FARC guerrillas marching in formation during the Caguan peace talks ( 1998-2002 )

Santos announced on 27 August 2012 that the Colombian government has engaged in exploratory talks with FARC in order to seek an end to the conflict:

He also said that he would learn from the mistakes of previous leaders, who failed to secure a lasting ceasefire with FARC, though the military would still continue operations throughout Colombia while talks continued.

Former President Uribe has criticized Santos for seeking peace " at any cost " and rejected the idea of holding talks .< Ref > http :// www. aljazeera. com / news / americas / 2012 / 08 / 20128280155953340. html </ ref > Telesur reported that FARC and the Colombian government had signed a preliminary agreement in Havana the same day.

However, Santos later ruled out a ceasefire pending the talks in Oslo and reiterated that offensive operations against FARC would continue.

Originally, the focus was on achieving peace and ending violence, within the context of the ongoing peace talks that Pastrana's government was then holding with the FARC guerrillas, following the principle that the country's violence had " deep roots in the economic exclusion and ... inequality and poverty ".

FARC ideological leader Jacobo Arenas, who originally played a central role in the Seventh Guerrilla Conference and in the peace talks with the Betancur government, was a leading figure during the party's inception and early development, being the UP's informal leader within FARC and initially was heavily expected to be its presidential candidate.

Colombian troops killed FARC leader Alfonso Cano in a firefight on 4 November 2011.

On 26 November 2011, the FARC killed Police Captain Edgar Yesid Duarte Valero, Police Lieutenant Elkin Hernandez Rivas, Army Corporal Libio Jose Martinez Estrada and Police Intendant Alvaro Moreno after government troops approached the guerrilla camp where they were held.

Alfonso Cano, former FARC Commander-in-Chief, was killed by Colombian military forces on 4 November 2011

In a communique dated November 28 but released on December 3, the FARC declared that Trinidad's extradition would be a serious obstacle to reaching a prisoner exchange agreement with the Colombian government.

In November, 1998 an estimated 1, 900 FARC guerrilla members of the Eastern Bloc of the FARC-EP tried to take over the town by force, against 120 National Police members and one Colombian National Army Battalion.

On November 4, 2011 Colombian forces successfully attacked a FARC base in the jungle of the Cacua Department during " Operation Odysseus " killing FARC leader Alfonso Cano.

On November 15, 2011 FARC publically named Timoleon Jimenez, also known as, " Timkencho " as the new leader of FARC's seven member governing secretariat.

In 2000, FARC Spokesman Simon Trinidad said that taxes on drug laboratories represented part of the organization's income, but argued that the drug trade was so endemic in Colombia that it financed all banking, industry and politics in the country to some extent, so that criticism of FARC in this regard was hypocritical.

The government's revised figures were considered " absurdly low " by Fundación País Libre, which has argued that its own archives suggest an estimated 1, 617 people taken hostage between 2000 and 2008 remain in the hands of their captors, including hundreds seized by FARC.

In 2000 the U. S. began funding, continued under the U. S. Bush administration, of Plan Colombia, intending to eradicate drug crops and to act against drug lords accused of engaging in narcoterrorism, including among them the leaders of the marxist FARC and the AUC paramilitary forces.

It is politically linked to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia ( FARC ), which founded the party in 2000.

After the FARC officially broke with the Colombian Communist Party, a separate FARC-based party structure came into de facto existence during most of the 1990s, until the PCCC was officially founded in 2000.

A few 60 mm and 81 mm mortars, some of them captured from Colombian Army personnel, were also effectively used by the FARC to support attacks on Colombian military and Police bases between 1996 and 1998, as well as during smaller scale operations leading up to the year 2000.

The FARC did not accept this demand, and Palmera himself had previously stated that he considered his future extradition and prosecution in the U. S. an opportunity to publicly protest against the Uribe administration.

Former hostage Luis Eladio Perez, who still remained in captivity at the time of the protest, remarked after his liberation that the rallies allowed those imprisoned by FARC to " feel the solidarity of Colombians for the first time ".

Opposition Senator Gustavo Petro, after meeting with rally organizers and inquiring as to why the protest didn't address the actions of other violent actors such as the AUC paramilitaries and ELN guerrillas, acknowledged the protest march as a " democratic expression " of the citizenry against FARC and against kidnappings.

Carlos Gaviria Díaz, President of Polo Democrático said that while the party disapproves of the crimes of FARC, such as kidnapping and extortion, they also did not support the decision of the protest organizers to avoid criticizing the crimes of the paramilitary groups and the government, citing murders of teachers and trade union leaders and millions of people who have been displaced.

Nuevo Arco Iris head León Valencia considered that FARC guerrillas have reacted to a series of successful military blows against them by splitting up their forces into smaller groups and intensifying the offensive use of anti-personnel land mines, leading to what he called a further " degradation " of the conflict.

However, it was not clear from the FARC statement what would happen to the civilians it still held in captivity.

As the UP campaigned, gradually, many independents, leftwingers and other social and political sectors joined the party, eventually changing its focus from what was perceived as a FARC vehicle to a more independent-minded political actor, not directly responsible to the guerrilla's Secretariat and in fact in outright conflict with it on some points.

Bernardo Jaramillo, a lifelong member of the Communist Party, witnessed the deaths of his comrades and had openly criticized the positions of both the FARC and the Colombian government, because of what he considered as their mutual intolerance and lack of willingness to compromise for peace.

The game goes into little detail as to what happens after the MFLC are defeated, but supposedly their defeat shuts down the rebellion put up by the other rebel factions and the FARC across Colombia.

Since February 2005, the Jacobo Arenas Front has played a significant role in the renewed series of FARC military operations in the southwest of the country against the security forces of president Álvaro Uribe's government, coming after a period of what was considered as either a temporary halt in operations or as a necessary strategic retreat on the part of the guerrillas, in part as a response to a massive U. S. government-backed military offensive known as " Plan Patriota " taking place in the southeast of Colombia.

According to the FARC, they invite all the Colombian women to join in what they consider as their struggle against the injustices of society.

FARC has called for crop substitution programs that would allow coca farmers to find alternative means of income and subsistence.

Once deployed, the Ghosts mobilize to face off with a newly-formed militia group called the MFLC ( Movimiento de las Fuerzas Libres Colombianas ), which is basically the southern equivalent of the FARC.

Morales, along with other young professionals created a Facebook group called " Million Voices against the FARC ", which quickly gained over 200, 000 members from around the world.

The responsibility for this kind of mass massacres have also been put on FARC shoulders, specially of informants for the Colombian Army or " sapos " as they are called.

Additionally, the growing severity of countrywide guerrilla attacks by the FARC and ELN, and smaller movements, as well as the growth of drug production, corruption and the spread of even more violent paramilitary groups such as the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia ( AUC ) has made it difficult to solve the country's problems.

The FARC say they represent the poor people of rural Colombia against the economic depredations of the ruling bourgeoisie ; the political influence of the U. S. in the internal affairs of Colombia ( i. e. Plan Colombia ); neo-imperialism ; the monopolization of natural resources by multinational corporations ; and the repressive violence from Colombian state and paramilitary forces against the civilian population.

He alleged that his reasons for joining the FARC included the assassination of many of his Patriotic Union Party colleagues and the persecution against them by paramilitary militias and Colombian drug cartels.

In 2005 President Álvaro Uribe Vélez, who had been a critic of Pastrana's peace process with the FARC and had received criticisms from Pastrana regarding his negotiations with Colombian paramilitary groups, surprisingly offered the former president the post of Ambassador to the United States in Washington DC.

Many new paramilitary groups have emerged after the demobilisazion of AUC, while guerrillas like FARC and ELN have regained ground in many parts of the department.

The largest concentration of FARC guerillas are located in the border regions with Antioqia and Bolívar, while their paramilitary enemies are estimated to be in control of Cordoba's more central regions.

The fracturing of the former paramilitary enemy allowed FARC and Ejército de Liberación Nacional to reclaim lost territory in the valley.

Unfortunately, the area was at one time affected by the Colombian armed conflict between the Colombian National Army, right-wing paramilitary groups and left-wing guerrilla groups like National Liberation Army ( ELN ) and Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia ( FARC ).

Several of theses objectives stem from a belief in that the Colombian government should protect Colombian society from the effects of terrorism and the illegal drug trade, and in turn society as a whole should have a more active and comprehensive role in the government's struggle against illegal armed groups such as the FARC and ELN guerrillas or the paramilitary AUC, in order to ensure the defense and continued existence of the opportunity for both leftwing and rightwing political parties to engage in free and open debate, along with all the other aspects of democratic life.

The FARC, the remaining EPL dissidents and the ELN considered Esperanza, Paz y Libertad and all the demobilized EPL to be " traitors " and paramilitary collaborators, initiating a series of attacks and assassination attempts against the former EPL members.

Some of the ex-EPL members apparently would have eventually joined and participated, individually and allegedly without the support of the new political party, in paramilitary operations against the FARC and their former comrades.

The Norte del Valle Cartel is believed to be the single most powerful existing cartel in Colombia with exception of the smaller North Coast Cartel, the FARC Marxist guerrilla, and the right wing paramilitary group AUC.

The FARC took up positions to the north ( in Barrio Pueblo Nuevo ), and began launching gas cylinder bombs ( pipetas ) toward the paramilitary positions, with two landing nearby but the third going through the roof of the church and exploding on the altar.

Male and female FARC civilian supporters, real or imagined, have been the targets of paramilitary fighters ( which the FARC considers to be influenced and supported by the CIA as well as traditional Cold War anti-communism ), some of which have employed brutal methods ( such as the use of chainsaws ) during the massacres that they have committed against those they believe to be sympathizers of the rebels.