New strategy for fighting the FARC

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said that the military must widen its list of targets within the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Santos said the middle-ranking members of the rebel group must be targeted in order to prevent them from raising up in the ranks and assuming the positions held by their killed leaders.

“For an organization like the FARC, the middle ranks, those who are just below the Secretariat, are the most important people,” Santos said. “They are the ones making the decision on the ground, and these operations hit them at the very heart of their structure.”

Santos is still adamant that the rebels have been weakened despite the assertions of FARC leader Iván Márquez that the rebel group has not been weakened. These sentiments were issued, however, before the attack this weekend that killed six members of the Colombian military and three members of the FARC.

Other than targeting middle-ranking members of the rebel group, some have suggested that the only way to fight the FARC is through political negotiations.

“The new operation of the security forces indicates that the path left for the FARC is the political negotiations,” according to Jaime Fajardo Landaeta of El Tiempo. President Santos has stated in the past, however, that the FARC must demonstrate that it is serious about gaining peace before peace talks and negotiations can commence. After an attack last month that killed 11 soldiers and the attack this weekend that killed six more soldiers, I believe that the two sides are very far apart, just as Santos said in a television statement last week.

 

FARC leader says group is not weakened

In a video released this weekend, that was reported to have been recorded on March 24, 2012, the leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Iván Márquez, claimed that the rebel group has not been weakened. Márquez also said that the group “continues ready to fight.” The video was released after a campaign by Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos to make the FARC appear weakened.

Just hours after the video was released on Saturday the FARC mounted an ambush against the Colombian military killing six Colombian soldiers. Three of the leftist rebels were also killed during the ambush. A Colombian military patrol was attacked by the rebels as it manned a checkpoint on the road leading from the provincial capital, Quibdo, to Colombia’s second largest city, Medellin, according to BBC News.

The Colombian soldiers were killed by explosive devices, according to Army General Hernan Giraldo.  Three of the rebels were also killed during the clashes Giraldo said.

Last month at least 69 members of the FARC were killed in military actions against the rebel group. Last November top leader Alfonso Cano was also killed during a military action. Despite these losses, Márquez claims the rebels have not been weakened. This operation carried out by the FARC rebels was likely a display of power and a representation that they have not been weakened.

Despite these losses and declarations that lean towards the peaceful end of the table the FARC remains very influential in rural areas of Colombia due to its money gained through the cocaine trade. The rebels have been fighting against the Colombian government for five decades in an attempt to establish a Communist government.

FARC commander Luciano Marín Arango also known as "Iván Márquez"