Analysis Of The FARC: The Longest Insurgency By Gary Leech

Section 1: Identification and Evaluation of Sources

The first source being analysed is “The FARC: The Longest Insurgency” by Gary Leech. The origin of this document is from Gary Leech, an independent journalist and author that writes a lot about social justice. In 2006, he was kidnapped by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia while doing journalism in remote and dangerous parts of Colombia. The purpose of this book was that Leech wanted to give a perspective of the current and previous events going on in Colombia. The contents of this book detail the origins of the organization and its actions up until the present date. The value of this book is that it can depict an outside perspective - an American perspective - of the inner turmoil

President Alvaro Uribe himself talks to the international community about the FARC’s facilitation of the drug trade. Velez states multiple times that they are financed by illicit drugs (Velez, 3). The FARC’s involvement in the drug trade caused it to become a primary target of the “War on Drugs”. The Clinton administration labeled FARC members ‘narco-guerillas’ (Leech 68). The FARC is seen as having been converted from an activist organization to an opportunistic one through the introduction of the drug trade. The FARC’s rapid recruitment did not allow for ideological instruction, therefore changing the makeup of the group (Montoya 32). Finally, there is Plan Colombia, which is a program created by US president Bill Clinton and Colombian president Andres Pastrana that sought to - among other goals - inhibit coca growth and subsequently weaken the FARC through depleting their origin of resources: the drug trade (“Plan Colombia” 1). This plan is further proof that the domestic and international community recognize that this is the main force of the organization. The drug trade allowed for the expansion and equipping of the FARC, but at the same time the FARC had more to deal with because of

The FARC ensures farmers are to be treated better than they would be under the control of paramilitaries. The FARC taxes illegal and legal economic activities alike, and with this income puts it into the hands of peasants. The FARC also played a role in facilitating and regulating illicit drug production without being the actual producers and traffickers in the 1990s. They did this by requiring producers to pay peasants an established amount of money (Leech 62-64) The FARC killed seven peasants and displaced 80 of them in July, 2004.This act of indiscriminate violence in addition to many others that harmed the very people the organization originally pledged to protect, made the FARC lose its favor with many groups. The FARC’s popularity waned due to the well-documented human rights violations (Cunningham 481). The FARC laid thousands of landmines and this now covers 60% of Colombia’s departments. The inspiration for this tactic was taken from the IRA and the ETA, and 7,000 Colombians were injured or killed from 2000-2009 (Crandall 234). The FARC has had a transition to indiscriminate violence. Opportunistic organizations like the FARC are not able to form the social connections necessary to obtain essential information, therefore establishing a cycle of indiscriminate violence. (Montoya 28). The aid has significantly reduced and is replaced by more strife being caused for