History: The Roadmap to the Future--Latin America: The Death of FARC?

Now it seems as if even the premiere chavista is on board. With ordering FARC, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, to shut down its business of drug dealing, kidnapping, murder, and general crime, that is.

Faced with the death of their preeminent leader, Manuel Marulanda, the survival of FARC in its current form has been called into question. Prior to that death, Raul Reyes, Marulanda's de facto second in command was killed during a Colombian raid into Ecuador; a raid which--while controversial in that it was carried out without Ecuador's approval--also provided evidence of Ecuadorian, and particularly Venezuelan, collusion and support for the rebels. Add onto that, another Secretariat member was killed by his own bodyguard for a million dollar reward from the government. And then there's Nelly Avila Moreno ('Karina'), who turned herself into the government and urged FARC to surrender, stating that desertion and military pressure were taking their toll on the rebellion.

Furthermore, rather than giving their movement more clout, the kidnapping and murder of hostages has de-legitimized the group in the eyes of much of the world, though unfortunately--until recently--not necessarily in the eyes of Colombia's closest neighbors under their current government administrations. Similar to how Osama bin Laden has been hampered by the deaths of innocent Muslims, FARC's reputation has been tarnished even for those supporting its Marxist ideals due to the crimes carried out on innocent people, often Colombians.

Therefore, given that the use of violence has not led to success, only driving Colombia into poverty when it could have been developing, and given that FARC is now in retreat, hopefully this will lead to an impetus to end FARC's use of hostilities and cocaine dealing to further their goals. Hopefully, this will lead to FARC using peaceful methods of trying to get Colombians to support their views--via politics, not war. Akin to how in Northern Ireland, with the Irish Republican Army (IRA) compelled to end the use of the sword and take up the use of the pen through Sinn Fein.

And hopefully, as with Sinn Fein, the voters reject the FARC's views--and FARC accepts that, only using peaceful persuasion to get the people on their side.

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Found this article interesting? Check out:
The Roadmap to the Future.
The Roadmap to the Future--Africa.
The Roadmap to the Future--Asia.
The Roadmap to the Future--Europe.

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The Science Fiction Channel + Technorium.
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