Colombia: 2nd FARC party congress under the sign of division

On November 1, 2020, former Colombian FARC combatants marched in Bogota to defend their rights under the 2016 peace accord. AP - Fernando Vergara

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The Farc party, resulting from the ex-Marxist guerrilla, is holding its second Congress this weekend.

A virtual congress, pandemic obliges, and a difficult congress.

Four years after signing the peace and surrendering arms, the 13,000 demobilized from the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia display their divisions. 

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Peace divided the movement resulting from the former Farc guerrilla, which became the revolutionary Alternative Force party of the municipality during a

first congress

in September 2017, reports our correspondent in Bogota, 

Marie-Ève ​​Detœuf

.

First fracture: that of the dissidents.

It was the guerrillas who took over the maquis.

They are a minority, itself divided into several factions that hate each other, but they recruit.

► 

To read also

: in Colombia: the dissidents of the FARC in competition

In August 2019, former FARC rebel leaders announced that they were resuming arms.

In a video published Thursday, August 29, the former number 2 of the guerrilla,

Ivan Marquez

, announced a second birth of the FARC, with the objective of fighting the oligarchy and corruption.

The other divide, the one that worries today, is the one that opposes the leadership and the base within the party.

The leadership is held by the former guerrilla commanders who now occupy

a seat in Congress

, pursuant to the peace accord.

Basis not understood by management

The base are these thousands of demobilized combatants who live mostly in rural areas, in still very precarious conditions.

The

violence multiply

.

More than 250 demobilized people have been assassinated in four years and

last July

the United Nations special envoy for Colombia alerted the Security Council to these murders.

The base feels abandoned, misunderstood by the leadership, which in turn is divided.

► 

See also: Colombia: ex-combatants of the FARC march for peace in Bogota

The leaders do not agree on the strategy to be implemented to deal with the situation and to propose a political project to the rest of the country.

The Farc, which were a large, united and disciplined guerrilla, have become a small, very divided party.

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