FARC

Raysen Gadson , Albert Coates, and Asteria

Driving Question
How can we as AGS students help to
better understand and generate peace
among countries in political war?

Mission
FARC is a self-proclaimed Marxist-Leninist organization,
which means it is committed in some fashion to the the
redistribution of wealth among the country's population. In
keeping with this position, it opposes multinational
corporations and the privatization of national resources

Colombia Background
Colombia is a country located in South America founded
in 1820 and became independent from Spain
The government of Colombia is a republic and the
executive branch dominates the government.
Colombia is a country where a lot of illicit drugs such as
cocaine are produced allowing for the rise of groups like
FARC

History of FARC
FARC was established in 1964 as the military of the
communist party in Colombia.
FARC is the oldest and largest group among
Colombia's left-wing rebels and is one of the world's
richest guerrilla armies.
Farc became disillusioned with the leadership of the
Liberal Party and turned to communism.

History of FARC
The strength of the FARC EP forces is indeterminate; in
2007, the FARC said they were an armed force of
18,000 men and women
In 2010, the Colombian military calculated that FARC
forces consisted of approximately 13,800 members, 50
per cent of which were armed guerrilla combatants
In 2011, the President of Colombia, Juan Manuel
Santos, said that FARC EP forces comprised fewer than
10,000 members.

History of FARC
On 23 September 2010, the group's top military leader, Jorge Briceno, also
known as Mono Jojoy, was killed in a raid on his jungle camp in the eastern
region of Macarena.The group's founder and long-time leader, Manuel
"Sureshot" Marulanda, died in 2008 of a heart attack.
The deaths of the leaders caused a setbacks and new leaders had to be
found but the organization was not stopped.
The most dramatic setback was the rescue by the military of 15 high-profile
hostages, including the former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt in
2008. The hostages had long been seen as a key element in the rebels'
attempts to exchange their captives for jailed guerrillas.

Power of FARC
The FARC has well-documented ties to a range of drug trafficking activities
including taxation, cultivation, and distribution.
FARC tactics include bombings, murder, mortar attacks, kidnapping,
extortion, and hijacking, as well as guerrilla and conventional military action
against Colombian political, military, and economic targets.
FARC is against the Colombian government and they use their power
FARC Kidnappings have declined over the years.

FARC Funding
Estimates of the income the FARC derives from the sale of narcotics vary
widely.
InSight Crime, an online publication that specializes in organized crime in
Latin America and the Caribbean, put a
conservative estimate at $200 million in 2012, while Colombian Defense
Minister Juan Carlos Pinzon said
the figure could be as high as $3.5 billion
FARC has a lot of control of the flow of cocaine flowing out of the country
and they tax it in order to make money to support their organization.

Our Idea
We would like to make a website called stayinformed.org that will have
information for high school students on how they can make a difference
and understand what is going on in the world.
We would like our website to be accessible in as many places around the
world as possible.
This website will also serve as a way for people to share ideas and explain
what is going on in their part of the world and explain their perspective.

Chinese Student Perspective

Maybe in peoples minds, the powers our high school students get to
promote peace are limited. Actually there are still some methods can let us
to deal with that.
First, we need to have clear external threats and disaster we
foresee, we must know who is ally or who is an enemy to us.
The accurate judgment is necessary. Before we do anything we
need to think about the result and then decide to do or not. Our
careless decision may lead to a bad situation.
Do not believe any advertisement from terrorist organization,
because we are young and dont have enough ability as well as
experience to distinguish which are really good for our society
and which are right or wrong.

Cont.
If we believe any of them and join them even spread the idea of terrorist
organizations the maybe we will become the people damage the peace in
the future.
Whats more, I think peace cannot be created by force; we cannot
use power to protect peace, either. The peace we now have is the
outcome of the war. Peace and war are synchronous.
As a Chinese student, depend on the education I get in China, if you ask
this question to our teacher, he will just tell you: Go to do your homework
dont do the daydream about protect the peace of world.

Anti-Terrorism Websites
1)http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2008/02/04/AR2008020403019.html
2)
https://tavaana.org/en/content/protesting-terror-colombia-one-million-voices-aga
inst-farc-0
3)
http://www.reuters.com/article/2008/02/05/us-colombia-hostages-idUSN04596
56620080205
4)http://www.state.gov/m/ds/terrorism/c8583.htm

Works Cited
"Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) - Terrorist Groups." Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) Terrorist Groups. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Jan. 2015.
"The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the Illicit Drug Trade." Drugs and Democracy. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Jan.
2015.
Zalman, Ph.D. Amy. "FARC -- A Profile of the Colombia FARC Guerrilla Group." N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Jan. 2015.
"Colombia's Coca Farmers Face Uncertain Future As FARC Negotiates Peace." NPR. NPR, n.d. Web. 21 Jan. 2015.