The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, "FARC" and Home organization & freedom Spanish "ETA" groups

Introduction

In today’s world, Terrorism is one of the several critical issues that has created headache for world leaders. In some cases, Rebel with noble cause gets converted to anti-social fight against world. FARC and ETA are two such examples. These two organizations started their activities for a good purpose and gradually their intensions changed and today, they fall under dangerous terrorist organizations. Violence and terror are used by these types of paramilitaries to affect the political condition of the country.

FARC is a small group of rebellions involved in illegal activities. This team became active since 1964. They are also known as People’s army because it consists of small farmers, poor people etc. They present their war as a fight against injustice to the poor. Basques, an ancient group of people were one of the oldest settlers in the area which now comes between the border of France and Spain. They were having a different language and were ethically distinct from Spain and France. Their history is based on making desperate attempts to preserve their culture and independence from violent invaders (Anderson, 2003).

History

“La Violencia” was a duration of 10 years from 1948 to 1958. During this time, two political parties fought with each other and it affected several common people. This war was between Colombian political party and Colombian liberal party. It started with the murder of liberal party member and potential candidate for party president. Just after his death, rebellion started the war and in first 10 hours, bloodshed started which took lives of more than 500 people. It was the time when Colombian political party was governing Colombia and they provoked their supporters to capture the land of other farmers supporting Colombian liberal party. The situation become more difficult when army started bombing in 1963-63. At that time, guerrilla movement was started (Alfredo, 2000). In 1966, they arranged one meeting to discuss on the problem. This meeting was the birth place to “The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia” - “FARC”. With the aim to enlarge the rebellion group and increase the activities in other areas of country, they created this group with the final aim of getting the highest position in politics means winning power. They increased the speed of recruiting new army and armed activity (Sanchez & Palau, 2006).

Basques considered themselves different from Spanish people and always wanted a separate nation from Spain due to which they were also the enemies of people who were against dividing Spain and government as well (Douglass & Zulaika1990). Many halfhearted negotiations took place between Spanish government and ETA but the organization never close to their goals. ETA wanted a Basque nation and their right to govern. It is the European longest surviving terrorist organization and also one of the oldest terrorist organization in the world (Anderson, 2003). After a very bad sustainability in 1990's and a cease fire in 1999, ETA reorganized themselves in 2001 and after that 38 people died due to the attacks by ETA. The activists of this group were supported by many government bodies and election participants.

Modus Operandi

FARC raised funds by many illegal activities like kidnapping, drugs or many other such activities. Till now, there is no strength determination of FARC because over the time there had been a lot of statements from FARC regarding number of militants in FARC army, for reference in 2007 the number told was 18000 but in 2010 the number came out to be less (Fox, 2012). The count of forces included men, women and underage kids. Thought the number was calculated real high in the years after which added people from other forces like paramilitary and other terrorist groups. Initially, the Colombian liberal party supports were fighting the civil war with their old methods. However, any battle needs money and man power. For man power, they increased their speed to recruit new members. Now the main question was the source of money. To fulfill this requirement, they started doing the activities which are harmful to society. Due to enlargement of group, they kept on covering more and more area for their demands. Currently, FARK is spread across many countries like Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, Brazil, Panama etc. there are many other possible areas where one can easily hide in plan side. Drug trade, extortions and kidnappings (Fox, 2012).

ETA was formed in 1959 but they were not killing people until 1968. After that they were engaged in many lethal violence. These lethal violence was in the form of robberies, bombings, kidnappings, assassinations, and other dreadful activities (Douglass & Zulaika1990). In a massive attack ETA activists killed Carrero Blanco - Prime Minister of Spain and 2 men accompanying him as bodyguards. There was no difference between the activities of ETA after the death of Carrero. ETA user demands were not fulfilled and always tried to frighten government with their lethal and illegal activities (BBC, 2011). There was a reduction in activities of ETA in 1981 due to which they changed their strategies. Due to inner attrition their activities were at equilibrium with activities of state to punish ETA activists. In 1987 and 1991, ETA exploded car bombs due to which there was a huge rise in casualties. They were also indulged in many cease fires due to which many of the ETA activists met death and hence reducing their strength. The activists were planning to spoil the Olympics games of Barcelona and pressurize the state but their planned were ruined by the police operations.

Handling Counter Terrorism

FARC group used different illegal work as their method to raise money. Their continuous flow of money attracts other people to join the force which helped them to attack people against them. They target the Colombian politics, military and economy. To do this, they follow conventional guerrilla techniques. They do bombings, killings, mortar attacks (Civil war with a heavy loss is an example) to convey their messages to the government and stop the counter activities done by government. Generally, they apply hit and run scenarios. FARC is raising money through extortion and kidnapping. One of their famous kidnapping target was French Politian. In 2002, they kidnapped him and two other persons. The reason must be money. The army operation of 2008 was successful and they were released (Renwick, 2016).

Spanish Government used many counter terrorist groups to stop ETA activities and were very successful in it as there was decline in terrorist activities performed by ETA. Spanish government also used special tactics like imprisoning the activists in masses to reduce their strengths and moral. Government treated the ETA activists taken into prison as political prisoners. Those who accepted the terms of government were expelled from the clan and sometimes killed. Spanish government also banned the political parties which supported the terrorist activities and many times imprisoned the politicians supporting ETA (Douglass & Zulaika1990). Political party named Herri Batasuna was banned for supporting ETA. Government Judge Baltasar Garzon initiated a judicial structure to support ETA which started in 1998 and banned the newspapers that supported ETA activities and also imprisoned the editors to investigate. Government also tried to negotiate but were never close to the demands of ETA which resulted in more casualties (BBC, 2011).

ETA followed violent tactics to summon Spanish government. ETA killed many people in direct attacks. They bombed many places and killed multiple people and sometimes ETA members itself. They many times used mortars to attack police bases and military camps. They were not expert and lacked precision due to which they stopped using it. They threatened many state officials by planning attacks on Olympic Games to be held at Barcelona. They demanded extortion money from business owners in different parts of Spain which they called "Revolutionary tax". ETA members were also involved in robberies, they robbed vehicles, explosives and weapons to support their activities (NCTC. 2016). They were also involved in many kidnapping cases in which they demanded revolutionary tax, if not paid they killed the person. They were also having links with government officials who supported ETA activists in their acts.

Effectiveness of groups

FARC was mostly concentrated in Colombia’s southeastern region. But later FARC was drove away from the affected region and they had to stay hidden in jungle areas. Colombian government finally declare FARC as a terrorist group along with some other countries like United States, New Zealand. Besides this there were other countries which considered FARC as official military forces and even asked the government of Colombia to FARC a title of fighting army of Colombia. The Colombian government laid some conditions for the same which covered FARC to stop illegal activities like kidnapping and other terrorism methods but nothing went into place hence nothing was done in this context. At later stage, under current government of Colombia, FARC agreed to some of these conditions and announced an end to kidnapping and ransom. In lieu to have a good relationship in future they even released some of the soldiers who were kidnapped earlier but at the same time there was no news on civilian release from FARC which were kidnapped with an intension of ransom which lead people of Colombia against FARC (Forero, 2015).

The Government of Spain declared ETA a terrorist organization and many times took extreme police measures to remove ETA from Spain. Many ETA activists were tortured, killed and imprisoned by Spanish government in response to that ETA activists committed violent acts to force government to fulfill their political needs (Curtis & Karacan, 2002). After they failed to spoil Olympics of Barcelona, they changed their tactics and targeted the state officials and representatives. The main reason for this change was that the officials like judges, councilors etc. have more impact on public opinion. ETA has close connections with Irish Republican Army (IRA) and several times follows its strategies (Shepard, 2002). Apart from illegal terrorist attacks ETA was also involved in narcotics trafficking. They were having internal wars to control market in Spain. They used to trade cocaine and heroin to get illegal weapons to support their activities. ETA also traded Hamas with explosives to Middle Eastern terrorist group which they stole from Brittany.

Recorded Causalities

Around 2 lac people died in a civil war started by FARC group. Many were disappeared or lost in the war. Their motive is to have full influence or control on the region in Columbia (Combs & Slann, 2009). Apart from that, they also want to be armed after the government agree their demand of region control. They also want to have their political party and a way to give rebellions their normal life back (Mapping Militant Organization, 2015). A group of young Basques, founded ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna) - Basque Homeland and Security in 1959. This group was formed to get the independence for the region where Basques lived in Spain from the latest invader, the dictator of Spain, General Francisco Franco. They killed 800 people and injured many in search of independence (Sanchez, 2009).

Conclusion

Terror in any form is harmful to humanity and it costs a lot. A terrorist is also not doing any good for oneself by putting life at risk. Be it rebel or Jihad, if a group of people is doing illegal and harmful activities then they are considered as terrorists. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, "FARC" (Abbot, 2014) and Home organization & freedom Spanish "ETA" groups are such examples of rebellions initially but declared as terrorist afterwards. FARC is a result of Colombian government’s injustice to the farmers, where ETA is a result of demand for independent country. The activities of both the organization killed many people. These groups learns various techniques of attacks, wars and use them on political groups which indirectly affects the common man also. Both groups are carrying various tactics like kidnapping, murders, bombings etc. To stop such groups, governments are forced to take strict actions and declare such groups as terrorist groups (NCTC. 2016).

References

Abbot, P. K. (2014). The Intractable Conflict: Why Colombia’s War against the FARC Eludes Resolution. Retrieved February 10, 2016, from https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=15&ved=0ahUKEwiBzqLMi-7KAhUIHo4KHcxqAV8QFghtMA4&url=http%3A%2F%2Fsmallwarsjournal.com%2Fprintpdf%2F17369&usg=AFQjCNF5wm26hVbhTm8-YYwygBVXPxOgww&sig2=Y_yU0YKUzdi6bzByZpRWcQ&cad=rjas

Alfredo, M. (2000). The evolution of the FARC: A guerrilla group's long history. NACLA Report on the Americas, 34(2): 23-31.

Anderson, W. (2003). The ETA: Spain's Basque Terrorists, inside the world's most infamous terrorist organizations. New York: The Rosen Publishing Group.

BBC. (2011). What is Eta? Retrieved February, 10, from, http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-11183574­

Combs, C. C., & Slann, M. W. (2009). Encyclopedia of Terrorism, Revised Edition. New York: Infobase Publishing.

Curtis, E. G., & Karacan, T. (2002). The nexus among terrorists, narcotics, traffickers, weapons proliferators, and organized crime networks in Western Europe. Retrieved February 10, 2016, from http://www.loc.gov/rr/frd/pdf-files/WestEurope_NEXUS.pdf

Douglass, W. A., & Zulaika. (1990). On the Interpretation of Terrorist Violence: ETA and the Basque Political Process. Comparative Studies in Society and History, 32 (2):  238-257

Forero, J. (2015). Colombia, FARC Rebel Group Reach Breakthrough Agreement in Peace Talks Sides agree on disarmament, war crime prosecution issues. Retrieved February 10, 2016, from http://www.wsj.com/articles/colombia-farc-guerrillas-make-key-advance-in-peace-talks-1443027656

Fox, E. (2012). FARC Diversifying Tactics with Unconventional Explosives. Retrieved February 10, 2016, from http://www.insightcrime.org/news-briefs/farc-diversifying-tactics-with-unconventional-explosives

Mapping Militant Organization. (2015). Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - People's Army. Retrieved February 10, 2016, from https://web.stanford.edu/group/mappingmilitants/cgi-bin/groups/view/89

NCTC. (2016). Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Retrieved February 10, 2016, from http://www.nctc.gov/site/groups/farc.html

Renwick, D. (2016). FARC, ELN: Colombia's Left-Wing Guerrillas. Retrieved February 10, 2016, from http://www.cfr.org/colombia/farc-eln-colombias-left-wing-guerrillas/p9272

Sanchez, F., & Palau, M. (2006). Conflict, decentralisation and local governance in colombia, 1974-2004. Retrieved February 10, 2016, from http://www.lse.ac.uk/internationalDevelopment/research/crisisStates/download/seminars/SanchezJune06.pdf

Sanchez, I. (2009). Explaining temporal variation in the lethality of ETA. Retrieved February 10, 2016, from http://recursos.march.es/web/ceacs/proyectos/dtv/pdf/Explaining%20temporal%20variation%20in%20the%20lethality%20of%20ETA%20RIS.pdf

Shepard, W. S. (2002). The ETA: Spain Fights Europe’s Last Active Terrorist Group. Mediterranean Quarterly (Winter): 54-68.

U.S. Vice President’s Task Force. (1988). Terrorism Group Profiles. Retrieved February 10, 2016, from https://books.google.co.in/books?id=55BZmIJ9xd8C&pg=PA102&dq=The+Revolutionary+Armed+Forces+of+Colombia,+%22FARC&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=The%20Revolutionary%20Armed%20Forces%20of%20Colombia%2C%20%22FARC&f=false

Vargas, R. (1999).The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the Illicit Drug Trade. Retrieved February 10, 2016, from https://www.tni.org/en/briefing/revolutionary-armed-forces-colombia-farc-and-illicit-drug-trade