According to social anthropologist María Clemencia Ramírez, the relationship between the guerrillas and the marches was ambivalent: FARC-EP promoted the 1996 protests as part of their participatory democracy policies yet also exercised authoritarianism, which led to tensions and negotiations with peasant leaders, but the cocalero movement brought proposals on behalf of the coca growers and defended its own interests.

Valencia also added that both coca crops and the drug trade have " doubled " in areas with FARC-EP presence.

The FARC-EP secretariat was led by Alfonso Cano and six others after the death of Manuel Marulanda ( Pedro Antonio Marín ), also known as " Tirofijo ", or Sureshot in 2008.

Palmera had adopted the aliases of Simón Trinidad and Federico Bogotá, and later also became part of the Bloque Caribe Northern ( Caribbean Bloc of the FARC-EP ).

It is considered one of the strongholds of the guerrilla movement Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, also known as FARC-EP.

The ELN has also occasionally operated with the FARC-EP and like FARC it has targeted civilians, according to a February 2005 report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights: " During 2004, the FARC-EP and the ELN carried out a series of attacks against the civilian population, including several massacres of civilians and kidnappings by the FARC-EP.

The peace process with the government continued at a slow pace for three years during which the BBC and other news organizations reported that the FARC-EP also used the safe haven to import arms, export drugs, recruit minors, and build up their armed forces.

In a communique dated 28 November but released publicly on 3 December, the FARC-EP declared that they were no longer insisting on the demilitarization of San Vicente del Caguán and Cartagena del Chairá as a precondition for the negotiation of the prisoner exchange, but instead that of Florida and Pradera in the Valle department.

Before the break off of dialogue, a letter written by a group of Colombian intellectuals ( among whom were Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez ) to the Simón Bolívar Guerrilla Coordinating Board was released denouncing the approach taken by the FARC-EP and the dire consequences that it was having for the country.

In 2001, FARC Commander Simón Trinidad claimed that the FARC-EP does not engage in kidnapping but instead " retains in order to obtain resources needed for our struggle ".

FARC-EP Commander Simón Trinidad has stated that FARC does not allow the enlistment of people under 15 years of age, arguing that this is in accordance with Article 38 of the United Nations ' Convention on the Rights of the Child.

It is said that Jacobo Arenas ( the " nom de guerre " of Luis Morantes ), a founder and ideological leader of the FARC-EP, was seen as hero by the García, who once stated in an interview to a Latin American journalist that he considered Arenas to be a hero, just as he considered Simón Bolívar, José Martí and Che Guevara to be heroes.

Before the break off of dialogue, a letter written by a group of Colombian intellectuals ( among whom were Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez ) to the Simón Bolívar Guerrilla Coordinating Board was released denouncing the approach taken by the FARC-EP and the dire consequences that it was having for the country.

On 17 December 2004, the Colombian government authorized Trinidad's extradition to the United States, but stated that the measure could be revoked if the FARC-EP released all political hostages and military captives in its possession before 30 December.

* Aka Maria: A former member of the FARC-EP said to be Trinidad's radio operator for nine years.

The FARC-EP, in response to government military operations in the south and in the southeast, would now be displacing its military center of gravity towards the Nariño, Putumayo and Cauca departments.

The FARC-EP originally said that they would only release the police and military members they held captive ( whom they considered to be prisoners of war ) through exchanges with the government for imprisoned FARC-EP members.

On 29 March 2009, the FARC-EP announced that they would give Guevara's remains to his mother.

On 31 January 2008, the FARC-EP announced that they would release civilian hostages Luis Eladio Perez Bonilla, Gloria Polanco, and Orlando Beltran Cuellar to Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez as a humanitarian gesture.

On 21 December 2008, The FARC-EP announced that they would release civilian hostages Alan Jara, Sigifredo López, three low-ranking police officers and a low-ranking soldier to Senator Piedad Córdoba as a humanitarian gesture.

On 16 April 2009, The FARC-EP announced that they would release Army Corporal Pablo Emilio Moncayo Cabrera to Piedad Córdoba as a humanitarian gesture.

After this event, the FARC-EP released a statement saying that defeating the group would not bring peace to Colombia and called for a negotiated solution, not surrender, to the social and political conflict.

The FARC-EP generally makes sure that peasant coca growers receive a much larger share of profits than the paramilitaries would give them, and demands that traffickers pay a decent wage to their workers.

In 2000, the FARC-EP issued a directive called " Law 002 " which demanded a " tax " from all individuals and corporations with assets worth at least $ 1 million USD, warning that those who failed to pay would be detained by the group.

Later, in 1964, a section of these guerrillas would develop into the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia ( FARC-EP ), which initially was considered as the official armed wing of the Communist party.

Other disagreements would include that the PCC may have allegedly tended to follow the changes that developed within the official Soviet line during the Cold War, which the FARC-EP did not consider as strictly binding.

The FARC-EP, in response to government military operations in the south and in the southeast, would now be displacing its military center of gravity towards the Nariño, Putumayo and Cauca departments.

The IRA / FARC-EP connection was first made public on 11 August 2001, following the arrest in Bogotá of two IRA explosives and urban warfare experts and of a representative of Sinn Féin who was known to be stationed in Cuba.

For most of the period between 2002 and 2005, the FARC-EP was believed to be in a strategic withdrawal due to the increasing military and police actions of new president Álvaro Uribe, which led to the capture or desertion of many fighters and medium-level commanders.

The FARC-EP and its sympathizers have later repeatedly employed the destruction of the UP as a strong argument in order to justify its armed struggle against the Colombian state and its assuming positions that many on the Colombian and international leftwing consider to be radical.

The IRA / FARC-EP connection was first made public on August 11, 2001, following the arrest in Bogotá of two IRA explosives and urban warfare experts and of a representative of Sinn Féin who was known to be stationed in Cuba.

For most of the period between 2002 and 2005, the FARC-EP was believed to be in a strategic withdrawal due to the increasing military and police actions of new president Álvaro Uribe, which led to the capture or desertion of many fighters and medium-level commanders.

The FARC-EP claimed that they were killed in the crossfire of a gun battle, while the Colombian government and Red Cross claim that they were killed by FARC-EP ; the killing of Luis Francisco Cuellar, the Governor of Caquetá, who had been kidnapped to be put on trial for corruption.

Morales was irritated with Hugo Chávez's suggestion that FARC-EP should be taken off of the European Union's list of international terrorist organizations and treated as a legitimate army.

The military structure of the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia – Ejército del Pueblo (" Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People's Army ", or FARC-EP ), formally began to be developed after the middle of 1964, when the Colombian Army occupied the town of Marquetalia.

In November 2004, the FARC-EP had rejected a proposal to hand over 59 of its captives in exchange for 50 guerrillas imprisoned by the government.

After the 21 April 2001 capture of Brazilian drug lord Luiz Fernando da Costa ( aka Fernandinho Beira-Mar ) in Colombia, Colombian and Brazilian authorities accused him of cooperating with FARC-EP through the exchange of weapons for cocaine.

In 1985, members of the FARC-EP, along with a large number of other leftist and communist groups, formed a political party known as the Union Patriótica (" Patriotic Union ", UP ).

While many members of the UP were involved with the FARC-EP, the large majority of them were not and came from a wide variety of backgrounds such as labor unions and socialist parties such as the PCC.

In the cities, the FARC-EP began integrating itself with the UP and forming Juntas Patrióticas ( or " solidarity cells ") -- small groups of people associated with labor unions, student activist groups, and peasant leagues, who traveled into the barrios discussing social problems, building support for the UP, and determining the sociopolitical stance of the urban peasantry.

During this period, the Colombian government continued its negotiations with the FARC-EP and other armed groups, some of which were successful.

Towards the end of 1990, the army, with no advance warning and while negotiations were still ongoing with the group, attacked a compound known as Casa Verde, which housed the National Secretariat of the FARC-EP.

A 48-hour respite that had been previously agreed to with the rebel group was not respected as the government argued that it had already been granted during an earlier crisis in January, when most of the more prominent FARC-EP commanders had apparently left the demilitarized zone.

On 15 February 2002, the Colombia Three were charged with training FARC-EP members in bomb-making in Colombia.

The Colombian authorities had received satellite footage, probably supplied by the CIA, of the men with FARC-EP in an isolated jungle area, where they are thought to have spent the last five weeks.

The missing witness, a former police inspector, said he had seen Mr McCauley with FARC-EP members in 1998.

On 13 January 2008, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez stated his disapproval with the FARC-EP strategy of armed struggle and kidnapping saying " I don't agree with kidnapping and I don't agree with armed struggle ".

On 7 March at the Cumbre de Rio, Chavez stated again that the FARC-EP should lay down their arms " Look at what has happened and is happening in Latin America, reflect on this ( FARC-EP ), we are done with war ... enough with all this death ".

Tulio Lizcano was a hostage for over 8 years, and escaped with a FARC-EP rebel he convinced to travel with him.

With the military tightening the noose, a FARC-EP rebel turned himself in and provided Colombian authorities with Lizcano's exact location in the northwest state of Choco.