by Austin Galt
FARC
The trip from Cali to Bogotá is around 450 kilometres yet it takes over 10 hours to get there by road. That is due to La Linea or The Line, a road pass that traverses a huge mountain range in the Andes, which is the longest continental mountain range in the world. The Andes is 7000 kilometres long and hugs the western coast of South America.
La Linea begins in the town of Calarcá in Quindio state and winds its way up the Cordillera Central. The top of the pass is 3300 metres high and from there it is a steep drop requiring the road to wind its way down. It is a main thoroughfare used by many passenger buses and trucks transporting goods. To make matters worse, it is often raining which creates very dangerous driving conditions. Many accidents and fatalities occur each year, such as that in August 2016 when a bus rolled off an abyss falling around 50 metres. Four people were killed while 26 others were injured.
Today, however, I was in luck and the weather wasn’t too bad, allowing me to enjoy the spectacular views on offer. Misty clouds weaved their way through the mountain valleys which disappeared into the distance. The bus arrived safely a couple of hours later in the town of Cajamarca, Tolima. That is where La Linea ends. And that is where the real danger began.
The region around Cajamarca has been the scene of several FARC attacks over the years. The guerrillas, who began exerting control over the area several years earlier, kidnapped both tourists and locals and also placed bombs by the side of the road to detonate when a police or army vehicle passed by.
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The FARC was formed in 1964 in response to a government crackdown on communist militant farmers who refused to submit to its central authority which they viewed as corrupt rulers of an inequitable society. Operation Marquetalia, as the crackdown is known, was meant to eliminate the communist guerrillas who had taken control of several, mostly mountainous, regions in Colombia. It didn’t. On the contrary, while it temporarily cleared the area of insurgents, they eventually returned with an even stronger resolve.
This period in Colombia was set against a geopolitical backdrop of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. South Vietnam was fighting off the communists from North Vietnam. The rise of Fidel Castro in Cuba had given hope to the Colombian insurgents’ cause while giving the United States cause for worry about the rising tide of communism throughout the world, including in Latin America.
A team of American counterinsurgency experts was sent to Colombia in late 1959 to assess the country’s security situation. This led to Plan LASO (Latin American Security Operation) being instituted, aimed at fighting back against the communist threat with both military and civilian forces.
By the early 1960s, several havens for these communist guerrillas had sprung up in and around the south-western states of Tolima and Huila. In 1961, Colombian senator Álvaro Gómez called these havens ‘repúblicas independientes’ or ‘independent republics’. The most well-known independent republic was called Marquetalia and was located in southern Tolima. Its epicentre was the village of Gaitania, and it was this village that was the adopted home of the guerrillas’ leader – Manuel Marulanda.
Born Pedro Antonio Marín, Marulanda grew up in the municipality of Génova in the coffee-growing region of Quindio. In 1960, he took on the nom de guerre Manuel Marulanda Vélez after the unionist and co-founder of the Partido Comunista Colombiano (PCC) or Colombian Communist Party, who died during a period of violence several years earlier. He was influenced by communist heroes such as Simón Bolívar, Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin and Mao Zedong, and reading their works would help to shape his philosophy. Marulanda was also nicknamed ‘Tirofijo’ or ‘Sure Shot’ by his communist comrades due to his impressive marksmanship. The name stuck.
Tirofijo had come to Gaitania with his childhood friend and fellow communist insurgent, Jacobo Prías Alape known as ‘Charro Negro’ or ‘Black Cowboy’. They had gathered in this area after being pushed out of other regions by government forces. Gaitania was not easily accessible to outsiders and the guerrillas were able to hunker down. In the meantime, they reinforced the area by building tunnels and trenches. They also began to strictly rule the local peasant population, demanding their cooperation.
The guerrillas not only had to worry about the government forces hunting them but civilian forces who had grouped together in paramilitary units. These paramilitary groups, aligned with the Liberal Party government, were called Limpios or Cleans as in ‘clean liberals’ who had not dirtied their liberalism with communist tendencies. Their express purpose was to rid the area of the PCC-backed guerrillas known as Comunes or Commons.
The leader of the Limpios was Jesús María ‘Mariachi’ Oviedo, while the leader of the Comunes was Charro Negro with Tirofijo second-in-command. In early 1960, Mariachi invited Charro Negro to a meeting in Gaitania to sort out their problems. It was a set-up and Charro Negro was murdered.
After Charro Negro’s death, Tirofijo briefly fled the region and denounced the murder to the government. The government, in turn, responded by saying, ‘We are coming there to impose order’. The threat would culminate several years later in what was later dubbed ‘Operation Marquetalia’. This was considered the crowning moment of Operation Sovereignty which began around a month earlier with over 1000 soldiers slowly making their way through the rugged terrain towards the battleground.
Guillermo León Valencia became the 21st president of Colombia in 1962 and made it his mission to take back control of sovereign lands that had been converted into illegal independent republics by the communist guerrillas. By the following year, the Comunes had seen off the Limpios and it was now just the government forces that remained as their enemy.
Luis Alberto Morantes, known as ‘Jacobo Arenas’, was present when the Colombian army finally launched their historic attack against the communist insurgents. An admirer of Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara, he was sent to Marquetalia by the PCC to help establish an ideological foundation for militants already there; he would later write a book about the experience titled Diario de la resistencia de Marquetalia, known simply as the ‘Marquetalia Diary’.
On 14 June 1964, the Colombian army began the final phase of their mission. The air force pounded guerrilla positions with machine-gun fire and napalm bombs, leading to many casualties including both guerrillas and innocent civilians. The next wave of attacks came in the form of more than 100 soldiers being dropped in by several helicopters. The guerrillas had placed landmines throughout the mountainous jungle region which hampered the soldiers’ advance. Meanwhile, Tirofijo and the rest of the insurgents had made their escape via the trenches they had previously constructed.
A few days later, victory was declared with the region back in state hands. The war, in fact, had only just begun.
Tirofijo and around 50 of his men fled east to Huila state, while other surviving guerrillas regrouped further south around the border of Tolima and Cauca states. Once the government forces had left the area, the guerrillas returned to Marquetalia.
By the following year, the name Tirofijo began to engender fear among the rural population. His reputation preceded him.
On 17 March 1965, the guerrillas carried out their first attack on a populated centre – the town of Inzá, Cauca. The first bus of the day, bound for the state’s capital Popayán, left town in the very early hours of the morning. It had only travelled a couple of kilometres when it came under heavy fire. While the bus driver managed to escape out the door, the rest of the passengers had nowhere to run as bullets rained down on them. A policeman on the bus was the first to drop. Two Catholic nuns sitting together were also hit. They both died then and there. The remaining survivors were escorted off the bus and had their hands tied up before being made to march back to town.
Having heard the commotion, many townsfolk had come to see what was going on. Several of them were then shot including the mayor and treasurer of the town. Tirofijo introduced himself to those left standing before leaving the scene. Along with a fearsome reputation, he left 17 victims from I
nzá in his wake. They were some of the first victims in a war that would take more than 200,000 lives over the next few decades.
In late 1965, the Primera Conferencia Guerrillera or First Guerrilla Conference was held where they formed the Bloque Sur or Southern Bloc. The guerrillas now focused on both political and military objectives. Political propaganda and education was given consideration while they also decided to become more mobile, spreading throughout the rural regions. They headed east into the states of Meta and Caquetá.
In 1966, the Second Guerrilla Conference was held whereby the guerrillas adopted the name Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia. The FARC was officially born with Manuel Marulanda as its supreme leader. The conference was held in the village of Duda in the municipality of Uribe, Meta. This would become the location of the FARC’s Casa Verde or Green House where the leadership was based.
The FARC’s leadership structure revolved around the Estado Mayor Central (EMC) or Central High Command which consisted of approximately 25 commanders responsible for the group’s political operations. Within the Central High Command, a smaller group of some seven commanders made up the Secretariado or Secretariat which was responsible for the group’s military operations. The FARC’s operations were split into blocs covering the different regions of Colombia, while each bloc was separated into fronts made up of around 150 guerrillas each.
By the 1980s, the FARC had grown into a formidable force with several thousand fighters who were supplied with AK-47 assault rifles from their Russian comrades. They took advantage of the cocaine boom by controlling many of the coca-growing regions. Everything that was produced in their zones of influence was taxed. The system of taxes, known as gramaje or grammage, covered every part of the production process, including a tax on growers, buyers, laboratory production and smuggling flights out of the area. The FARC’s involvement in the drug trade led to the United States ambassador to Colombia, Lewis Tamb, popularising the term ‘narcoguerrilla’ for the first time in 1984.
At the Seventh Guerrilla Conference in 1982, the FARC added People’s Army to their name to better reflect their goals. They also decided to implement a new strategy of taking the fight to the Colombian army due to their increasing military capacity. The guerrillas sought to expand their territorial zones of influence and move closer to middle-sized cities, while also moving closer to natural resources in order to strengthen their economic might.
Their strategic plan was given the name Campaña Bolivariana por la Nueva Colombia or Bolivarian Campaign for the New Colombia. One of its goals was to more than quadruple its fighting force which, at that stage, numbered around 5000. This meant recruiting both women and minors. Many underage boys and girls became guerrillas. To keep the women as active fighters, those who became pregnant would be forced to have abortions. Many poor Colombians also joined the guerrillas as a way of escaping poverty.
It may have been a bit optimistic, but their dream goal was to take control of the country after a big military offensive by the end of that decade. Firstly, they would advance into the mountains surrounding Bogotá. They would then attack the capital and assume power.
The FARC took control of large swathes of countryside that had little government presence and became the de facto government in those areas. All legal commerce that took place in their zones of influence was taxed. Even if someone wanted to sell their house, they would first have to ask permission from the guerrillas and give them a little percentage of the sale price. The mayors of those towns in guerrilla territory would essentially be hand-picked and beholden to their guerrilla masters. The FARC would also provide educational and health services to those communities which provided support.
Not everyone was happy though. José Fedor Rey, known as ‘Javier Delgado’, was a trusted man of Jacobo Arenas before he deserted the FARC after the seventh conference. He took $1 million with him and formed his own dissident guerrilla group, called Comando Ricardo Franco or Ricardo Franco Command, which operated in Cauca and is best known for the Tacueyó massacre. Towards the end of 1985, he began to suspect his organisation had been infiltrated by Colombian government forces. He ordered the deaths of 164 guerrillas, mostly young peasants who had recently entered his guerrilla movement. Many of the victims were subjected to grotesque forms of torture.
A group of reporters was invited to the guerrilla camp located in the village of Tacueyó in the municipality of Toribío. Once up there in the mountains of Cauca, they became witness to some horrific scenes. One 15-year-old boy was tortured until he admitted to being a member of the military, despite that being impossible as the army doesn’t recruit minors. Some victims had their chests opened up while still alive, before having their hearts ripped out. Three young pregnant girls had their abdomens cut open and foetuses removed. Other victims were found to have been buried alive.
It is the worst massacre in Colombian history and Javier Delgado was referred to as the ‘Colombian Pol Pot’ after the psychopathic revolutionary leader of Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge. Unsurprisingly, the remnants of the guerrilla group became demoralised and it dissolved a few years later at which stage Delgado went to work for the Cali Cartel. He was eventually captured in 1995 and sent to jail where he was killed.
Another guerrilla group was the Movimiento Armado Quintín Lame (MAQL) or Quintin Lame Armed Movement which was formed in the 1980s by the indigenous Páez people, known as the Nasa, who inhabited the highland regions of Cauca. Their goal was to defend its territory from outside invaders, whether that was the government or outlaw groups. The MAQL eventually demobilised in May 1991 but it may have been the wrong move. Later that same year, in December, members of the Colombian police force along with armed civilians attacked a Nasa camp, killing 20 tribes people.
There were plenty of left-wing groups in the second half of the 20th century, all competing for their own space. Several breakaway factions also formed from these groups, making it all the more confusing. The Ejército Popular de Liberación (EPL) or Popular Liberation Army was founded in 1967 by the Partido Comunista de Colombia–Marxista Leninista (PC–ML) or Marxist–Leninist Communist Party of Colombia which had broken away from the PCC over differences in ideology with the Soviet Union. The EPL had a Maoist ideology and was mostly based in the north-western part of the country. Comprising about 2000 fighters, it demobilised in 1991.
Upon demobilising, it formed the political party Esperanza, Paz y Libertad (another EPL) or Hope, Peace and Freedom, but its members were viewed as traitors by dissident EPL and FARC guerrillas who went about wiping out the party. They killed over 200 party members during the next few years. In order to protect themselves from the guerrillas, many demobilised EPL guerrillas, known as ‘esperanzados’ or ‘hopefuls’, grouped together in 1992 to form Comandos Populares or Popular Commandos. They received help from the right-wing paramilitaries, previously their enemy, and were eventually incorporated into the paramilitary structure in 1995.
Even the PC–ML couldn’t stay whole with a faction breaking away and founding the Partido Revolucionario de los Trabajadores de Colombia (PRT) or Workers Revolutionary Party of Colombia in 1982. It formed armed militias and worked with another small guerrilla outfit, Movimiento Integración Revolucionario–Patria Libre (MIR–PL) or Revolutionary Integration Movement–Free Fatherland. They mostly organised national union strikes and protests. The PRT eventually demobilised in 1991.
The FARC had become a real force by the time the first attempt at peace was made by the 26th president of Colombia, Belisario Betancur. The Acuerdos de la Uribe or the Uribe Agreement was signed at the Casa Verde in March 1984. This called for a ceasefire while allowing a political party to be formed by the PCC together with the FARC and other smaller guerrilla groups.
The Unión Patriótica (UP) or Patriotic Union was eventually founded in May 1985 aiming to break the hegemony of the country’s two major parties, the Liberal Party and Conservative Party. As the movement’s ideological father, Jacobo Arenas took the reins of th
e party with the intention of running for president in the upcoming elections. However, he took his hat out of the ring later that year.
Jaime Pardo – PCC member, judge and passionate speaker – became the party’s elected choice. While the UP was founded by the FARC, it tried to distinguish itself as its own separate entity. Some party members were very supportive of the guerrilla movement while others were less so. It would, however, never be able to rid itself of the stigma of being associated with the Marxist guerrillas.
Virgilio Barco won the election becoming the 27th president of Colombia in 1986. Jaime Pardo came in third with less than five percent of the vote. The party, however, was much more successful in regional contests. The UP won several seats in Congress while many of its candidates were installed in government at the local level. It was viewed as a great success for a party that had only just entered the political scene.
Then the extermination began.
Right-wing paramilitaries had already emerged on the scene. These were self-defence forces formed by landowners and businessmen to protect themselves against the left-wing guerrillas who were extorting and kidnapping them. They viewed the UP as an extension of the FARC – nothing more, nothing less. By the end of the decade, hundreds of UP leaders had been killed by paramilitary forces often with government forces collaborating in the crimes or at least turning a blind eye. More than 3000 UP members were also murdered in what became a political genocide.
Jaime Pardo was assassinated on 11 October 1987. It was a fait accompli. His family knew it would happen. The UP knew it would happen. The whole country knew it would happen. Jaime Pardo probably knew it would happen also but he refused to flee the country, preferring instead to continue the political struggle.
Pardo travelled with his family to spend the weekend at their farm just outside of Bogotá. That Saturday night, he did something he’d never done before. He fired his pistol into the sky. As the family set off for home the following day, he said to his wife, ‘I’m very content because I fired my first shot’. It was also his last.
