Founding of FARC

The FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia) emerged from communist-aligned peasant self-defense communities that had formed during La Violencia, particularly in Marquetalia, Tolima. Key founder Manuel Marulanda Vélez (“Tirofijo”) had been a Liberal guerrilla during La Violencia before adopting Marxist-Leninist ideology.

The FARC’s origin story is directly tied to the military’s 1964 attack on the “independent republics” of armed peasants, and to the exclusionary National Front that closed democratic space for the left. The ELN was founded the same year, inspired by the Cuban Revolution and liberation theology.

The FARC signed a peace accord with the Colombian government in 2016, attempting to close the cycle of conflict begun with Gaitán’s assassination in 1948.