Changing the dynamic of the war, a major military development that started in Uribe’s presidency, and for which Uribe lobbied, was that the United States provided the Colombian Armed Forces smart-bomb kits via a then-covert joint Central Intelligence … [Continue reading]
9) Human Rights
In over a half-century of war, no Colombian warring group is clean of committing horrors, and there are ample examples to point fingers. Human-rights groups blame “paramilitaries” for committing the big majority of massacres in Colombia’s armed … [Continue reading]
10) Why Is the FARC Still in Arms? Its Roots, What Does It Want?
The FARC has made clear that its goal remains being to achieve power, though it says that its future is to try to do so via the ballot box in an electoral system it wants to be fortified with measures “to level the playing field” and make amends for … [Continue reading]
11) What about FARC Weapons? What about the Colombian Armed Forces after an Overall Peace Accord Is Signed?
FARC guerrillas from bottom to top have an apparently deeply ingrained psychological dependence on their FARC-issued personal firearms as their ultimate self-protection, and this appears to be having a substantial influence on the issue of the FARC’s … [Continue reading]
12) Would There Be Armed Dissident or Splinter Groups Peeling Away from the FARC after an Overall Peace Accord?
The FARC’s political-military structure has shown high levels of cohesion, due in great part to its “no-nonsense” Marxist-Leninist discipline. Evidence of this is precisely its unilateral cease-fires, which have been rated by independent or … [Continue reading]