What is going on in Colombia? What is the situation with the FARC-EP?

Question

What is going on in Colombia? What is the situation with the FARC-EP? What is the situation with the drug cartels and Right-Wing paramilitaries? Any information would be great. Thanks.

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Answer 1

Well, you can read more (if you read Spanish) at http://www.eltiempo.com. Its the daily newspaper for Bogota.

With regard to FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarios Colombiano), yes, they are the most active Guerrilla group in Colombia.

ELN (Ejercito Liberacion Nacional) is the smaller guerrilla group. They are much less active these days, because the army has focused their efforts in the past few years on breaking the back of this rebel group. Enough so that there are often rumors the ELN is trying to negotiate a peace with the government, which is a goal of the gov't (to have a separate peace with ELN, thereby further isolating FARC).

The right-wing paramilitaries (also known as AUC in Spanish, for Auto-defensas Unidos Colombianos). They often received tacit support and behind the scenes collaboration from the government and military. These days, the AUC have largely demobilized. There have been large scale surrenders of weapons, their leaders have agreed to the terms of peace negotiations to demobilize and turn in their weapons and disarm their soldiers. They are definitely not nearly as active as they were 5-10 years ago.

Unfortunately, all 3 groups had their hands in the drug trade, either as active participants or by providing protection in the regions of the country in which the drug cartels operated and in which each rebel group had its strongholds.

I hope this helps. I could write more, but there is much to say and there are still many developments happening there on a regular basis. I would suggest checking the El Tiempo website I listed on a regular basis for Spanish Language updates.

Answer 2

read this magazin semana.com