After decades of endemic violence, the Colombian government seems to have found an effective response to the extreme-left insurgency movements, thanks to its strategy of integral action. In a probably inexorable process of internal decline, the FARC is surviving only by virtue of external aid. Close to success in stabilisation, Colombia now has to undertake the always difficult process of normalisation. A study of this ‘model’ can provide many lessons for Western observers.
Counter-Insurgency in Colombia: State of Play
‘Revolutionary warfare, a worldwide conflict, brings the struggle to the heart of societies
and to consciences.’
Ximenes, 1957
The year 2008 will undoubtedly be regarded as a crucial date in Colombian history, and may even signal the start of a new era of internal peace for a country that has been sunk in endemic violence for more than half a century. Recent announcements of victory against the FARC’s [Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia] Marxist guerrilla leadership, the re-establishment of government authority in ever-larger areas of territory, the return to a state of security in the bigger cities, all are successes that can be set to the credit of a counter-insurgency strategy that is original, effective and pursued determinedly: integral action.
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