Slide show about the FARC

1. Violent Protest Movements
Unit 1
Lesson 15

2. Learning Objectives:
AO1: Demonstrate understanding of relevant source
material.
AO2: Identify and analyse relevant material and
supporting examples.
AO3: Compare and contrast evidence and background
knowledge.

3. ‘One person’s terrorist is another persons
freedom fighter’

4. What do you know about this region
already?
What stereotypes come to mind?

6. Questions to consider:
1. Are the FARC simply just delinquent insurgents who have
lost all personal and institutional ethical boundaries or a
legitimate protest movement fighting on behalf of the
oppressed?
2. YOU are the government of Colombia. How do you go
about solving the problem?

7. FARC - FUERZA ARMADAS
REVOLUCIONARIAS de COLOMBIA
This is an example of a violent protest, which we are focusing on today.
Civil conflict has left 220,000 dead in Colombia and 5, 700, 000 displaced in the
last 50 years.
Territorial disputes between military, leftist rebels and right wing paramilitaries
affect much of the country, especially in rural areas.
Key players - FARC and ELN.
https://youtu.be/SKJblKuj84E
https://youtu.be/P6hbaoCuZHg

8. Brief History
- The FARC and ELN were founded in the 1960s, in the
wake of more than a decade of violence in Colombia.
Known as La Violencia (1948-58)
- Excluded from a power sharing agreement that ended the
fighting, communist guerillas took up arms against the
government.
- FARC was composed of communist militants and peasant
self-defense groups.
- ELN’s ranks were dominated by students, Catholic
radicals, and left-wing intellectuals.

9. Cont…
- Right-wing paramilitary groups formed in the late 1960s
after the Colombian congress passed legislation that
allowed citizens to form local self-defense organisations.
The largest paramilitary group, the United Self-Defense
Forces of Colombia, was on the US State Department’s list of
foreign terrorist organisations until July 2014 - formally
disbanded in 2006, but splinter groups remain.

12. Differentiating FARC and ELN
Some commentators argue that the ELN is more ideological than FARC: Broadly
similar programmes.
- Both oppose US influence in Colombia , the privatization of natural resources,
and rightist violence, and claim to represent the rural poor against Colombia’s
wealthy.
- The FARC is primarily a rural organisation while the ELN’s supporters tend to
be in urban areas. In some parts of the country they cooperate; in others they
have clashed directly.
- Both are designated by US State Department as foreign terrorist
organisations.

14. Questions to consider:
1. Are the FARC simply just delinquent insurgents who have
lost all personal and institutional ethical boundaries or a
legitimate protest movement fighting on behalf of the
oppressed?
2. YOU are the government of Colombia. How do you go
about solving the problem?