A missile and mortar attack marred his inauguration. Uribe took office in 2002 at a time when the Colombian capital was virtually encircled by FARC forces. aid package, appears to have seriously degraded the rebels’ ability to challenge the state. And it continues to hold 700 hostages, bargaining chips that preclude a quick end to the group’s 44-year-long insurgency.īut President Alvaro Uribe’s strategy of aggressively taking the fight to the FARC, backed by a $5 billion U.S. The number of militants has dropped by about half in the past decade, but it still has about 10,000 armed guerrillas spread from the Caribbean to the isthmus of Panama. Security officials caution that the rebel group retains some sting. The nature of the rescue mission – in which government agents posed as rebels and freed the hostages without firing a shot – was widely seen as a deep humiliation and public relations disaster for the FARC. defense contractors whom the rebels viewed as human shields against all-out government attacks. Now the FARC has lost its trophy hostages: ex-presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt and three U.S. The group has suffered the deaths of top leaders, seen large-scale defections of supporters, and is being squeezed for the money it needs to sustain its operations. ![]() Once fueled by Marxist ideology and awash in narcotics profits, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, now finds itself facing a more robust Colombian military led by a popular president. ![]() BOGOTA, Colombia – The sensational rescue of 15 hostages from the grip of Latin America’s largest rebel group has highlighted the severely diminished state of an organization that just six years ago threatened to overrun the Colombian government.
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