Many countries have adversaries because it is part of nature and history, but when countries consider themselves their own enemies within their own borders, that is when external forces must intervene. The United States has some opposition in Middle Eastern countries; African countries have their own neighboring countries that are killing each other; and Mexico, with its war on drugs, is an internal conflict. Many other countries suffer from terrorism. Every nation has an adversary that terrorizes it, even if a nation has its adversary on the same territory. Mexico is not the only country to suffer at the hands of its own people who opposed it. During the year 1964, in Colombia, a group called "Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarios de Colombia", translated as "Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia" (FARC), was created to represent the rural poor of Colombia against depredations economic, the political influence of the United States in the internal affairs of Colombia, the monopolization of natural resources by multinational corporations, the repressive violence of the Colombian state and paramilitary forces against the civilian population. It was also created to overthrow the government and install a Marxist regime. I chose to talk about this topic because I think it's important for people to discover that even countries that aren't talked about much also have terrorists. This topic is important because it will show foreign countries that we must stop the oldest, largest and most capable rebel group in Latin America. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”? Get the original essay For more than forty years, the Colombian government has taken steps to counter the activities of the FARC. With President Alvaro Uribe's new "democratic security", many FARC attacks have declined to their lowest level in the last 10 years ("Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia"). With this new program, several key FARC leaders are imprisoned and some have been killed. There are signs that the FARC's overall command and control capacity has suffered irrevocably. However, the development of Colombia's counterinsurgency war has not been straightforward and has seen more setbacks than improvements. Relations with the FARC and drug traffickers are stronger than before and as long as the flow of drugs is feasible, there will be an inexhaustible amount of money to continue the fighting. The FARC is governed by a General Secretariat led by long-time leaders “Pedro Antonio Marin Marin, alias Manuel Marulanda, Luis Alberto Morantes Jaimes and alias Jacobo Arenas” (“Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia”). There are three other key leaders, Victor Julio Suárez Rojas, aka Mono Jojoy, Guillermo Leon Saenz Vargas, aka Alfonso Cano, and Rodrigo Londono Echeverri, aka Timochenko. Arenas began his political career after two years of service in the Colombian army. He first joined the Liberal Youth Federation, then the Colombian Communist Party. Arenas had urban experiences that developed his Marxist ideology, which pushed him further into politics. Arenas joined Marulanda's movement in the Republic of Marquetalia, after joining the Colombian Communist Party. After the failure of the small republic, Arenas and Marulanda created a small, tightly knit group of revolutionaries, the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarios de Colombia, also known as the FARC, which over the years would grow to become the largest great army ofknown terrorists. Today. Arenas became the group's number two and promoted Marxist ideology in this group. “Marulanda was a great liberator, in the tradition of Simon Bolivar” (Freedom Road Socialist Organization). Marulanda was born into a family that lived in poverty. During the Colombian “La Violencia” period. Manuel Marulanda began his career as a guerrilla, or "warrior", joining Colombia's liberal forces and fighting against the conservatives (Freedom Road Socialist Organization). He founded the Republic of Marquetalia, which was later overthrown by the Colombian army. His death occurred in 2008 following a heart attack he had in a mountainous hideout from American and Colombian authorities. The FARC contributed to numerous attacks against the Colombian army; as well as guerrillas who have engaged in countless incidents of extortion, kidnapping and theft. On August 30, 1996, the FARC attacked the military base “Las Delicias” in Putumayo. Fifty-four Colombian soldiers were killed, fifteen were wounded and sixty were captured. Fifteen hours of fighting resulted in the total destruction of a rural military base. Two years later (1998), the same month, FARC fighters attacked and destroyed another military base in Miraflores, in the southern region of Guaviare. On February 7, 2003, the FARC bombed a club called "El Nogal", killing thirty-six people. Eight days later, the FARC blew up a house near the airport where President Uribe was going to land: seventeen civilians were killed. Police said it was a FARC plan to kill President Uribe. The FARC staged numerous other attacks. A well-known attack attributed to the FARC occurred on May 2 and August 7, 2002. On May 2, the FARC took control of a town called Bojaya, Chocó. Guerrillas killed around 119 civilians. This attack was called the “Bojaya massacre”. On August 7, a few minutes before the inauguration of Alvaro Uribe as president of Colombia, a massacre took place in Bogotá, causing the death of at least fifteen people and injuring at least forty. By the mid-1980s, the FARC had also gained a new means of revenue. Before the 1980s, the FARC relied on collecting "taxes" from marijuana growers, operating large and small businesses, and especially kidnapping for ransom. But by the time of the Seventh Conference in 1972, the FARC had begun taxing cocaine leaf plantations and cocaine laboratories, and had begun experimenting with its own cultivation and processing of the narcotic. However, their involvement in the cocaine trade has drawn scorn from established drug traffickers in the region. Major cocaine traffickers resisted FARC demands and refused to pay the tax to operate. Instead, many began organizing into paramilitary militias to fight FARC control of the region. “According to a 2006 U.S. Department of Justice indictment, the Farc supplies more than 50 percent of the world's cocaine and more than 60 percent of the cocaine entering the United States.” (“Guerrillas in Colombia”). The cocaine trade is by far the FARC's most lucrative form of financing. Peasants began colonizing the Colombian Amazon in the 1950s. Completely ignored by the government, peasant settlers attempted to establish agricultural production in a hostile jungle environment. However, they soon discovered that cocaine was the only product that was both profitable and easy to market. The potential profit of cocaine cultivation, the absolute ease of transportation and marketing and its advantages.