For almost half a century, Columbia has been engaged in a relentless battle against a wellorganized leftist guerilla group known as Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia -Ejército del Pueblo (FARC for short). This heavily-armed organization -originally created to defend the rights of the country's forgotten poor -has several goals. Among them are to overthrow the Colombian government, create a new state founded on Marxist-Leninist principles, liberate the country from the ruling-class

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... es, and defeat the lawless national military. One of the United States' staunchest allies, Colombia is a dichotomy of sorts. Not only is it one of our key military and trading partners in Latin America, it is also one of the world's leading producers of cocaine (third behind Peru and Bolivia). The revenue generated from this illicit drug trade is what sustains the FARC -undoubtedly the primary national security threat to Colombia as well as a key antagonist in America's ongoing war on drugs. It is therefore in our national interest to help Colombia resolve its internal struggle, and understanding the FARC and the role it plays in the region is an essential part of that effort. Over the decades, two main bodies of thought have emerged regarding the FARC. The first views the organization as one that began with a revolutionary cause but degraded into a violent criminal network of narco-traffickers and rent-seeking profiteers. This group rejects the notion of a peace settlement and believes the only way to deal with the FARC is with a heavy-handed approach similar to the one implemented by President Álvaro Uribe from 2002 to 2010. Meanwhile, the other camp sees the FARC as a well-organized insurgency fueled by an ideology possessing legitimate economic, social, and political elements. As such, they advocate diplomacy and formal peace negotiations like those attempted in the early 2000's under President Andrés Pastrana and again by Colombia's current president, Juan Manuel Santos. There is no debating the fact that the FARC began as a small, politically-motivated insurgency that evolved into a very large and complex guerilla organization. Where the debate comes into play for the two competing interpretations is whether the FARC remains at its core a revolutionary movement. This author contends -based on extensive review of policy and literature on the matter -that the FARC is indeed a legitimate insurgency with deep roots in society. It is therefore argued that the second camp's viewpoint is a more accurate assessment of the situation. Defeating the FARC once and for all will not be easy. As this paper reveals, the FARC is much more than a band of narco-terrorists and rent-seeking profiteers. Consequently, treating it as just another criminal organization is a mistake ... this has been done before and has failed to achieve positive results. The Santos administration seems to recognize this fact and its multi-faceted approach to combating the FARC (negotiating peace while keeping its military options open) appears to be working and must be continued. It is therefore in America's national interest to see that the FARC is treated as a legitimate insurgency and not just a criminal entity. For almost half a century, Columbia has been engaged in a relentless battle against a well-organized leftist guerilla group known as the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia -Ejército del Pueblo (FARC for short). This heavily-armed organization -originally created to defend the rights of the country's forgotten poor -has several goals. Among them are to overthrow the Colombian government, create a new state founded on Marxist-Leninist principles, liberate the country from the ruling-class elites, and defeat the lawless national military. 1 One of the United States' staunchest allies, Colombia is a dichotomy of sorts. Not only is it one of our key military and trading partners in Latin America, it is also one of the world's leading producers of cocaine. 2 The revenue generated from this illicit drug trade is what sustains the FARC -undoubtedly the primary national security threat to Colombia as well as a key antagonist in America's ongoing war on drugs. It is therefore in the United States' national interest to help Colombia resolve its internal struggle, and understanding the FARC and the role it plays in the region is an essential part of that effort. Over the decades, two main bodies of thought have emerged regarding the FARC. The first views the organization as one that began with a revolutionary cause but degraded into a violent criminal network of narco-traffickers and rent-seeking profiteers. This group rejects the notion of a peace settlement and believes the only way to deal with the FARC is with a heavyhanded approach similar to the one implemented by President Álvaro Uribe from 2002 to 2010. Meanwhile, the other camp sees the FARC as a well-organized insurgency fueled by an ideology possessing legitimate economic, social, and political elements. As such, they advocate diplomacy and formal peace negotiations like those attempted in the early 2000's under President Andrés Pastrana and again by Colombia's current president, Juan Manuel Santos. 2 There is no debating the fact that the FARC began as a small, politically-motivated insurgency that evolved into a very large and complex guerilla organization. Where the debate comes into play for the two competing interpretations is whether the FARC remains at its core a revolutionary movement. This author contends -based on extensive review of literature on the matter -that the FARC is indeed a legitimate insurgency with deep roots in society. It is therefore argued that the second camp's viewpoint is more accurate, making President Santos' current strategy of embracing peace talks the correct course of action. To defend this position, this paper will provide a brief overview of the FARC's history and how it built its power. Additionally, it will examine the FARC's revolutionary behavior during Colombia's last three presidential administrations in an effort to show that it is much more than a criminal enterprise. Finally, it will provide a short discussion of what Colombia can do to achieve success in its halfcentury-long battle against the FARC. Background/History of the FARC: