Nature of the Guerrilla War in Colombia and how it ended

Nature of the Guerrilla War in Colombia and how it ended

For a long time now, Colombia has endured the longest-running civil war in the Western Hemisphere. This conflict began in 1964 when two Guerrilla movements were created, even though violence in the country had started long before. Confrontation among guerrilla, paramilitary and government forces have led to many people dying, and the rule of law in Colombia has become weak as a result. Different political, economic, and social problems that originated from uneven development, imbalanced gains, and an increasing perception that benefits of higher income were not broadly shared continue to ail the country. However, the economy of Colombia has grown despite the constant violence fed by guerrilla insurgencies and drug trafficking. On the other hand, according to an article published by the International Center for Transitional Justice, “the shifting boundaries between drug trafficking and political crimes, and the increased official emphasis on counterterrorism, pose difficult challenges for people seeking accountability for past abuses and respect for human rights.”[1] The war ended in 2016 after a peace process between the Colombian government, and the FARC was initiated in 2012, and finally, in 2016, a final agreement was signed, and the guerrilla came to an end.

The violence in Colombia officially began in 1964 when two separate guerrilla groups, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), and the National Liberation Army (ELN) were formed, with each group fighting to increase their influence in Colombian territory. Other contributors to the conflict in Colombia include multinational corporations and the United States government, as well as Venezuela, Cuba, and the trade on illegal drugs. The violence, however, is historically rooted in the conflict that existed between Colombian elites and the assassination of populist political leader Jorge Gaitan, which initiated a decade of violence which is now known as La Violencia. More than 200,000 people were killed while more than five million civilians were left homeless, which led to the world’s second-largest population of IDPs. Even though this violence begun as a popular uprising, the Liberal and Conservative landowning elite orchestrated La Violencia to progress their own political and economic interests.

Origins

In 1958, after the two parties agreed to end the violence, the National Front was created to allow the two parties to share power for sixteen years. This agreement meant that no other political parties would be included. As a result, groups of peasant farmers began to organize themselves in self-maintained areas in the south of Colombia. Although these groups demanded greater state assistance and requested for better and improved social services, local landowners wanted to progress their own expansion and pressured the administration to take action against these zones which were pejoratively referred to as “independent republics”. During this time, in the wake of the Cuban revolution, the attention of the United States was turning to Latin America. In 1964, an attack on the community of Marquatalia was launched. What was meant to be a quick operation supported by the US with the mobilization of more than 10,000 troops turned to an ongoing fight that lasted for months when the troops were met with heavy resistance from 50 guerrilla fighters. When the troops finally managed to enter the village, the fighters had already escaped and redesigned their strategy. They began to fight as a guerrilla army which would later officially become the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in 1966. In the same year, the Army of National Liberation was formed by a group of students who had been inspired by the Cuban Revolution. The group launched its first attack in 1965 and distributed a the Simacota Manifesto which urged conservative and liberal masses to come together to defeat the oligarchy of both parties.[2] Different guerrilla groups emerged from peasant and communist uprisings during the 1960s. The two main groups were the FARC and ELN.

Guerrilla War

Both ELN and FARC’s original objective was to overthrow the government to force revolutionary transformation, both socially and politically in Colombia. In 2012, the ELN declared its desire to hold peace talks centred on the issue of social inequality and social justice among other issues in the country. In 2009, there was a call for a bigger proportion of the national budget to be allocated for structural political changes such as increased democratic participation, welfare programs and for land redistribution to peasant farmers. The problem of unequal distribution of land has always been a problem from the beginning of the civil wars and violence in Colombia. It is symbolic of the wider problem of social inequality that the country faces. After the formation of the FARC and ELN, more armed guerrilla groups were formed. The growing force of the guerrillas during the 1980s stimulated the solidification of the phenomenon of paramilitary violence, which would lead to the changes in the course of the Colombian armed conflict. The formation of paramilitary groups was followed by the coming together of large landholder groups, drug cartels, business owners, and the Colombian army, all of whom had the objective of progressing economic interests and dealing with the threat posed by the guerilla groups that had been formed.

“To the overlapping effects of partisan violence between liberals and conservatives and the political urgency of socioeconomic change has been added another factor in the cause of current insurgency in Colombia…in the late 1950s, and the early 1960s, Colombia’s economic and political situation presented what seemed to be ripe opportunities for would-be external sponsors of evolution along Marxist-Leninist lines: the national economy had both developed and underdeveloped sectors, and the distribution of wealth was highly unequal within both modern and traditional economic communities. The nation’s internecine political strife had spawned a class of men who lived by the gun, which offered a reservoir for recruits for future political efforts requiring violence.”[3]

Paramilitary structures received deep-rooted support from the Colombian government and intelligence was shared, and joint operations carried out. In the 1980s, as the paramilitaries continued to grow in force, these groups began broadening their operations. They started targeting political activists, trade unionists and other civil society sectors that were opposed to the concentration of both political and economic power. As a result, the paramilitaries were seen as supporters of the guerrilla groups. When the groups united to form one national structure known as the Self-Defense Force of Colombia (AUC) in 1997, a period of the most intense hostilities ensued with both the FARC and the ELN reaching their peak strength. As a result, paramilitaries expanded all over the country.

In 2002, when Alvaro Uribe became the president of Colombia, his administration promised to take serious approaches aimed at stopping the guerrillas by introducing his trademark Democratic Security policy. This policy led to a strengthened militarization of the country, and the military underwent intense modernization from the close to $800 million that it received from the United States every year. This strengthened the military, and it began to win a series of victories against the guerrilla groups, forcing them to retaliate to the most rural parts of Colombia. President Alvaro’s Democratic Security Policy brought with it an intense period of human rights abuses. The human rights abuses were as a result of this policy together with the expansion of the AUC.

The drug economy in Colombia also contributed to the rise of armed groups in Colombia. These groups worked as security services for the drug trafficking operations, and in other cases, they are directly involved in the illegal trade. The issue of narcotics originated as the National Front era was coming to an end. At this time, Colombia played a significant role as a major supplier of drugs in the international drug market. Following the major prohibition efforts by Mexican officials in 1975, Colombia became the leading provider of most of the marijuana that was being imported into the United States. The marijuana business increasingly became profitable, and drug dealers in Colombia diversified to trafficking cocaine which also grew from people carrying it in small quantities to carrying it in large amounts on boast and aeroplanes. By 1984, the drug traffickers had gained a lot of power. Similar to the guerilla groups and the paramilitary groups, drug groups caused a lot of tension in the country and even began using terror to increase their bargaining power with the administration. This led to an increase in homicide and 1989 was recorded ass the most violent year in Colombia’s violent history.

The narcotics trade in Colombia has always been a political issue. However, during the 1980s, it was seen as an economic asset as it made annual trade balances positive. Additionally, as the drug dealers became wealthier from the drug trade, they organized protection groups and constructed both residential and commercial building, ironically benefiting more Colombians than the Colombian government.

The scuffle between the guerilla groups, paramilitaries, and the drug groups cause lots of tension and insecurity in Colombia. As a result of violence in the country, over the past two decades, millions of people have been displaced from their homes. One direct result of the forced displacement of civilians is a shift in land tenancy and use. Small farms have been replaced by large-scale agribusiness development; peasants are replaced by corporate farming. [4] As a result of the displacement of people, more than 5 million hectares of land have been illegally appropriated. Even so, the armed conflict and its effects remain invisible to upper-class neighborhoods of the major cities in Colombia.

From the year 2008, the FARC group started becoming weak as more of its members and leaders were killed. The group reorganized severally and conducted revenge attacks on the Colombian military and somehow managed to rebuild themselves into more troops. As of 2012, the ELN had up to 3,000 troops while the FARC had roughly 10,000 troops. In the same year, the Havana Peace Process was initiated between the government and the FARC. A series of preliminary peace talks took place, and in 2015, FARC initiated an indefinite unilateral truce.

Restoration of Peace

Ever since the war started, there have been numerous attempts to restore peace in Colombia. Even though a peace deal in 1991 was signed that saw some guerrilla groups demobilize and a new constitution was formed, violence in the country persisted as attempts to end the conflicts between the Colombian government and the FARC proved unsuccessful. The FARC and the Colombian government have help several peace talks, and a rise followed most of them in violence. Attempts to hold peace talks between the FARC together with the ELN and the government in 1991 and 1992 broke down and what followed was “an intensification of paramilitary violence and an increased militarization of the country as the Colombian Armed Forces benefited from billions of dollars in military aid from the United States.”[5] Military abuses went together with abuses on human rights propagated by the paramilitaries and the armed forces. During this period, those who called for peace were considered guerrilla sympathizers and as a result, became targets. The increased prioritization on a military response, however, was unable to destroy the guerrilla groups or weaken them. Civil society organizations continued to lead the calls for peace, and finally, in 2012, the Havana Peace talks were instigated. Numerous events preceded the beginning of these peace talks. Juan Manuel, who took the presidency seat in 2010, he marked a significant shift from Alvaro Uribe by recognizing that there was an armed conflict. In 2012, the FARC separately released all their hostages and publicized the end of their hostage capturing activities. What led to peace in Colombia took place in the context of enthusiastic political opposition to peace led by Alvaro Uribe, and despots in the state institutions and armed forces who favor the pursuit of outright military victory.

Following the fast track through Congress, the peace deal went into effect. FARC, together with the paramilitary groups, followed the outlined plan, and the group formed its first political party and began its preparations for the general elections that were to be held in 2018. However, this did not go as planned as some members of the FARC group protested the agreement. Additionally, other armed groups such as the ELN continued their violence against the government, but the conflict ended in the same year. These conflict disrupted FARC’s political events, but the peace deal still went through.

Despite the armed conflict experienced in Colombia, the country maintains a strong array of rule-of-law institutions. The constitution that formulated in 1991 includes a bill of rights, provisions that secure the independence of the judiciary, and balances on executive power. “The constitutional court has developed a liberal jurisprudence that affirms the rights of victims of human right violations and protects individual liberties.”[6] Criminal legislation generally incorporates international obligations. What is more, some existing laws addressing victims’ rights, protect IDPs and seek to fight forced disappearances. However, there is still a big gap between the law and its enforcement in many parts of the country.

Conclusion.

For a long time, Colombia has been among the countries which have long been affected by armed conflicts with various groups of people arising with a clear motive to oppose the government and control different territories for both political and economic rewards. As seen in this report, the guerrilla war, which was mainly propagated by the two groups discussed, i.e., FARC and ELN, is the main cause of the lack of peace in the country. The persistent violence and conflict by these guerrilla groups have caused a lot of damage to the country both socially and economically, which has led to the international recognition of Colombia, with cases of human displacement and abuse of human right becoming increasingly associated with the country. Even though a peace treaty was formed, many members of the FARC and many Colombians fear the worst for this agreement, while still committed to maintaining peace. This is probably to the past experiences where attempted peace treaties failed, and more violence erupted and persisted. The current administration is committed to maintaining peace. The new administration’s stances and promises call the possibility of maintaining peace into serious question, but, what is promised is still alteration of the deal, not a complete abandoning of the peace. Probably, compromise can prevail for Colombia, and the Western hemisphere’s longest conflict and violence can remain closed, and this is exactly what this committee aims at achieving.

Bibliography

ICTJ. 2020. “An Overview Of Conflict In Colombia”. Ictj.Org. https://www.ictj.org/sites/default/files/ICTJ-Colombia-Conflict-Facts-2009-English.pdf.

Justice For Colombia. 2020. “Colombia In Detail – Justice For Colombia”. Justice For Colombia. https://justiceforcolombia.org/about-colombia/colombia-in-detail/#Armed%20Conflict.

Maullin, Richard L. Soldiers, Guerrillas, and Politics in Colombia. Lexington: Lexington Books, 1973.

[1] ICTJ, 1

[2] Maullin, Richard L. Soldiers, Guerrillas, and Politics in Colombia. Lexington: Lexington Books, 10.

[3] Ibid, 15.

[4] Ibid,

[5] Justice For Colombia 2020

[6] ICTJ, 2