Guerrillas in a twist

Birthdays are never easy after 40 and that goes as much for guerrilla groups as it does for the rest of us. Today marks exactly 44 years since the foundation of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC as they’re better known, and the insurgents have never had it quite so bad.



Senior FARC officer Timoleón Jiménez confirms Marulanda's death

The announcement of the death of their leader Pedro Antonio Marín, alias Manuel Marulanda, couldn’t possibly come at a worse time. First of all, in a space of three weeks in March of this year the FARC has lost three of it’s seven-member directorate and saw two senior commanders give themselves up. Meanwhile the information harvested from the computers of the slain commander Raul Reyes has proven equally lethal, leading to the arrest of arms dealers and financiers allied to the FARC as well as embarrassing their most important backer in the region, Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez.

At 78 or 80 years of age, Marín was probably the closest you can get to being a career guerrillero. Born to peasant family in the coffee growing hills of Antioquia, he chose the path of armed resistance to the government, after a political assassination in April 1948 sparked sectarian violence across the country. While Fidel Castro was still only a promising law student in Havana, the teenager Pedro Marín was holed up in the mountains of Colombia and busy earning himself the nickname Tirofijo – or Sureshot.

By the time the government mounted a full-scale offensive against the wily rebel fighter in Marquetalia in 1964, his prowess was already the stuff of legend. According to FARC mythology from May 27 onwards, Marín resisted 16,000 soldiers with only 48 men under their command. The “heroes of Marquetalia” laid the foundation for one the most enduring and brutal guerrilla groups in Latin America.

Together with the Marxist Jacobo Arenas, who would be his political guide and confidant, Marín led the FARC to their apex in the 1990’s when the group claimed to have more than 17,000 men under arms and controlled an area the size of Switzerland. The war on two fronts, fought against the army and paramilitary combatants, was fuelled by drug trafficking and left thousands of civilians dead or maimed by land mines. Peace negotiations in 1999 saw president Andrés Pastrana visiting Marulanda in his jungle home and treating the rebel leader as an equal.

But luring the sly fox from his mountain den proved too much for Pastrana and in 2002 negotiations broke down, leaving the FARC in control of much of the demilitarized zone. The guerrillas, it seemed, had more to gain from confrontation and violence than from any kind of negotiated settlement. Arguably, the same went for the army, which relied and still relies heavily on US-funding.

The election of Álvaro Uribe in 2002 saw a shift in policy against Marulanda’s insurgency group, which turned down an offer to demobilize and cooperate in exchange for lighter prison sentences for the rebels. Since then the FARC has suffered several setbacks, but nothing on the scale of what was to come in March of this year.

The news of Marín’s death is more significant than might have been supposed. Analysts used to hold that he was no more than an ageing figure head, a remnant from the past, ailing away in some jungle camp. But thanks to the documents retrieved from the computers of the slain Raúl Reyes, we now know that he was still very much control of day-to-day operations. Most notably his hand was present in the FARC’s dealings with president Chávez. As a consequence the space he leaves behind will be that much more difficult to fill.

That job has been bequeathed to Guillermo León Sáenz Vargas, alias ‘Alfonso Cano.’ He is widely held to be the leader of the political wing of the FARC and Arenas’s successor, but that doesn't make him soft. Cano has also been indicted by the Colombian judiciary for ordering the killing of 40 fellow guerrilleros, apparently charged with minor infractions.

Although Marulanda’s succession looks straightforward enough, it’s still probable that some form of infighting will ensue. Cano lacks the charisma and reputation of his predecessor. Some of those close to the FARC have suggested with his accession a more ‘political’ period may begin. However, for his position Cano depends on the support of Jorge Briceño, alias ‘Mono Jojoy,’ the guerrilla’s military commander and a ruthless warlord.

Meanwhile, the FARC are at the most vulnerable they’ve been since Marquetalia. Many of the commanders are dissatisfied and face the constant threat of being killed by their own subordinates seeking reward money. That in turn has led to desertions – the most notable was that of the hardened female guerrilla ‘Karina’ last week. She left shortly after her direct superior ‘Ivan Ríos’ was killed by his bodyguard. Desertions among the rank and file are also much more common than before. According to Defence minister Juan Manuel Santos, 1300 rebels have already laid down their weapons in this year alone, many of them veteran fighters.

In any light, the death of Marín marks the end of an era that began with the outbreak of sectarian violence fifty years ago. Now, with their intransigent leader out of the way, a unique chance has opened up for the FARC to finally negotiate a lasting settlement. As far as birthday’s go, peace is the best gift all Colombians could hope for.