Background on FARC, U.S. intervention in Colombia

In Colombia, 65 percent of the land is owned by 5 percent of the population, creating an elite ruling class and a poverty-stricken majority. Due to pervasive inequalities, the Colombian people have a long history of resistance to injustice. For decades, Colombian activists have struggled for social change by organizing trade unions, demanding human rights and advocating for land reform. Frequently, they suffer violent repression from the Colombian military and paramilitaries. Discouraged by the lack of progress, thousands have joined the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a 27,000-strong guerilla army formed in 1964.

The U.S. intervenes directly in the Colombian civil war on the side of the wealthy. Since 2000, the Colombian government has received $4.7 billion from the U.S. military aid package “Plan Colombia.” U.S. tax dollars fund a counter-insurgency war against Colombians fighting for social change. Using violence and intimidation, the Colombian army and its paramilitary allies make no distinction between those who choose the political process versus the armed struggle.