Cundinamarca's coffee zone, and in other parts of the department such as Tequendama and Sumapaz. The authorities' use of force in response to these conflicts set the stage for the peasant resistance of the mid-1930s to evolve into an armed self-defense movement by the close of the following decade.
While escalating civil conflict in Colombia is attracting increasing international interest and concern, the complex relationships between drug trafficking, political violence, and the many actors involved in the social conflict in Colombia are often absent from the debate.
While escalating civil conflict in Colombia is attracting increasing international interest and concern, the complex relationships between drug trafficking, political violence, and the many actors involved in the social conflict in Colombia are often absent from the debate. This background brief provides a general overview of the relationship between the largest guerrilla group in Colombia, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia ("Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia", FARC) and illicit drug production and trafficking. In policy debates in Washington, the "narcoguerrilla" theory has been employed to
Over a period of many decades, the FARC has grown from a small peasant organization to its present unprecedented military strength. In part, this growth has been facilitated by profit from the FARC's taxation of illicit drug production. Support for the FARC, however, is also a product of the lack of government response to the severe hardships faced by peasant farmers in the region.
The history of regional guerrilla movements in Colombia began with the peasant struggles of the 1920s and 1930s. Peasant and indigenous groups organized in response to harsh working conditions imposed on day-workers by coffee plantation owners and conflicts over land tenure. These groups coalesced in the rural area of southern Tolima - with its nucleus in Chaparral, Viotá - the hub of Cundinamarca's coffee zone, and in other parts of the department such as Tequendama and Sumapaz. The authorities' use of force in response to these conflicts set the stage for the peasant resistance of the mid-1930s to evolve into an armed self-defense movement by the close of the following decade.
While escalating civil conflict in Colombia is attracting increasing international interest and concern, the complex relationships between drug trafficking, political violence, and the many actors involved in the social conflict in Colombia are often absent from the debate.
While escalating civil conflict in Colombia is attracting increasing international interest and concern, the complex relationships between drug trafficking, political violence, and the many actors involved in the social conflict in Colombia are often absent from the debate. This background brief provides a general overview of the relationship between the largest guerrilla group in Colombia, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia ("Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia", FARC) and illicit drug production and trafficking. In policy debates in Washington, the "narcoguerrilla" theory has been employed to