SUMMARY
FARC (Fuerzas armadas revolucionarias colombianas - Ejército Popular; Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - Peoples Army) was a guerrilla group formed in 1966 to wage a revolutionary conflict against the Government in Colombia (see Colombia: Government. It has also been involved in non-state conflict with other armed groups in Colombia. In connection to the intra-state and non-state conflicts, FARC has also targeted civilians. In this one-sided violence, FARC has targeted suspected supporters of paramilitary groups, political adversaries, journalists, and certain indigenous groups and local leadership. After demobilized members of EPL (Ejército Popular de Liberación; Popular Liberation Army) formed the party Esperanza, Paz y Libertad (Hope, Peace and Freedom), FARC targeted many of its members and supporters, accusing them of paramilitary ties and of being traitors for abandoning the armed struggle. Between 1994 and 1997, many civilians were targeted and killed in the Urabá region in Antioqua, north-west Colombia, as FARC and paramilitaries struggled for control of the area, ending with the paramilitaries gaining the upper hand. FARC have also killed people for failing to pay “war taxes”, and executed people accused of crimes such as rape or theft after holding extrajudicial, so-called popular trials.
FARC's one-sided violence was further affected by its increasing involvement, from the 1980s on, in large-scale kidnapping and the illegal drug industry. On several occasions, kidnap victims were executed during rescue operations or when attempting to escape. The involvement in the drug industry intensified the fight over territory, in which civilians often became targets. In efforts to take control over territory, FARC has targeted indigenous and local leaders. The weapons used by FARC included gas cylinder bombs, landmines, and other indiscriminate weapons, as well as firearms such as revolvers and assault rifles.
According to human rights workers, FARC has claimed to respect humanitarian law and tried to enforce regulations limiting the harm to civilians; meanwhile, however, they have made statements arguing that international humanitarian law was “open to interpretation” or did not “apply in the Colombian context”, and on many occasions acted in severe violation of humanitarian principles. FARC justified the targeting of civilians believed to be paramilitary supporters by claiming they were to be considered as active protagonists.
FARC first became active as a one-sided actor in UCDP data in 1994, when the one-sided violence resulted in over 25 civilian deaths. The threshold was reached in January that year, when members of FARC's 5th Front opened fire on a group of people holding a fund-raising party, resulting in 35 deaths.
