COLOMBIA ― FARC
— Status: Not democratic; apparently defunct.
— Governing party: Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia.
— Head of government: Rodrigo Londoño Echeverri (Timochenko).
— Recent history: Much of its territory, an enclave controlled by force and then partially ceded to it during negotiations under Colombia-Bogotá president Andrés Pastrana (1998-2002), has recently been seized by Colombia-Bogotá in response to the stalling of peace talks. The FARC threatened attacks against communities voting for rightist Álvaro Uribe Vélez in the campaign of 2002. They have also in recent years forced the resignation of more than a hundred officials through threats on their lives, and taken hundreds of hostages, including political opponents, and have executed some of them. Colombia-Bogotá succeeded in killing Raúl Reyes in 2008, at the time a rare combat death for a high-ranking FARC leader; his computers seemed to indicate an alliance with Hugo Chávez. Shortly after, FARC confirmed the death of founding leader Pedro Antonio Marín Marín (Manuel Marulanda), who had frequently been rumored dead before. In 2010, military commander Víctor Julio Suárez Rojas (Mono Jojoy) was killed in combat; in 2011, Marulanda’s successor Guillermo León Sáenz Vargas (Alfonso Cano) was also killed. After years of negotiations, FARC agreed a deal with Colombia-Bogotá for a permanent end to the conflict; it was originally rejected narrowly in a 2016 referendum, but then ratified by the legislature in Bogotá. FARC formed a political party pursuant to the deal, the Fuerza Alternativa Revolucionaria del Común, or Comunes.
— Updated: 2021 June 18.
O.T. FORD