October 11, 2022
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia—People’s Army, better known as the FARC for the casual international affairs reader, is back and in business in Colombia and Venezuela. We thought the early 2000’s peace process stuck and the group disbanded as the reports said that they had, but the reports from Insight Crime is telling us a totally different story.
It’s not as if the time has not passed for the FARC. They can do whatever it is they want, but anything about gaining power in Colombia through violent means is over. It will never happen now that the Cold War is over. Their best bet would have been to transform into a true and proper political organisation.
But we can only hope for the best for Colombia because now more dysfunction has entered into the equation because we now have Venezuela in the mix, providing harbour for FARC members. Most likely they are protecting drug and gold shipments, which would be typical of the situation and times we are now in.
Does Colombian president Petro have what it takes to completely eliminate the FARC? We doubt it, especially when prior to winning office in Colombia it was reported that Petro is a close ally of Venezuelan president Nicholas Maduro. And we all know that Maduro has been labelled as a drug trafficker and corrupt leader by the US. They may call the label unfair, but the US has more standing in this conversation than anyone else.
Will the new presidency of Petro collapse? We are not sure because he is more aligned to the leftist FARC than his predecessor, which may give him some time to govern. But he will have to govern with a growing FARC force in his jungles and on the outskirts of his country.