I´ll try to be as brief as possible. I will write the historic context in which the FARC-EP was founded and the reasons, then I will go over some important facts over these las 50 years of armed conflict and I will finalize with an explanation of the Peace Process and the upcoming political scenario. Colombia is a country that has lived the most part of its republican life with internal wars, since the 19th century up until now. The current conflict is dated back to late 40s decade, when there was a popular liberal leader named Jorge Eliecer Gaitán... He had a social agenda and the elites did not like it, he had gained a lot of strength and he was going to win the presidential elections... They decided to kill him... This generated a big social discontent and riots took place all over the country... Then the historic period of "La Violencia" (the violence) started, in which the conservatives and the liberals were at war... Liberal guerrillas where conformed and they disputed territories and political posts... The people where being killed and displaced from their land because they did not align with the correct political party (liberal or conservative) and because the elite started accumulating wealth through that massive displacement of land. Then, a man named Pedro Antonio Marín or Manuel Marulanda Velez (his guerrilla name) created a guerrilla in a region named Marquetalia in order to defend himself and the peasants of the town against conservative and state violence... They had political ideals but it wasn’t until a man named Jacobo Arenas, from the Communist Party joined Manuel Marulanda and conformed the FARC-EP in 1964... The US had the Plan LASO (Latin American Security Operation) within their cold war frame of thought they gave advice and help to the Colombian State on fighting and destroying all insurgent groups.... The FARC-EP was conformed with communist ideals and the aim of governing Colombia.... War took place for many years and then in the 80´s a Peace Process started... There was a cease of fire and the FARC-EP helped to create the "Unión Patriótica" (Patriotic Union) (UP from now on) with other left wing sectors in order to dispute power within the democratic framework..... Turns out to be, that in 2-3 years, the UP had a lot of political strength and many people voted for them, acquiring many elected posts... Then, as in the case of Gaitán, the elites did not like that, so they decided to kill everyone... Over 5000 people from the UP were murdered by paramilitary groups with the help of State forces.... The FARC-EP continued the war because there were no political guarantees for the exercise of politics.... Then, in the early 90s there was a brief peace process (Tlaxcala and Caracas) and in the late 90´s another one (El Caguán) ... Those peace processes failed, the US brought in more money and weapons and the war took its highest level of confrontation and disproportionality (The Armed Forces with their high technology for war and planes and bombs, and the FARC-EP as a guerrilla).... After many years, the State was not able to defeat the FARC-EP.... Then, 4 years ago the current Peace Process at Havana, Cuba started.... In this occasion, both sides created an agenda of talks and a methodology that helped to generate a lot of progress, plus, the elites seem to have faced the fact that they could not military defeat the FARC-EP and the FARC-EP could not defeat them either... So everyone was losing in an endless war.... Both sides had to give in.... And a Final Peace Agreement has been recently reached... The Agreement has profound political and social content in all of its 300 pages, Land Reform, Political Participation, Solution to the problem of Illicit Drugs, Victims and End of Conflict are the core points, each of them designed to be implemented in the years to come and the agreement if approved by the Colombian population (october 2, 2016) through a referendum, then it will aquire the status of "Special Agreement" within the Geneva Convention, making it of constitutional level within the Colombian legislation and shielding it from non compliance in future government administrations.... Many challenges to come, but the FARC-EP is ready to advance, as in the 80´s to a new stage of the political struggle and dispute political power to the traditional governing elites. Follow the FARC-EP International website: www.farc-epeace.org Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FARC-EP-Working-for-Peace-1742373442710746/?ref=aymt_homepage_panel Twitter: @FARC_EPeace

In comparison with drug cartels, the power was different and we can say less. Because drug cartels had also paramilitary groups working for them and they had a lot of people within the State, alot of politicians working for them even to this day. They have always been far right winged and they have had the help of many State officials. They also have a lot of money. The FARC-EP is NOT A DRUG CARTEL as the media and governments have said.... This is false propaganda against the FARC-EP in order to make the political roots of the conflict and existence invisible and just say "it’s a bunch of people that fight because they are drug dealers" which doesn’t even make since because no FARC-EP member has ever been seen having a luxurious life such as the one that drug lords have. The economic circumstances in which many peasants are at in Colombia and many rural communities is one in which growing let’s say vegetables, fruits etc. is not profitable for surviving because these crops have a lesser value in the market than the one needed for their production (these rural communities don’t even have roads to be able to transport their goods thus considerably raising the production cost)... so then they have no alternative than to grow illicit crops such as coca and sell it to drug cartels.... What the FARC-EP has done is to tax these drug cartels and ensure that these communities are not harassed by these people... That´s why they say that the FARC-EP is a "narco terrorist" organization. But no drug cartel (because of its economic objectives) will ever stay united for so many decades nor when reaching a peace process will prioritize the political and social agenda of the agreements.... I suggest everyone to review the agreements and their content, it can be found at www.farc-epeace.org