The FARC: The Longest Insurgency

by Garry Leech

Garry Leech has written the definitive introduction to the FARC, examining the group's origins, aims, and ideology, and looking at its organizational and operational structures. The book also investigates the FARC's impact on local, regional, and global politics and explores its future direction.

'Rebels' is an exciting and innovative new series looking at contemporary rebel groups and their place in global politics. Written by leading experts, the books serve as definitive introductions to the individual organizations, whilst seeking to place them within a broader geographical and political framework. They examine the origins, ideology and future direction of each group, whilst posting such questions as 'When does a "rebel" political movement become a "terrorist" organization?' and 'What are the social-economic drivers behind political violence?'.

Provocative and original, the series is essential reading for anyone interested in how rebel groups operate today.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Politics, War, Latin American History

192 pages, Paperback

First published May 12, 2011

About the author

Garry Leech is an independent journalist and author whose work is rooted in the global struggle for social justice. He also teaches international politics at Cape Breton University in Nova Scotia, Canada.

Reviews

[Uuu Ooo Bbb · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is a good introduction to FARC.
It gives a good overview of the political situation in Colombia which led to the birth of FARC. It describes the history of the group and the conditions which give them continuing support among Colombian peasantry and the struggle to continue. It is written from a left perspective sympathetic with the guerillas.
At the same time it is not uncritical of them. It discusses in depth the main criticisms of the organisation: the involvement in drug trade (or more accurately the coca leaf manufacturing); and the human rights violations through kidnappings, recruitment of minors as soldiers, and use of landmines.
In case of cocaine the author explain economic conditions which led to the Colombian cocaine boom, to what extent the peasants and the FARC are involved in coca growth and processing. He also explains the political and economic reasons for the government of Colombia as well as the United States to try to portrait the insurgency as a drug cartel.
In case of the the human rights violations, we're presented with a view of a peasant led insurgency fighting against, increasingly strong armed forces heavily subsidised by the USA, and paramilitaries funded by the Colombian ruling class. The author doesn't deny the violations committed by FARC but show them in the context, as well as balanced against much more numerous human right violations committed by other actors in the conflict.
The book is brief which is it's strength but also a weakness as often the information given is very cursory and could be expanded.

[Kriegslok · Rating 4 out of 5]

The FARC or Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia were one of the longest continually fighting revolutionary groups in the the world. In the time FARC was struggling to overthrow the regime in Bogota other revolutions rose and fell and world political systems collapsed. However, as FARC stated at the time of the collapse of the Soviet Bloc 'The validity of the armed struggle is not determined by whether the Berlin Wall fell or not; it is determined by the reality of our country and here, the political, economic and social disequilibrium and the state violence that impelled the rebellion, continue in place.' As this excellent and highly readable book shows the conditions in Colombia which sparked and maintained this long lived uprising were very much country specific. This disparities between the centre and the periphery and the vastness of the country were ideal for creating conditions for a prolonged popular struggle in which the rebels were widely regarded and could be presented as a lawless violent other. This book goes a long way (although now too late) to redressing the balance for a curious readership. The harsh realities of state terror aligned with business supported by a United States hostile to any challenge to their banana republics which drove people from their land and homes, into the rain-forest where they organised their self defense and gradually became an army which could resist their oppressors is well explored. Inevitably the control of media by the Colombian state and international spin provided by its US sponsor meant that FARC was presented internationally as a bunch of terrorists, narco-traffickers etc as the bogeyman of the day suited. The narco-trafficking in Colombia has been covered in more detail elsewhere but the delicate relationship between FARC and the drugs trade is explored here, a situation in which FARC extracted taxes from narco-traffickers and protected coca leaf farmers livelihoods. As described here the US 'War on Drugs' acted as a means of supplying direct and barely covert direct military support to the Colombian state in its war on its people while the government death squads were able to continue to profit from their running of drug cartels virtually undisputed. The failed attempts by Colombian civil society to engage in political reform are covered and demonstrate perhaps better than anything why FARC lasted for so long being met on each occasion with state duplicity and massacre of activists. Undoubtedly things went wrong in FARC, people and units went rouge, command and control under the conditions that existed proved a challenge to the leadership. FARC also suffered from an effective state and rightwing death squad run false-flag campaign as well as their brutal suppression of anyone who could be remotely considered leftitst. The rise of neoliberalism and the all out assault by international capital and corporations with the protection of the US continued and continues now at the expense of the same people who struggled so many years under the FARC banner. The book ends before FARCs decision to end its struggle and like so many Central and South American guerrilla organisations try its hand on the uneven and loaded field of liberal democracy. It is though a good and thorough study of the organisation and goes some way to blowing away myths and setting the record straight.

[Igor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good summary.

[Rob M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant, concise, accessible introduction to a complex and multifaceted subject area.

The author encourages the reader to understand the FARC in their social and historical context, as well as in terms of how they understand themselves.

[Nate Golden · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not that well written but informative enough to take me on educational side quests.

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book as an outsider on the basic level that I'd never even heard of the FARC before and have minimal knowledge of South American politics though I am interested. I found the book well written, informative, and to the point, an excelent read, though I can't state it's factual accuracy obviously.

The book is short, which works in it's favour as it's very concise, which is a selling point as non-fiction books tend to be long and heavy. It takes a very narative view of events, taking several strains such as the politics of the group and focusing a chapter on them, progressing it as a narrative from the origins though the recent history of the group. The main focus is the very recent history and I felt that was executed very well, a lot of effort is taken to place the struggle not just as an internal war but in the context of the larger global econonmy and to draw attention to the consequences for Colombia of international laws and policies and those of the USA.

Several other reviews have commented on the bias of the book. The book is skewed to the FARC but I think this is acnowledged and adressed in several ways. The end section on human rights abuses does go into the fact that the FARC is an organisation that commits human rights abuse, it also tells us why it chooses to use those tactics which I think is fair, and it doesn't attempt to cast it all in a good light, talking about the negative impact the FARC has because of this. I think there is some bias in that we're told about all the grassroots work the FARC does in it it's stronghold, implying that happens in all areas it controls though mostly in it's strongholds, then are later told that areas it has moved into more recently it doesn't have the same ties to the local community and doesn't help them in the same way. I would also say that Leech does briefly, at the begining, discuss why he sees armed conflict as necessary and pacifism as something that doesn't work, particularly in a situation like this, which goes some way to justifying the actions of the FARC.

So, yes, despite some bias I found the book informative, tightly written and interesting.

[Karlo Mikhail · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, better known by its Spanish initials FARC (or the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarios de Colombia), has been called various names. Depending on who you’re asking, they’re either narco-terrorists, criminal kidnappers, child-soldier recruiters, non-state actor human rights violators, or Marxist revolutionaries.

The Colombian government, its United States imperialist masters, and the corporate media machine conveniently labels FARC a spent force of bandits that dropped the ideological foundation of its early years to embrace the drug business. Under the banner of the US “War on Drugs” a brutal war has been waged against FARC and its rural mass bases.

Why is FARC perennially at the receiving end of such relentless demonization? Is the FARC as its detractors profess, the root of Colombian underdevelopment that has to be stamped out in order to achieve national progress? Or is the FARC as its spokesmen proudly proclaim, an organization of revolutionary freedom fighters? These are some of the questions that Garry Leech’s FARC: The Longest Insurgency, recently published by radical international publisher Zed Books, seek to answer.

gabriel-garcia-marquez-one-hundred-years-of-solitude-04A Hundred Years of Struggle

Gabriel Garcia Marquez described Colombian history in what is perhaps his most popular novel as One Hundred Years of Solitude. Without the surreal magic that Marquez weaves into the turbulent social realities of Colombia, it would perhaps be more appropriate to describe this history as a hundred years of struggle.

It is in the context of this history of civil war between the ruling Liberal and Conservative parties in the 1950s called La Violencia, armed coup d’etats, and the coming and going of dictatorships, that peasants began forming armed self-defense groups to protect themselves from landlord rule and government repression.

Rural communities began to, Leech quotes from FARC documents, “share the land among the residents and created mechanisms for collective work and assistance to the individual exploitation of parcels of land.” Peasants communities decided the distribution of the fruits of their labor and dispense justice collectively. This were the seeds from which the FARC would later on emerge.

At the outset, the Colombian Communist Party (PCC) led the organizing of peasant militias. But influenced by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) 20th Congress’s revisionist call for a peaceful transition to socialism in 1956, the PCC publicly denounced the peasant struggle and supported the armed self-defense groups in secrecy. This PCC policy would change in its 9th Congress in 1961, said Leech, as brutal repression campaigns by the Colombian government intensifies. However, the PCC’s being tied to the modern revisionist CPSU would increasingly put a wedge between the predominantly urban-based party cadres and its rural-based armed peasant constituencies in the years to come.

May 27, 1964 marks the beginning of Operation Marquetalia, a 16,000-strong Colombian military operation against a tiny village of the same name hosting 48 peasant guerrillas. Fearing a repeat of the victorious Cuban revolution of 1959 in Colombia, the US gave full support to the brutal military offensives and supplied B-26 bombers for this particular operation. Yet all 48 guerrillas from Marquetalia would escape unscathed, proving the superiority of guerrilla tactics by letting a stronger enemy punch in the air.

This band of guerrillas would spearhead the First Guerrilla Conference, a meeting of peasant self-defense groups from different communities that would henceforth unite themselves into a coalition called the Southern Block. In 1966 the Southern Block convened the Second Guerrilla Conference to unite themselves on an agrarian reform programme and approve the following of a military strategy that effectively transformed their self-defense groups into a mobile guerrilla force. Thus FARC was born, the name by which the Southern Block would henceforth call itself.

farcSocial Revolution, Not Drug Business

The FARC armed struggle is thus anchored on the need for genuine agrarian reform that would, according to FARC papers, “change the social structure of the Colombian countryside, providing land completely free to the peasants who work it or want to work it on the basis of confiscation of landholdings for the benefit of the working people.”

Agrarian reform is thus seen by the group as “the indispensable conditions to raise the standard of material and cultural life of the whole peasantry, free it from unemployment, hunger, illiteracy, and the endemic illness that limit its ability to work.” It is ultimately, said Leech, the cornerstone of FARC’s revolutionary program.

Contrary to popular notions, FARC does not at all engage in drug production or trafficking. What FARC does, in line with its revolutionary agrarian program is to tax the drug traders and ensure that the peasant gets a higher share from the sale of coca. This is the reason why drug traders are ironically supportive of the Colombian anti-drug war against FARC. “We know that campesinos grow illicit crops out of necessity. It is specifically a socio-economic situation. They are obligated to cultivate illicit crops because of a government that has neglected them for many years,” said FARC commander Simon Trinidad in an interview with Leech.

FARC collects taxes in areas it controls. It also taxes companies regardless of location. The poor peasants are exempted while, Leech said, “an elected committee from the locality decides on the disbursement and allocation of the taxes collected.” The money collected are used to fund social services such as health, education, electricity, water, and road construction in FARC areas. Businessmen who do not pay these taxes are arrested by FARC: “If these persons give money to the state to carry on the war against the people, they also must give it to the people for its defense against the aggressors.” It is these arrests that are inaccurately “kidnappings” by the Colombian government and corporate media.

In the long run, FARC “sets out on a prolonged struggle to take power in unity with the working class and all working people.” It attempts to win over the peasantry through agrarian revolution, build organs of political power, and defeat the reactionary forces in military offensives step by step in preparation for the future nationwide seizure of state power from the ruling classes.

regis debrayFocoist Politico-Military Struggle

Leech’s account of FARC military strategy is, however, sketchy. It is rather obvious that FARC utilizes guerrilla warfare. Leech briefly mentions how FARC evolved from a strategy of armed self-defense into a focoist politico-military struggle. But there are no details as to how a foquista framework is applied to the specific conditions of Colombian society. In the same way, there is no discussion of FARC’s analysis of the Colombian social formation as the basis of any such strategy.

We do not see how a focoist band independent from the peasantry grew from small to big through constant military operations against the army. Or how this politico-military foco aimed to spark an armed uprising of the people in general.

What we do know is that FARC as the guerrilla army, following foco theory, is itself the politico-military center. There is no vanguard party commanding the people’s army. There is no distinction between the military and political leadership. Leading the FARC hierarchy is a Secretariat composed of 7 members including the Supreme Commander. Under the Secretariat is a Central High Command consisting of 30 leading commanders and directly under them are 7 regional blocs.

In May 1982, the FARC Seventh Conference laid down a more offensive-oriented military strategy that sought large-sale confrontations with government forces. By this period, Leech noted, FARC has established consolidated guerrilla bases and expansive zones of operations in the southern and eastern Colombia where the guerrillas have become the de facto government.

In the same decade, the FARC leadership also led the formation of the legal left-wing party Union Patriotica which presented itself as the alternative to the two traditional political parties. FARC saw the Union Patriotica as a platform to propagate the revolutionary line in the urban areas through open recruitment, open political rallies, and participation in the elections. At its height, the Union Patriotica secured the seats of 24 provincial deputies, 275 municipal representatives, 4 senators, and 4 congressional representatives. The reactionary response was brutal with paramilitary groups decimating the Union Patriotica membership. According to Leech, the party’s demise would seriously undermine FARC’s influence in the urban areas.

During this very same period, the collapse of the modern revisionist regimes in Eastern Europe led some some quarters in the urban leftist community to question the validity of FARC and its Marxist-Leninist foundations. But the fall of the Berlin Wall did not deter FARC from persisting in the struggle. In its 8th Conference in April 1993, FARC officially severed ties with the Colombian Communist Party (PCC) which has by then, like many of its fraternal parties in Eastern Europe, become a social-democratic outfit. In this same conference, FARC reiterated the relevance of armed revolution especially in the context of the onslaught of foreign-imposed neoliberal policies in Colombia.
farc460x276

FARC fighters in formation.

Non-State Actor Human Rights Violators?

The FARC struggle continued into the 1990s and reached a high point when they were able to hold major towns by the end of the decade. The US-instigated “War on Drugs” and vilification of FARC as “narco-terrorists” is part of a desperate effort to push back the guerrilla advance. In the ensuing public relations war, human rights issues were also thrown against FARC.

In particular, FARC is occasionally accused of forcibly recruiting child-soldiers to its forces. FARC admitted recruiting people aged between 15-18 years old but denied these youths are forced into its ranks. In an interview with Leech, FARC commander Raul Reyes explains that forcible recruitment violates security regulations: “Why should I give a weapon to someone that has been forced to join?”

FARC’s use of landmines is also called into question by government forces and international human rights organizations. FARC defends this by highlighting the lopsided fight between the two sides of the armed conflict, saying that “when the government stops using bombs, planes, and satellites, then they will stop using mines.”

On the other hand, Leech is also critical of FARC excesses and zeroes in on incidents that highlight the dangers of purely-militarist actions that undermine political considerations. He also criticizes FARC policies like the high-profile arrests of those who do not pay revolutionary taxes because the immediate benefit is outweighed by negative public perception.

However, Leech does not join the chorus of international human rights organizations that have shifted their traditional focus on violations by the state to the alleged abuses of non-state actors, particularly revolutionary movements like FARC. This only aids Colombian authorities in deflecting scrutiny of state violations. By lumping together the state forces and the revolutionary forces, Leech points out that these groups are leaving the impression that all 3 equally share responsible for human rights abuses when in fact it is the government forces and paramilitaries that committed the most number and worst violations of human rights. Colombian authorities routinely rehash accusations of abuses allegedly perpetrated by FARC guerrillas. The human rights bogey is raised to serve as further justification for massive US military support to a brutal regime.

Continuing Relevance of the “Longest Insurgency”
Motorcyclists drive past a mural with the portraits of dead FARC leaders in El Palo, Colombia, May 30, 2010. (Luis RobayoAFPGetty Images)

Motorcyclists drive past a mural with the portraits of dead FARC leaders in El Palo, Colombia, May 30, 2010. (Luis RobayoAFPGetty Images)

In conclusion, despite the book’s silence on some crucial questions regarding FARC, it still provides an accessible account on the revolutionary struggles of the Colombian people that steers clear of all the propaganda weighing down much of the dominant discourse on FARC. By relying mainly on field research conducted in actual FARC guerrilla zones and base areas and various sources from news agencies, non-government organizations, and state reports, Leech paints a fairly objective picture of the longest existing armed revolutionary movement in Latin America.

A mere two decades after a triumphant West declared the “End of History” and the ultimate triumph of the global capitalist order, the world is up in arms. The world financial crisis that exploded in 2008 has precipitated a larger crisis of the world capitalist system itself that persists to the present. The worse effects of the biggest economic collapse since the Great Depression of the 1930s are today being passed on by the world’s leading governments, multinational corporations, and financial institutions to the ordinary people the world over.

The worsening inequality, soaring prices, unemployment, and social services cutbacks are compelling more and more people to rise up in protest. From the Arab Spring in 2011 to the recent protests in Turkey and Brazil, a long series of spectacular mass struggles has taken the world like a storm. But some of the most potent resistance against the global capitalist order that have largely been kept out of the public eye are those armed movements leading popular struggles for national liberation such as those in India and the Philippines. In a time when several revolutionary movements in the Latin American region have either laid down their arms or got co-opted by the ruling system, FARC stands out for continuing to fight a guerrilla war with the aim of ultimately seizing state power for the oppressed and exploited classes.

The continuing relevance of FARC’s revolutionary struggle is underlined by the recent deployment by the Colombian authorities of 50,000 troops to quell massive protests by tens of thousands of farmers, workers, and students in the capital Bogota. Meanwhile peace talks are ending up as nothing more than a ploy to force FARC to lay down their arms without instituting radical social changes. Leech’s concluding remarks in FARC: The Longest Insurgency are prophetic: “Unless far-reaching structural changes are implemented that address Columbia’s gross social and economic inequalities, the violence in one form or another will likely continue deep into the twenty-first century.”

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[Adrian · Rating 4 out of 5]

While the book was not brilliant i'd say it was definetly good and worth it , to understand a bit more on this country that has been plagued over the decades by a really trash , violent and abusing class of politicians and upper class.

A few points:
- Colombia's geography is in such a way that it is really hard for the capital Bogota to assert , control and check what happens in the rest of the country.
- Over the decades the two political parties have ruled in turn or together in one form or another over the country prioritising their own agendas and not giving a shit about the working class especially the peasants in the remote highlands
- FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia) was formed as a communist leninist political-guerilla movement that would oppose gonverment abuses and fight against class inequality. Some of their main goals have not changed from their incpetion: redistribution of land to the peasants , nationalising the state resources especially oil and energy.
- Over the decades the guerilla has fought a bloody war first against the national army, then against paramilitaries sponsored by the government and later by the US - who wanted to gain easy access to the vast resources of the country.
- The US , the Bogota gov , the paramilitaries have tried by any means thus violating a huge number human rights to eradicate the guerilla movement.
All proved to be in vain eventually , because the roots of the problem (inequality) have never been addressed , therefore the poor class has always found a better alternative to join the FARC and actively support them.
- In need of revenue FARC got heavily involved in the cocaine business , as the middle men between the poor farmers and the drug cartels. They would set a fixed price per kg of coca and act on behalf of the farmers not to grt extorcated.
- After nearly 70 years and a lot of bloodshed , after many presidents , all adopting an aggresive stance towards the guerilla , the problems have remained the same. The guerillas are fighting with rudinentary weapons attacking nowadays foreign oil corporations setting shop in the oil rich areas , blowing up pipelines and planting land mines across huge spots of land.
- Despite the huge number of colltateral damage and incredible number of civilian deaths , no the politicians try relentlessly to keep everything under the rug , to pay paramilitaries to do their dirty work thus killing , raping , torturing and displacing civilians in order to root out the guerilla , failing to address the socio-economical issue , the elephant in the room.

A really really sad situation , and a total surprise for me , hoping post Narco Era Colombia would get their shit together.
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[Oscar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gives a different perspective than the mainstream on the FARC which portrays them as almost exclusively evil. Leech misses out on some of the opposing view points at certain parts of the book. For example, Leech states that the FARC limited coca production in fields to 25% but fails to mention that this also helps maintain a higher price on coca and to protect coca production by dispersing production over more fields. Overall, Leech does a great job of explaining the issues of the Colombian conflict, and he concludes by calling for systematic changes, but lacks detail as to what specifically should be changed.

[Jan Notzon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting read: rather hagiographic depiction of the FARC. But it is good to get the other side of the picture. Anyone who writes a book called "The Failure of Global Capitalism" I would question his objectivity. It is free markets that pulled 100s of millions of Chinese out of abject poverty. It did the same in all the countries of eastern Europe and to a lesser degree in Brazil, Perú, Nigeria, Ethiopia. All this while it was socialism that destroyed the economies of Argentina, Venezuela and so many others. Still, a worthwhile read.

[Omar · Rating 3 out of 5]

A well researched overview of the FARC. Unfortunately, the book is too short for it to be an exhaustive account of the rebel group, but it is a solid introduction to the group's origins, history and transgressions/crimes. We also catch a glimpse at the alternative political and economic projects they constructed in rural Colombia. However, I would've liked a detailed examination of FARC's ideology.

[Jason P · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brief and easy read to introduce people to the FARC. It does a fairly decent job of explaining the reasons behind the movement and their Marxist-Leninist ideology, even though this probably could have been improved. I also thoroughly enjoyed how it discussed how the media distorts perception from reality and how labeling the FARC as a terrorist organization is just wrong and politically designed to push people towards sympathizing with the right wing government and paramilitaries.

[Michael Meister · Rating 1 out of 5]

Was hoping for balance, but seemed to ignore most Farc misdeeds.

[Ozmoses · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent analysis. Lots of context even at the entry level. From a leftist perspective so the author actually goes to he effort of understanding and explaining some of the nuances. Highly recommend.

[BeeQuiet · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was delighted to get this book through LibraryThing Early Reviewers, having done a module in Media Movements and Radical Politics in my final year as an under-graduate. This book by Garry Leech documents the rise and fall of the FARC revolutionary group in Colombia. The FARC have a reputation in the media as a guerilla group engaging in violent terrorist acts, frequently contravening human rights as stated in international law; they may not be entirely wrong but it is, as Leech illustrates, far from the whole story. Leech makes his approach as an independent journalist who has spent a substantial amount of time deep within Colombia, garnering a unique insight through in depth interviews with members of the FARC, as well as their opposition.

Beginning with exploring the violent inception of the FARC, violence perpetrated primarily by government forces and government funded paramilitaries, their turbulent and dynamic history is explored. The FARC's Marxist-Leninist inspired ideology, and its implementation on the ground by politically educated guerilla forces, fighting for the rights of the subjugated peasantry of the rural expanses of Colombia are well explained. I would therefore praise Leech for creating a concise explanation of the group's ideological and tactical presence.

I would further praise the critique of the neo-liberal economic regime impressed upon the people of Colombia by a government handed large 'aid' bundles by America. The figures quoted by Leech well illuminate the increasing inequalities faced by people in Colombia, people forced in many cases to resort to growing coca (for use in cocaine) due to poor infrastructure eliminating the opportunity to transport perishable foodstuffs. The FARC's role in attempting to build and infrastructure through taxing corporations in the area (hence kidnapping for non-payment) was something of which I was not aware. The group also attempts to provide an education, and means for switching to different crops for the peasants in many areas. All of these things are invisible in the majority of the mass media - not surprising given the sound-bites they are spoon fed by the Colombian and US government. Yet Leech brings them to the fore in this easily readable book - a great introductory text for anyone wishing to learn more about radical politics, Marxism/Leninism in action or guerilla organisations.

My main critique however is that Leech's view is incredibly one sided. Whilst he does make note of the human rights abuses perpetrated by members of the FARC, they are brushed off, with little investigation into the processes used by the group for disciplining members. Whilst government statements are highly critiqued, such statements by the FARC are seemingly viewed through rose tinted glasses. Although many peasants appear to be having a more comfortable life in areas supported by the FARC, is this really just a lesser of two great evils, or something which really should be carried through to a national level using their policies? Is there really as little corruption in the FARC as Leech claims? I know he does cover these points, but only in brief, and I think that more academic stand-points on on the FARC would be interesting if added to this text.

In summary, whilst I would prefer a less one sided account of the FARC, this is a group which has received little more than purely negative coverage in the media. Therefore I would tend to suggest that it may be excusable to lean more in the FARC's favour as their viewpoints have simply not been expressed. Leech does issue critique of FARC policies in places, and in general I found this a fascinating book, and certainly feel wiser for having read it.

[WIlliam Gerrard · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book covers a very interesting subject for what in general there is a dearth of information and that which does exist tends to be fundamentally skewed with bias. The left wing of Colombia's forty year civil war is headed up by the FARC-EP. This revolutionary Marxist guerrilla group holds a vast amount of Colombian territory and is the de-facto government of a large amount of mainly impoverished rural people who are in general greatly neglected by their government. The FARC have a very strong propaganda campaign in action against them and in this rather brief book, the author attempts to unravel the myths surrounding the FARC, and to determine the truth of what lies behind the propaganda against them. The Americans and Colombian government accuse them of being narco-traffickers and narco-terrorists, and use these accusations in order to fund their fight against their enemy. The book is good at unravelling many of the myths and in general one gets a decent balanced impression and a feeling that one has touched upon the truth. the FARC can be seen as a genuine combatant army and are a bit different to the way they are portrayed as a terrorist or criminal organisation. Their insurgency, although very bloody and difficult, is based in the realities of a real war. They have an ideological struggle and truly represent the feelings of their people. Some of the facts are quite surprising. I found the chapter on human rights abuses very revealing. It shows that although the FARC are very far from perfect and have committed some truly heinous acts, in general, the Colombian government forces and right-wing paramilitary groups are far more oppressive towards the average civilian.
I think the author, who is an investigative journalist based in Colombia, has done a very good job with this work. I feel that for such a subject, a much broader and deeper piece of writing could be done. If anything the account is just a bit too brief. I hope to check out some of Garry Leech's other books.

[Fredrik · Rating 3 out of 5]

Välskriven och informativ men alldeles för vinklad till FARCs fördel.