A History Lesson

A History Lesson 

March 21, 2022

 

My first couple of days in Bogota had taught me that there was more to Colombia than drug cartels, kidnappings, and guerilla fighters, but it was also true that there’s a grim side to Colombia’s history. Alejo referred to the years from 1950s to the present as Colombia’s Dark Ages and he did an excellent job of educating us about Colombia’s complex modern history. In this post, I’ve tried to summarize what I learned. The knowledge I gained gave me a better understanding of Colombian society today.  

 

If you recall from my previous post, the assassination of Liberal party leader Jorge Eliecer Gaitan in 1948 set off violence throughout the country. The unrest lasted until 1957, and during that time, thousands were killed. Several million people living in rural areas were displaced because of the violence. The rival Liberal and Conservative parties agreed to a peace deal in 1958 that called for alternating government power between the two parties every four years. This resulted in a temporary lull in violence. 

 

Following the Cuban revolution (1953-58) Communist ideas were on the rise throughout Latin America, including Colombia. In the 1960s, during the Cold War, the U.S. helped the Colombian government launch military operations against the Communist guerilla groups that were active in the countryside where the majority of the population was rural, poor, and uneducated. The two largest guerilla groups were FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) and ELN (National Liberation Army). They found support from small farmers because of the extreme inequality that existed in land ownership. About 90% of the farmland was owned by 10% of the populace. 

 

Soon, the guerilla groups started to extort money from the farmers. As a result, many more families abandoned their land and fled to Bogota and Medellin. FARC turned to kidnapping relatives of drug lords in the 1970s. In the 1980s, FARC and ELN became involved in the drug trade and organized crime to finance their activities. 

 

As the violence and drug traffic in the country increased, government-sanctioned far-right paramilitary groups formed to protect private property and to fight the guerilla militants. Multinational companies also financed paramilitary groups because the Communists were interfering with their plantations. The paramilitaries even received assistance from the Colombian army. Eventually, the paramilitary groups turned to involvement with the drug cartels to finance their activities. As the paramilitary groups gained more power, violence increased. 

 

The 1990s were a particularly chaotic and violent time since so many different groups were fighting each other: FARC and ELN vs. the paramilitaries vs. the drug cartels vs. the army and the police. Eventually, the government was able to reach a peace agreement with AUC, the largest paramilitary group, and many (but not all) of its members demobilized in the early 2000s. It took longer convince the Communist guerillas to demobilize. In 2010, the Colombian government began five years of peace negotiations with FARC. The resulting agreement included a promise of land reform, guaranteed seats in Congress for FARC, assistance to help farmers switch from growing coca to other crops, and amnesty for FARC members who confess to their crimes. FARC members would agree to give up their weapons and the money they had gained through illegal activities. Some Colombians thought the terms offered by the government were too lenient but others were so weary of the ongoing violence that they were in favor of the deal. 

 

By some estimates, nearly a quarter of a million Colombians have died, 25,000 have disappeared, and another 5 million have been internally displaced since the conflict began in the 1960s. Despite the official peace deals, FARC, ELN, and the paramilitary extremist organizations continue to exist and violence could erupt again. 

 

To make this more than a dry history lesson for us on the tour, OAT arranged for us to meet with two people who were personally involved with the groups mentioned above. Martin and Ana Milena were both recruited in the rural areas where they lived. Martin was in his teens when he joined a Communist guerilla group. Ana Milena was even younger, only 12 years old, when she joined a paramilitary group. Neither had much education and they saw membership in an extremist organization as a way out of a hopeless situation. 

Both made the decision to demobilize after the government brokered peace deals. They faced similar problems of re-entering society. For example, it was hard for both to find employment when they revealed their past activities. They met through a non-profit organization that helps former guerillas and para-militaries. Even though they were on opposite sides of the conflict at one time, they fell in love and are now married. Slowly, over a period of several years, they were able to rebuild their lives. Their story gave us some measure of hope for the future.