Manuel Marulanda
Manuel Marulanda Vélez is the "nom de guerre" of Pedro Antonio Marin, the main leader of the FARC EP ("Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia - Ejercito del Pueblo"). He was born on May 13, 1928 (a date that has been disputed), in a coffee-growing region of west-central Colombia to a peasant family politically aligned with the Colombian Liberal Party.
Marulanda himself changed his political and ideological inclinations to the Colombian Communist Party (PCC) sometime during the period of "La Violencia" (roughly 1948 to 1958) that followed the assassination of the Liberal Party's leader Jorge Eliecer Gaitan.
He is sometimes known as "Tirofijo" ("Sureshot"), apparently because of a reputed ability to accurately aim firearms. He is reportedly seriously ill, and has even been reported to have died several times throughout his long career as a guerrilla, but the status of his health remains uncertain.
Early Armed Activities
Pedro Antonio Marin and members of his family, like many Liberal peasants, rose up in arms not long after they heard the news about Gaitan's death. Initially they were defending themselves from members of the rival Conservative Party and of local police forces.
Eventually, Marulanda split with some of his relatives and became part of a column of guerrilla fighters that came under the influence of the Colombian Communist Party, which developed a more proactive role in the fighting, executing more raids and offensive operations. He took on the name "Manuel Marulanda" in honor of a murdered union leader. Marulanda eventually met and befriended Luis Morantes, also known as Jacobo Arenas, a PCC political cadre sent to the rural areas by the central party structure.
Members of this group later settled in an area known as Marquetalia towards the end of "La Violencia", keeping their weapons mostly (but not exclusively) to protect their community. They distrusted the Colombian Army and government even after a 1953 coup led by General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla against the Conservative Laureano Gómez. Rojas Pinilla had offered an amnesty that was accepted by most of the Liberal Party's irregular fighters nationwide, but reputedly the murder of a few demobilized individuals made Marulanda, his rural comrades and his PCC superiors in the cities uneasy.
After the fall of Rojas Pinilla in 1957 and the signing of the National Front agreement in 1958 between Colombia's two main parties, self-sufficient armed enclaves, such as the so-called "independent republics" and in particular a supposed "Marquetalia Republic", were considered as dangerous by the new government. Pressure from congressmen belonging to the Conservative Party and from the United States led to a Colombian Army attack on Marquetalia, which was eventually overran during what was termed "Operation Marquetalia" in May 1964.
Formation of the FARC
The Colombian Army's attack was mostly uneffective, though it did scatter the guerrillas, and most of the survivors reunited elsewhere and later became part of the "Bloque Sur" (Southern Bloc) guerrilla group in 1964, a precursor to the official foundation of the FARC in 1966. Marulanda and Jacobo Arenas soon established themselves as the main leaders of the new guerrilla group.
1999-2002 Peace Process
Manuel Marulanda led the FARC's participation in the peace process between the guerrilla organization and Andres Pastrana's government in 1999. Pastrana's government accepted the FARC's condition of a demilitarized zone consisting of five municipalties centered around San Vicente del Caguan to organize the peace talks. FARC had virtual control over the area, as most of the government's local representatives had to leave. When the guerrillas moved in they could now openly operate in the urban municipalties, establishing what some press observers called a de facto "FARC-land", because of the rebel group's high profile and degree of open influence in the zone's daily life, including in political, judicial, educational and security affairs. Critics accused the FARC of also equipping, training and organizing its troops for war within the zone, as well as using the available land for the purposes of the drug trade.
The negotiations were held without any form of permanent ceasefire implementation, but nevertheless open violence was reduced seasonally, including through the use of Christmas truces as temporary measures. Still, observers noted that the continuation of armed clashes and kidnappings caused problems and mutual criticisms between the negotiators. After surviving a previous crisis in January with the intervention of the international community, the process finally ended in February 2002 when the FARC hijacked an airplane in order to take a congressman hostage, an act which led to Pastrana's declaring the end of the negotiations and the return to an full state of war.
External links
Reference
- Diario de la resistencia de Marquetalia, Jacobo Arenas, Ediciones Abejón Mono, 1972 (Espanol)
 | This Colombian biographical article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |