72-631: Ongoing [REDACTED] Colombia Colombian drug cartels and paramilitaries Supported by: Contras (1979–90) Mexican drug cartels and paramilitaries Guerrillas [REDACTED] Gustavo Petro (2022–present) FARC : [REDACTED] Timoleón Jiménez [REDACTED] Iván Márquez [REDACTED] Joaquín Gómez [REDACTED] Mauricio Jaramillo [REDACTED] Alfonso Cano † The Colombian conflict ( Spanish : Conflicto armado interno de Colombia , lit. 'Colombian internal armed conflict') began on May 27, 1964, and
144-633: A 6-point plan towards peace and reconciliation . The government also began a process of assistance and reparation for victims of conflict. Recently, U.P. supporters reconstituted the political party, within the process of reconciliation. Colombia's congress approved the revised peace accord . In February 2015, the Historical Commission on the Conflict and its Victims (Comisión Histórica del Conflicto Armado y sus Víctimas – CHCV) published its report entitled "Contribution to an Understanding of
216-488: A FARC offensive that sought to undermine the deliberations of the Constitutional Assembly, began to highlight a significant break in the uneven negotiations carried over from the previous decade. List of ongoing military conflicts The following is a list of ongoing armed conflicts that are taking place around the world. This list of ongoing armed conflicts identifies present-day conflicts and
288-722: A civil war known as La Violencia . Joined by fellow leftists a brutal war was fought for over 10 years leading to the death of 200,000 people and the destruction of much of the country, resulting in a peace settlement and the changing of power to the Colombian Conservative Party to the Colombian Liberal Party and the Colombian Communist Party in 1958. As La Violencia wound down, most self-defense and guerrilla units made up of Liberal Party supporters demobilized, but at
360-683: A day after the Senate also gave its backing. The origin of the armed conflict in Colombia goes back to 1920 with agrarian disputes over the Sumapaz and Tequendama regions. Much of the background of Colombian conflict is rooted in La Violencia , a conflict in which liberal and leftist parties united against the dictator of Colombia, Gustavo Rojas Pinilla . Colombia at the time was a banana republic , dominated by foreign monopolies, specifically,
432-447: A formal break. Jaramillo's death led to a large exodus of UP militants; in addition, by then many FARC cadres who joined the party had already returned to clandestinity, using the UP experience as an argument in favor of revolutionary war. The M-19 and several smaller guerrilla groups were successfully incorporated into a peace process as the 1980s ended and the '90s began, which culminated in
504-558: A letter to the newspaper El Tiempo in which he stated that he imagined "a country with the capacity to forgive", while former Colombian striker Carlos Valderrama was more outspoken in his support, appearing at campaign rallies for the 'Yes' vote and saying he wanted a better country for his children. Cyclist Nairo Quintana , who had won the Vuelta a España and come second in the Tour de France in 2016, asked his fellow Colombians to support
576-613: A peace deal with the FARC between 1999 and 2002. Outside of politics, other well-known Colombians also rejected the peace deal. Novelist and filmmaker Fernando Vallejo , who was born in Colombia but who became a naturalized Mexican citizen in 2007, launched a strong attack against the negotiations during a debate at the World Summit of Art and Culture for Peace in Bogotá on 6 April 2016, describing president Santos as "shameless" and calling
648-552: Is a low-intensity asymmetric war between the government of Colombia , far-right paramilitary groups and crime syndicates , and far-left guerrilla groups, fighting each other to increase their influence in Colombian territory. Some of the most important international contributors to the Colombian conflict include multinational corporations , the United States , Cuba , and the drug trafficking industry. The conflict
720-564: Is historically rooted in the conflict known as La Violencia , which was triggered by the 1948 assassination of liberal political leader Jorge Eliécer Gaitán , and in the aftermath of the anti-communist repression in rural Colombia in the 1960s that led Liberal and Communist militants to re-organize into the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The reasons for fighting vary from group to group. The FARC and other guerrilla movements claim to be fighting for
792-656: The American Mafia moved into drug trafficking in Colombia alongside local marijuana producers. Cocaine and other drugs produced in Colombia were mostly consumed in the US as well as Europe. Organized crime in Colombia grew increasingly powerful in the 1970s and 80s with the introduction of massive drug trafficking to the United States from Colombia. After the Colombian Government dismantled many of
SECTION 10
#1732772458592864-710: The Colombian Army to Ciénaga. After a standoff with the strikers, the Colombian Army shot into the crowd of strikers, killing between 68 and 2,000 people in what became known as the Banana massacre . This led to an outrage in the Colombian Public, creating an explosion of leftists and revolutionary organizations. In Bogota , leftist students protested and organized against the Colombian government, eventually hoping to overthrow it. This opposition to
936-503: The M-19 ended when the guerrillas resumed fighting in 1985. The M-19 claimed that the cease-fire had not been fully respected by official security forces, alleged that several of its members had suffered threats and assaults, and questioned the government's real willingness to implement any accords. The Betancur administration in turn criticized the M-19's actions and questioned its commitment to
1008-984: The Social Party of National Unity , Radical Change , the Independent Movement of Absolute Renovation , the Indigenous Social Alliance Movement , the Green Party of Colombia , the Colombian Conservative Party and the Liberal Party of Colombia . Although, most public figures in Colombia refused to explicitly declare their support for either the 'Yes' or 'No' vote, many indicated their support for 'Yes' through various messages. Colombia's best-known singers Shakira , Carlos Vives , Juanes and Fonseca all posted messages of support and hope for peace on their Twitter accounts. International footballer Falcao wrote
1080-714: The United Fruit Company . The United Fruit Company existed to buy large amounts of agricultural products in Latin America at cheap prices, then resell the crops in foreign markets for inflated amounts. Local farmers were largely impoverished and were forced to grow specific crops, creating a monoculture in which farmers depended on the company for all food, products and wages. The United Fruit Company would usually pay their workers in coupons , worthless outside company stores, which would further charge extravagant prices compared to what workers earned. Further,
1152-538: The Uppsala Conflict Data Program . The 20 conflicts in the following list have caused at least 100, and fewer than 1,000, direct, violent deaths in the current or previous calendar year. The 15 conflicts in the following list have caused fewer than 100 direct, violent deaths in the current or previous calendar year. 2016 Colombian peace agreement referendum [REDACTED] [REDACTED] The Colombian peace agreement referendum
1224-493: The Vietnam War . By 1974, another challenge to the state's authority and legitimacy had come from the 19th of April Movement (M-19), leading to a new phase in the conflict. The M-19 was a mostly urban guerrilla group, founded in response to an alleged electoral fraud during the final National Front election of Misael Pastrana Borrero (1970–1974) and the forced removal of former President Gustavo Rojas Pinilla . By 1982,
1296-639: The 1960s that led Liberal and Communist militants to re-organize into the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The aim of the vote was the direct approval or rejection by voters of the agreements signed between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in Cartagena de Indias , 27 September 2016. The peace negotiations began on 26 August 2012, in Havana , and concluded on 25 August 2016. The final agreement included topics of rural reform, political participation,
1368-477: The 7.6 million registered victims of the conflict are children, and since 1985, 8,000 minors have disappeared. A Special Unit was created to search for persons deemed as missing within the context of and due to the armed conflict. As of April 2022, the Single Registry of Victims reported 9,263,826 victims of the Colombian conflict, with 2,048,563 of them being children. Approximately 80% of those killed in
1440-488: The Armed Conflict in Colombia". The document addresses the "multiple reasons for the conflict, the principle factors and circumstances that made it possible and the most notable impacts on the population", and explains Colombia's armed conflict in terms of international law. During this period, the main conflict in Colombia was between leftist guerillas and the central government. Key concerns included access to land,
1512-443: The Colombian Government exploded in 1948, upon hearing of the assassination of socialist candidate Jorge Eliécer Gaitán , many poor workers saw the death of Gaitán as political assassination orchestrated by the rich. Workers began rioting and destroying the Colombian capital Bogota, leading to the death of 4,000 people. When news of the death of Gaitán reached the countryside, the local militias were furious and immediately started
SECTION 20
#17327724585921584-476: The FARC "thugs". The strongly religious footballer Daniel Alejandro Torres , a regular starter in the Colombia national football team during 2016, published a video on his Instagram account in which he accused Santos of not placing Jesus at the heart of the negotiations. Jhon Jairo Velásquez (known as "Popeye"), the former hitman for Pablo Escobar and the Medellín drug cartel, also expressed his opposition to
1656-487: The FARC-founded Patriotic Union had been murdered, according to historian Daniel Pecáut, leading up to that year's assassination of presidential candidate Bernardo Jaramillo Ossa . The Colombian government initially blamed drug lord Pablo Escobar for the murder but journalist Steven Dudley argues that many in the UP pointed at then-Interior Minister Carlos Lemos Simmonds for publicly calling out
1728-512: The FARC. Uribe was supported by senior members of his Democratic Center party, including the 2014 presidential candidate Óscar Iván Zuluaga , 2014 vice-presidential candidate Carlos Holmes Trujillo, and then-senator and eventual president Iván Duque Márquez. The party presented several arguments against the peace deal, among them that the guerrillas would not serve time in prison, that they would automatically be awarded ten seats in Congress, that
1800-418: The M-19 in particular, were considered highly questionable both inside and outside Colombian circles due to numerous accusations of military human rights abuses against suspects and captured guerrillas. Citizen exhaustion due to the conflict's newfound intensity led to the election with 47% of the popular vote of President Belisario Betancur (1982–1986), a Conservative. Betancur directed peace feelers at all
1872-611: The Senate, nine in the lower Chamber) in 1988. According to journalist Steven Dudley, who interviewed ex-FARC as well as former members of the UP and the Communist Party, FARC leader Jacobo Arenas insisted to his subordinates that the UP's creation did not mean that the group would lay down its arms; neither did it imply a rejection of the Seventh Conference's military strategy. Pecáut states that new recruits entered
1944-501: The U.S. government and from critical sectors of Colombian society who supported the extradition of suspected Colombian cartel members to the U.S. The cartels responded by bribing or murdering numerous public officials, politicians and others. Their victims included Justice Minister Rodrigo Lara Bonilla , whose assassination in 1984 led the Betancur administration to confront the drug lords directly. The first negotiated cease-fire with
2016-485: The UP as the "political wing of FARC" shortly before the murder, while others claimed it was the result of an alliance between Fidel Castaño , members of the Colombian military and the DAS . Pecáut and Dudley argue that significant tensions had emerged between Jaramillo, FARC and the Communist Party due to the candidate's recent criticism of the armed struggle and their debates over the rebels' use of kidnapping, almost leading to
2088-495: The United Fruit Company interests in the country being threatened by the government would result in it being overturned in a company backed coup. It propped up friendly puppet politicians and supported right-wing militias to maintain power. Workers would often organize and strike against these conditions, and would form local militias against the United Fruit Company . This would often lead to conflict between
2160-423: The accord. Attitudes among Colombians were aligned to support for Santos or Uribe: those who supported Uribe's party and his preferred candidates showed lower support for the peace process, while those who supported Santos did the opposite. It was also noted that the support for the peace process was lower if specific policies were linked to the FARC. The following table shows the results of opinion polling from
2232-490: The battle between communist and far right ideologies, and the marginalisation of peasant populations. In the early 1960s, Colombian Army units loyal to the National Front began to attack peasant communities. This happened throughout Colombia with the Colombian army considering that these peasant communities were enclaves for bandits and Communists. It was the 1964 attack on the community of Marquetalia that motivated
Colombian conflict - Misplaced Pages Continue
2304-491: The complex negotiations with the guerrillas, also inherited a particularly chaotic confrontation against the drug lords, who were engaged in a campaign of terrorism and murder in response to government moves in favor of their extradition overseas. In June 1987, the ceasefire between FARC and the Colombian government formally collapsed after the guerrillas attacked a military unit in the jungles of Caquetá. According to journalist Steven Dudley, FARC founder Jacobo Arenas considered
2376-514: The conflict between 1958 and 2013, most of them civilians (177,307 civilians and 40,787 fighters), and more than five million civilians were forced from their homes between 1985 and 2012, generating the world's second-largest population of internally displaced persons (IDPs). 16.9% of the population in Colombia has been a direct victim of the war. 2.3 million children have been displaced from their homes, and 45,000 children killed, according to national figures cited by UNICEF . In total, one in three of
2448-517: The conflict have been civilians. In 2022 the Truth Commission of Colombia estimated that paramilitaries were responsible for 45% of civilian deaths, the guerrillas for 27% and state forces for 12%, with the remaining 16% attributable to other groups or mixed responsibility. On June 23, 2016, the Colombian government and the FARC rebels signed a historic ceasefire deal, bringing them closer to ending more than five decades of conflict. Although
2520-518: The country during the rest of the 1960s. The Colombian government organized several short-lived counter-guerrilla campaigns in the late 1950s and early 1960s. These efforts were aided by the U.S. government and the CIA , which employed hunter-killer teams and involved U.S. personnel from the previous Philippine campaign against the Huks , and which would later participate in the subsequent Phoenix Program in
2592-523: The country supported the Yes vote, and voted accordingly, although some were critical of having been excluded from the peace process. The most prominent campaigner for the 'No' vote was current senator and former president Álvaro Uribe . Uribe built his career, including two terms as president, on promises to tackle the guerrilla groups in the country, and had been an outspoken critic of Santos, his successor as president, ever since Santos began negotiations with
2664-474: The creation of the FARC ). In the mid-1980s, Colombia granted greater political and fiscal autonomy to local governments. This strengthened the government's position in more remote regions. In 1985, during peace talks with then-President Belisario Betancur , the FARC created the left-wing Patriotic Union party as a route from violence to mainstream politics. Between 1985 and 2002, 4,153 members and supporters of
2736-424: The date of the announcement of the wording of the referendum question on 30 August 2016 up to the date of the referendum on 2 October 2016. Following the rejection, then-FARC commander-in-chief Timoleón Jiménez reaffirmed that the group was committed to peace. On 5 October 2016, thousands of citizens took to the streets across 14 cities to protest against the referendum result. A 2018 study suggested one of
2808-484: The deal was rejected in the subsequent October plebiscite , the same month, the then Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to bring the country's more than 50-year-long civil war to an end. A revised peace deal was signed the following month and submitted to Congress for approval. The House of Representatives unanimously approved the plan on November 30,
2880-518: The deal would legalize narcotrafficking, and that in pursuing the negotiations Santos had gone beyond the terms of the Colombian constitution. Other senior political figures who spoke out against the peace accord were conservative former Inspector General Alejandro Ordóñez, who feared it would legitimize violence within the country, and former president Andrés Pastrana , rejecting the position of his own Conservative Party . As Uribe's predecessor as president, Pastrana had himself attempted to negotiate
2952-514: The death toll associated with each conflict. The criteria of inclusion are the following: The 6 conflicts in the following list have caused at least 10,000 direct, violent deaths per year in battles between identified groups, in the current or previous calendar year. The 15 conflicts in the following list have caused at least 1,000 and fewer than 10,000 direct, violent deaths in the current or previous calendar year. Conflicts causing at least 1,000 deaths in one calendar year are considered wars by
Colombian conflict - Misplaced Pages Continue
3024-469: The decade of mutual violence and unrest, remaining in effect until 1974. Colombia has a long history of political violence. Land, power, and wealth are unevenly distributed, and many rural citizens are used to fending for themselves. There is no consensus about the date on which the conflict began, with some saying 1958 (with the start of the Frente Nacional (National Front)) and others 1964 (with
3096-493: The drug cartels that appeared in the country during the 1980s, left-wing guerrilla groups and rightwing paramilitary organizations resumed some of their drug-trafficking activities and resorted to extortion and kidnapping for financing, activities which led to a loss of support from the local population. These funds helped finance paramilitaries and guerrillas, allowing these organizations to buy weapons which were then sometimes used to attack military and civilian targets. During
3168-452: The elections for a Constituent Assembly of Colombia that would write a new constitution, which took effect in 1991. Contacts with the FARC, which had irregularly continued despite the end of the ceasefire and the official 1987 break from negotiations, were temporarily cut off in 1990 under the presidency of César Gaviria Trujillo (1990–1994). The Colombian Army's assault on the FARC's Casa Verde sanctuary at La Uribe , Meta , followed by
3240-598: The end of hostilities, solutions to the production of illicit drugs, the rights of victims, and the mechanisms of implementation and verification. On 18 July 2016 the Constitutional Court approved the holding of a national plebiscite to validate the peace agreement. The ballot paper consisted of a single question for voters and that being whether to approve or reject the signed peace agreements: ¿Apoya el acuerdo final para terminación del conflicto y construcción de una paz estable y duradera? (Do you support
3312-468: The ensuing crossfire some 120 people lost their lives, including most of the guerrillas (several high-ranking operatives among them) and 12 Supreme Court Judges. Both sides blamed each other for the bloodbath, which marked the end of Betancur's peace process. Meanwhile, individual FARC members initially joined the UP leadership in representation of the guerrilla command, though most of the guerrilla's chiefs and militiamen did not demobilize nor disarm, as that
3384-427: The final agreement to end the conflict and build a stable and lasting peace?) For the agreement to be approved, the "Yes" votes had to account for at least 13% of the electorate (i.e., 4,396,626 votes out of a total of 34,899,945 registered voters ) and outnumber the "No" votes. President Juan Manuel Santos , who was a promoter of the peace talks, announced the support for the 'Yes' option. The 'Yes' campaign received
3456-418: The guerrilla army and its urban militia units during this period, and that the FARC continued to carry out kidnappings and to target regional politicians for assassination. In October 1987 Jaime Pardo Leal , who had been the UP's presidential candidate the previous year, was assassinated amid a wave of violence in which thousands of the party's members perished at the hands of death squads. According to Pecáut,
3528-455: The incident to be a "natural" part of the truce and reiterated the group's intention to continue the dialogue, but President Barco sent an ultimatum to the guerrillas and demanded that they immediately disarm or face military retaliation. Regional guerrilla and Army skirmishes created a situation where each violation of the ceasefire rendered it null in each location, until it was rendered practically nonexistent. By 1990, at least 2,500 members of
3600-406: The insurgents, and negotiated a 1984 cease-fire with the FARC at La Uribe , Meta , after a 1982 release of many guerrillas imprisoned during the previous effort to overpower them. A truce was also arranged with the M-19. The ELN , however, rejected any negotiations and continued to rebuild through the use of extortion and threats, in particular against oil companies of European and U.S. origin. At
3672-404: The killers included members of the military and the political class who had opposed Betancur's peace process and considered the UP to be little more than a "facade" for the FARC, as well as drug traffickers and landowners who were also involved in the establishment of paramilitary groups. The Virgilio Barco Vargas (1986–1990) administration, in addition to continuing to handle the difficulties of
SECTION 50
#17327724585923744-563: The later creation of FARC. Despite the infantry and police encirclement of the villages inside Marquetalia (3500 men swept through the area), Manuel Marulanda managed to escape the army cordon. Unlike the rural FARC, which had roots in the previous Liberal peasant struggles, the ELN was mostly an outgrowth of university unrest and would subsequently tend to follow a small group of charismatic leaders, including Camilo Torres Restrepo . Both guerrilla groups remained mostly operational in remote areas of
3816-446: The party were kidnapped and murdered by right-wing paramilitaries, with government support. This included two presidential candidates, 6 out of 16 congressmen, 17 regional representatives and 163 councilmen. These killings aggravated the conflict. In the 1980s, drug trafficking increased, bringing a concomitant increase in violence. Trafficking had begun in the 1960s and 70s, when a group of Americans began to smuggle marijuana . Later,
3888-433: The peace accord, describing it as "a step we had to take". Novelist Héctor Abad Faciolince , whose father Héctor Abad Gómez had been murdered for his stance on human rights, expressed his happiness that an accord had been reached. Internationally renowned sculptor Fernando Botero sent a sculpture of a white dove to the Colombian presidential palace, created in his signature "fat" style of portraying people and animals. It
3960-650: The peace process, while at the same time continuing to advance high-profile negotiations with the FARC. These negotiations led to the creation of the Patriotic Union ( Unión Patriótica ) -UP-, a legal and non-clandestine political organization. On November 6, 1985, the M-19 stormed the Colombian Palace of Justice and held the Supreme Court magistrates hostage, intending to put President Betancur on trial. The military responded with force and in
4032-508: The perceived passivity of the FARC, together with the relative success of the government's efforts against the M-19 and the ELN, enabled the administration of the Liberal Party's Julio César Turbay Ayala (1978–82) to lift a state-of-siege decree that had been in effect, on and off, for most of the previous 30 years. Under the latest such decree, President Turbay had implemented security policies that, though of some military value against
4104-497: The presidency of Álvaro Uribe , the government applied more military pressure on the FARC and other outlawed far-left groups. After the offensive, many security indicators improved. As part of a controversial peace process, the AUC (right-wing paramilitaries) as a formal organization had ceased to function. Colombia achieved a great decrease in cocaine production, leading White House drug czar R. Gil Kerlikowske to announce that Colombia
4176-401: The reasons for the "No" vote may have been a difficulty in comprehending the language of the agreements. On the day of the referendum Hurricane Matthew caused widespread flooding along Colombia's northern coastal region, with the result that many people were unable to go out and vote in a region which strongly backed the "Yes" vote: it has been suggested that this may also have been a factor in
4248-440: The recognition of farmers and tenants as employees with legal rights. The strike quickly grew becoming the largest strike in all of Colombia's history, with many socialists , anarchists, marxists and leftists joining and organizing the strike. The United Fruit Company demanded that the workers disband and the union should disband. Following several weeks of failed negotiations, the Colombian government of Miguel Abadía Méndez sent
4320-455: The rights of the poor in Colombia to protect them from government violence and to provide social justice through communism . The Colombian government claims to be fighting for order and stability, and to protect the rights and interests of its citizens. The paramilitary groups claim to be reacting to perceived threats by guerrilla movements. According to a study by Colombia's National Centre for Historical Memory , 220,000 people have died in
4392-560: The same time as these developments, the growing illegal drug trade was becoming increasingly important to all participants in the Colombian conflict. Guerrillas and newly wealthy drug lords had mutually uneven relations and numerous incidents occurred between them. Eventually the kidnapping of drug cartel family members by guerrillas led to the creation in 1981 of the Muerte a Secuestradores ("Death to Kidnappers") death squad (MAS). The Medellín Cartel and other cartels came under pressure from
SECTION 60
#17327724585924464-465: The same time some former liberals and active communist groups continued operating in several rural enclaves. One of the Liberal bands was a group known as the "Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia" (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia), or FARC, formed by Pedro Antonio Marin in 1964, FARC was founded out of fighters unhappy with the peace settlement. The goal of the FARC, among other things,
4536-482: The support of many members of the Colombian community from the political left ( Gustavo Petro , César Gaviria , Antonio Navarro Wolff , Piedad Cordoba ), centre ( Antanas Mockus , Sergio Fajardo , Lucho Garzon , Claudia López Hernández ) and right ( German Vargas Lleras , Enrique Peñalosa , Mauricio Cárdenas ). The political parties that were in favour are the Alternative Democratic Pole ,
4608-438: The system of employment was usually one in which farmers would be forced to sell their property to the United Fruit Company, and ended up having to work on the land, becoming indebted to the company and having to pay it back. The United Fruit Company would hire private militaries to enforce its power. Their purpose was to put down worker calls for reform, destroy unions, and put down worker revolutions . Any potential threat to
4680-552: The two sides. This culminated in a strike in November 1928 by farmers in Ciénaga for better working conditions. The striking workers called for an end to temporary contracts, the creation of mandatory worker insurance, the creation of compensation for work accidents, the creation of hygienic dormitories, the 6 day work weeks, the implementation of a minimum wage , the abolishment of wages through company coupons and office stores, and
4752-581: The year 2008. During these years the military forces of the Republic of Colombia were strengthened. The Peace process in Colombia , 2012 refers to the dialogue in Havana, Cuba between the Colombian government and guerrilla of FARC-EP with the aim to find a political solution to the armed conflict. After almost four years of peace negotiations, the Colombian state and the FARC announced consensus on
4824-459: Was accompanied by a message that he had wanted to create "this present for my country in order to express my support and my solidarity with this [peace] process". A Twitter campaign to promote the peace process outside Colombia, entitled "#Peace4Colombia", attracted the support of Colombian-born Hollywood actor John Leguizamo and Spanish singer Miguel Bosé , who holds honorary Colombian nationality. Most displaced Colombian victims living outside of
4896-480: Was compared to the outcome of the Brexit referendum and Donald Trump 's victory in the 2016 U.S. presidential election , both also held in 2016. The conflict is historically rooted in a period of Colombian history known as La Violencia , which was triggered by the 1948 assassination of liberal political leader Jorge Eliécer Gaitán , and in the aftermath of the anti-communist repression in rural Colombia in
4968-420: Was held on 2 October 2016, aiming to ratify the final agreement on the termination of the Colombian conflict between the Colombian government and the FARC guerillas. It failed, with 50.2% voting against it and 49.8% voting in favor. Approval of the referendum was taken for granted in Colombia prior to the vote based on opinion polls. However, the 'No' option ended up winning by a narrow margin. The result
5040-400: Was no longer the world's biggest producer of cocaine. The United States is still the world's largest consumer of cocaine and other illegal drugs. In February 2008, millions of Colombians demonstrated against the FARC and other outlawed groups. The Colombian Ministry of Defense reported 19,504 deserters from the FARC between August 2002 and their collective demobilization in 2017, peaking in
5112-616: Was not a requirement of the process at that point in time. Tension soon significantly increased, as both sides began to accuse each other of not respecting the cease-fire. According to historian Daniel Pecáut, the creation of the Patriotic Union took the guerrillas' political message to a wider public outside of the traditional communist spheres of influence and led to local electoral victories in regions such as Urabá and Antioquia, with their mayoral candidates winning 23 municipalities and their congressional ones gaining 14 seats (five in
5184-468: Was redistribution of land that would benefit poor peasant farmers like Marin, along with the desire to establish a socialist state. In 1958, an exclusively bipartisan political alternation system, known as the National Front, resulted from an agreement between the Liberal and Conservative parties. The agreement had come as a result of the two parties attempting to find a final political solution to
#591408