Colombia currently has an estimated population of more than 9 million internally displaced people (IDPs). The violence also provoked mass displacement as many people were forced to leave their homes to escape the violence of armed actors.

Many communities were affected by massacres, widespread sexual violence, forced disappearances, assassinations, bombings and landmines.

The violence perpetrated by the guerrilla and paramilitary groups varied from region to region, between rural and urban areas, and depended on the armed actors that were present. They were also involved in drug production. The AUC (United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia) was the most notorious paramilitary group and had links with the Colombian Army and Colombian Government. Wealthy elites and large landowners were scared of the guerillas attacking them and taking over their land and homes so they paid groups of people to deal with guerilla forces. Paramilitary groups also started to emerge at this time. This included kidnapping civilians and forcing families to pay money for their safe return, and eventually drug production and trafficking. At the end of the Cold War this funding stopped so they moved into criminal activity to sustain themselves. In the beginning, FARC funded its fighting with money provided by the Soviet Union.

Other guerrilla groups emerged during this time such as the ELN (National Liberation Army) in 1964 and M-19 in 1970.įARC, ELN and M-19 were frustrated with the narrow political system that only allowed for liberal and conservative rule and settled on armed struggle as a means to achieve political change. FARC was the military wing of Colombia’s Communist Party and the founders were small farmers and rural workers. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) was founded in 1964.

History of colombian armed conflict