Q&A: Betancourt and Farc

Last Modified: 03 Jul 2008
By: Channel 4 News

Who are Farc? Who is Ingrid Betancourt? And what are the implications of yersterday's events in Colombia?

Who is Farc?
Farc, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, is the oldest and largest group among Colombia's left-wing rebels. Founded in 1964, with a declaration to use armed force to overthrow the government and install a Marxist regime, it has become one of the world's richest guerrilla armies.

In the 1990s Farc changed, becoming increasingly involved in the drug trade to raise money for its campaign. Some analysts believe the group now use extortion and kidnapping as an end in themselves as part of their role in the drug trade.

Despite an offensive launched against Farc by president Alvaro Uribe on his election in 2002, the rebels still control about a third of the country, mainly in the south and east.

Farc had about 16,000 fighters in 2001, according to the Colombian government, but some reports suggest their numbers are now down to about 9,000.

Who is Ingrid Betancourt?
Betancourt was born in Colombia on Christmas day in 1961 and grew up in Paris where her father was a diplomat. In 1989 she returned to Colombia and five years later was elected to the lower house. By 1998 she had become a senator but her plans to become president were thwarted in 2002 when she was kidnapped by Farc rebels.

Betancourt was among around 40 high-profile hostages whom the rebels had offered to free if the government released hundreds of jailed rebels and set up in a demilitarised zone. She was held until yesterday, when she was freed by Colombian soldiers posing as members of a non-government organisation.

After being reunited with her family at an air base in Bogota, she thanked President Uribe, against whom she was running when she was kidnapped.

What is the background to yesterday's capture?
A segregated society, with a vast divide between rich and poor, Colombia has been ravaged by decades of civil conflict long synonymous with drug-trafficking.

From the majority of the Colombian population, poor and of mixed race, came the left-wing insurgents who now fall into to groups: Farc and the smaller ELN (National Liberation Army).

On the other side, the right-wing paramilitaries (led by the AUC, the United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia) have their roots in vigilante groups founded by the wealthy landowners, generally of Spanish descent, keen to protect their wealth from the rebels.

Both sides have been involved in drug-trafficking, which has formed that backdrop to a guerrilla war from which the civilian population has little relief.

At least 3,000 civilians are believed to die every year as a result of the conflict. And high-profile figures are also targeted, as was Betancourt. Over the decades, some three million people have been internally displaced by the fighting.

Human rights advocates blame paramilitaries for massacres, "disappearances", and cases of torture and forced displacement. Rebel groups are behind assassinations, kidnapping and extortion.

What are the international implications?
The world watches Colombia closely as a centre of international drug-trafficking. The US is heavily involved as up to 90 per cent of all cocaine on American streets comes from Colombia.

Colombia's president Alvaro Uribe has been under great pressure from the rest of the world to tackle the guerrillas. He has always refused, despite the fact that they held significant captives like Betancourt.

Now international pressure from Nicolas Sarkozy of France and Hugo Chavez of Venezuela is likely to ease as Uribe's tough line on the rebels appears to have paid off.

What are the implications of yesterday's capture?
The Colombian security forces' rescue of 15 hostages from Farc has jeapordised the left-wing guerrillas' plans to secure the release of hundreds of rebels in prison. Not only this, but Farc has also lost its main diplomatic weapon to force the government into making concessions.

It's another in a series of blows to the rebel group, who have recently lost their founder and leader, 78-year-old Manuel Marulanda to a heart attack, top commander Paul Reyes to a Colombian air force bombing and leader Ivan Rios, murdered by one of his bodyguards.