A third Colombian group on the State Department’s terrorist list is the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), which comprises several right-wing paramilitary groups supported by wealthy landowners, drug cartels, and segments of the Colombian military. AUC forces have assassinated leftist guerrillas, politicians, activists, and other Colombian civilians. Because Colombia’s government has little control of any territory outside the country’s major cities, all three organizations have been able to expand their operations and prosper by trading in cocaine, opium, oil, gold, and emeralds. Alvaro Uribe Velez won a landslide victory in Colombia’s May 2002 presidential election by promising to crack down on the rebels.

When were FARC and ELN founded?
In the 1960s, after Colombia’s two main political parties ended more than a decade of political violence and agreed to share power. In 1963, students, Catholic radicals, and left-wing intellectuals hoping to emulate Fidel Castro’s communist revolution in Cuba founded ELN. FARC formed in 1966, bringing together communist militants and peasant self-defense groups.

What do FARC and ELN want?
Although ELN is more ideological than FARC, the two groups have similar programs: both say they represent the rural poor against Colombia’s wealthy classes and oppose American influence in Colombia (particularly Plan Colombia), the privatization of natural resources, multinational corporations, and rightist violence. The two groups are rival forces, and FARC now represents a direct threat to ELN.

How large are FARC and ELN?
FARC is Colombia’s largest and best-equipped rebel group, with some 18,000 members. It operates in about half the country, mostly in the jungles of the southeast and the plains at the base of the Andes mountains. In 1999, during peace negotiations between the Colombian government and FARC, then President Andres Pastrana ceded control of an area twice the size of New Jersey to FARC. After three years of fruitless negotiations and a series of high-profile terrorist acts, Pastrana ended the peace talks in February 2002 and ordered Colombian forces to start retaking the FARC-controlled zone.

The smaller ELN, which operates mainly in northeastern Colombia, has about 4,000 members, although advances by AUC paramilitaries have damaged ELN’s strength, size, and support base. The Pastrana administration negotiated with the ELN but denied ELN requests for the sort of zone of control the government granted FARC.

What sorts of terrorist attacks have FARC and ELN committed?
FARC is responsible for most of the ransom kidnappings in Colombia; the group targets wealthy landowners, foreign tourists, and prominent international and domestic officials. FARC stepped up terrorist activities against infrastructure in cities before Colombia’s May 2002 presidential election. Recent FARC operations include:

• the February 2002 hijacking of a domestic commercial flight and kidnapping of a Colombian senator on board;
• the February 2002 kidnapping of a presidential candidate, Ingrid Betancourt, who was traveling in guerrilla territory;
• the October 2001 kidnapping and assassination of a former Colombian minister of culture; and
• the March 1999 murder of three American missionaries working in Colombia, which resulted in a U.S. indictment of FARC and six of its members in April 2002.

ELN, which is also known for kidnapping wealthy Colombians for ransom, uses bombing campaigns and extortion against multinational and domestic oil companies. ELN attacks on oil pipelines have killed civilians and drawn the attention of the Bush administration, which has suggested training the Colombian armed forces to protect oil facilities.