Guerrilla Movement (Colombia)

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/126016/Colombia/25343/The-growth-ofdrug-trafficking-and-guerrilla-warfare
http://colombiajournal.org/fiftyyearsofviolence
Oficially began on 1964 but had been forming since the early 1900s (Bogotazo,
rojas pinilla killing spree)
The peasants, who were forced deeper into the jungle, realized their only chance of
achieving social justice lay in their ability to wage war against the government on a
national level. As a result, the armed self-defense movements dispersed units to
various regions of the country in order to fight the army on several fronts
simultaneously under a central command structure. On July 20, 1964, the various
fronts of the armed self-defense movements issued their agrarian reform program.
Two years later they officially became the FARC.
In 1960 the independent political party, National Popular Alliance (ANAPO), had
been formed by supporters of Rojas Pinilla and was soon contending in
congressional elections. ANAPOs popularity increased steadily throughout the
1960s as it appealed to many of those who had been left out of the National Front
alliance
1989: The ex-guerrillas formed a political party called the Democratic Alliance M-19
to participate in the upcoming elections
The Cuban Revolution influenced many radicals in Latin America, convincing them
that Ernesto Che Guevaras foco theory of armed insurrection was the
revolutionary road to follow. Also, the Colombian Communist Partys support of
resolutions passed by the 20th Congress of the Soviet Communist Party calling for a
peaceful road to revolution led many young Colombians to split from the Party in
order to follow the Cuban model.
The 1974 presidential election brought an end to the National Front alliance as
Liberal and Conservative candidates once again ran against each other
On January 18, 1989, two judges and ten investigators who had been investigating a
number of killings by paramilitary forces were themselves massacred by
paramilitaries. The government could no longer ignore the gruesome statistics: a
dramatic increase in political killings from 1,053 in the 1970s to 12,859 in the
1980s, including 108 massacres in 1988 alone.18 However, perhaps more
important in the minds of the politicians was the fact that the paramilitaries were
increasingly targeting government officials.
After two years of discussions the Colombian government agreed to create an extrajudicial commission consisting of governmental and non-governmental

representatives. The newly formed Commission found the government responsible

for the actions of the military personnel involved in the Trujillo massacre and
damages were awarded to the victims families. However, those found responsible
for the massacre were never punished due to the fact they had been previously
absolved by the Colombian courts