Topic > Terorrismo: repressive violence in the Colombian state

There are many countries that have adversaries because it is part of nature and history, but when countries consider themselves enemies within their own borders, it is when the forces external parties must intervene. The United States has some opposition in Middle Eastern countries; African countries have their own countries bordering Africa that kill each other; and Mexico with its war on drugs is an internal conflict. There are many other countries suffering from terrorism. Every nation has an adversary that terrifies it, even when a nation has its adversary in the same land. Mexico is not the only country suffering from its own people turning against them. During the year 1964 in Colombia, a group called “Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarios de Colombia”, translated as “Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia” (FARC), was founded to represent the poor of rural Colombia from economic depredations, political influence of the United States in Colombia's internal affairs, the monopolization of natural resources by multinationals, the repressive violence of the Colombian state and paramilitary forces against the civilian population. It was also created to overthrow the government and establish a Marxist regime. I chose to talk about this topic because I find it important for people to discover that even countries that aren't talked about much have terrorists. This topic is significant because it will show foreign countries that we must stop the oldest, largest and most capable rebel group in Latin America. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essayFor over forty years, the Colombian government has intervened to counter the activities of the FARC. With President Alvaro Uribe's new “Democratic Security”, many FARC attacks have decreased to their lowest level in 10 years (“Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia”). With this new program several key FARC leaders are imprisoned and some have been killed. There have been some signs that the FARC's overall command and control capability has suffered irrevocably. However, the development of the Colombian counterinsurgency warfare was not simple and had more setbacks than improvements. The relationship with the FARC and drug traffickers is stronger than before and as long as the flow of drugs is viable, there will be an endless supply of money to keep fighting. The FARC is governed by a general secretariat headed by long-time leaders "Pedro Antonio Marin Marin, alias Manuel Marulanda, Luis Alberto Morantes Jaimes and alias Jacobo Arenas" ("Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia"). There are three other key leaders, Victor Julio Suárez Rojas, alias Mono Jojoy, Guillermo Leon Saenz Vargas, alias Alfonso Cano, and Rodrigo Londono Echeverri, alias Timochenko. Arenas began his political career after two years of service in the Colombian army. He joined first the Liberal Youth Federation and then the Colombian Communist Party. Arenas had urban experiences that developed his Marxist ideology, which pushed him further into politics. Arenas joined the Marulanda movement in the Marquetalia Republic, after joining the Colombian Communist Party. After the failure of the small republic, Arenas and Marulanda created a small and close-knit group of revolutionaries, the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarios de Colombia, also known as FARC, which over the years this group will expand to become the largest army of terrorists known. Today. Arenas became the number two man in the group and promoted Marxist ideology in this group. “Marulanda was a Great Liberator, in the traditionof Simon Bolivar” (Socialist Organization of the Way of Freedom). Marulanda was born into a family that lived in poverty. During the Colombia “La Violencia” period. Manuel Marulanda began his career as a guerrilla, or "warrior", who joined the Colombian liberal forces and fought against the conservatives (Freedom Road Socialist Organization). He founded the Marquetalia Republic which was later quashed by the Colombian army. His death occurred in 2008 due to a heart attack received in a mountain refuge by the authorities of the United States and Colombia. The FARC contributed to numerous attacks against the Colombian army; as well as the guerrillas involved in countless episodes of extortion, kidnapping and robbery. On August 30, 1996, the FARC attacked the “Las Delicias” military base in Putumayo. Fifty-four Colombian soldiers were killed, fifteen wounded and sixty were captured. Fifteen hours of fighting led to the complete destruction of one of the army's rural bases. Two years later (1998), in the same month, FARC fighters attacked and destroyed another military base in Miraflores, in the southern region of Guaviare. On February 7, 2003, the FARC blew up a club called “El Nogal,” killing thirty-six people. Eight days later, the FARC blew up a house near the airport where President Uribe was about to land: killing seventeen civilians. The police said it was a FARC plan to kill President Uribe. There have been many other attacks organized by the FARC. A well-known attack that the FARC blamed occurred on May 2 and August 7, 2002. On May 2, the FARC took control of a town called Bojaya, Chocó. There were guerrillas that killed around 119 civilians. This attack was called the “Bojaya massacre”. On August 7, a few minutes before Álvaro Uribe was inaugurated as president of Colombia, a massacre occurred in Bogotá that caused the death of at least fifteen people and the wounding of at least forty. By the mid-1980s, the FARC had also gained a new means of income. Before the 1980s, the FARC relied on collecting "taxes" from marijuana growers, exploiting small and large businesses, and especially kidnapping for ransom. But by the time of the Seventh Conference in 1972, the FARC had allegedly begun taxing cocaine leaf plantations and cocaine laboratories, and had begun experimenting with its own cultivation and processing of the narcotic. However, their involvement in cocaine trafficking drew scorn from established drug traffickers in the region. Large cocaine traffickers resisted FARC demands and refused to pay taxes to operate. Instead, many began organizing into paramilitary militias to counter FARC control of the region. “According to a 2006 U.S. Department of Justice indictment, the FARC supplies more than 50 percent of the world's cocaine and more than 60 percent of the cocaine entering the United States.” (“Guerrilla groups in Colombia”). Cocaine trafficking was by far the most profitable form of financing for the FARC. Farmers began colonizing the Colombian Amazon in the 1950s. Utterly ignored by the government, peasant settlers sought to establish agricultural production in a hostile jungle environment. However, they soon discovered that cocaine was the only product that was profitable and easy to market. The profit potential of cocaine cultivation, the sheer ease of transportation and marketing, and its comparative advantages over legal crops have fueled a wave of immigration to the region. From that moment on,.