Socio-economic structure of the FARC-EP

The socio-economic structure of the FARC-EP refers to the FARC's social structure and economic activities. The FARC is mostly a military organization, but generally these aspects are considered to be of importance by analysts. There are lot of non-military policies and activities involved, implemented throughout the FARC's history, but these tend to collide with the actual proven actions of the FARC.

The FARC began kidnapping for ransoms to generate income in 1971, and later resorted to extortions or "taxations" to landowners and companies, cattle raiding, racketeering. With the development of the Illegal drug trade in Colombia, FARC imposed taxation on coca growers or protection racket for drug cartels. The revenues from the illegal drug trade raised to represent most of the FARC income to support their survival as organization. All revenue was passed to the Secretariat which in turn redistributed among its fronts.

The social structure of the FARC combines militaristic rank structure and ideological tendencies. FARC's lower rank fighters are not paid and are mandated or sometimes forced to live under extreme weather conditions. The base of FARC's recruits are poor peasants which joined the FARC due to a series of factors; being poverty, unemployment and family instability the most common causes, as well vengeance, for those victims of the opposite side. Some other members as in the case of alias "Martin Caballero" and family who were raised within FARC. Some of the members also live in villages camouflaged among the civilian population. Almost half of the FARC guerrillas are females and an important number of its forces are also composed by .

Early social theory

The FARC had adopted the Marxist theory that "the baby of the new society, is inside the pregnant mother of the old society", as a way to implement their non-military policies and activities. Many of these policies were introduced to them by one of their main founders and ideological leaders, Jacobo Arenas.

The FARC's practical adaptation of several relevant Communist theories into Colombian society started towards the 1950s in the Marquetalia region during La Violencia era. The Communist Party of Colombia (PCC) was responsible for this as they sent Jacobo Arenas and other FARC ideologues to carry out the necessary tasks. Their activities can be considered as close to those of the "Chinese Revolution", since such socio-economic developments sought to implement a structure somewhat similar to that existing between the Chinese peasant movement and the supporting role of the People's Liberation Army (PLA).

In May 1964 a U.S. supported Colombian military offensive scattered the Communist guerrillas and peasants in Marquetalia, destroying the primitive communist infrastructure established there alleging that these were "bandoleros" (bandits). Some of these survivors regrouped later and with the experience that they had acquired, they were able to build several small scale enclaves in southern Colombia and eventually founded the FARC.

For the purpose of realizing the practical existence of the FARC's socio-economic policies outsiders visited territories under the FARC's control. Throughout the decades, many journalists, reporters and intelligence experts from Colombia, Latin America and beyond the region visited the FARC's fragmented enclaves in remote rural areas. The reports produced by these visitors were later taken into consideration by the FARC's outside supporters and sympathizers, as well as the United States supported Colombian government to counter FARC's ideals.

The Colombian government contradicts these alleging that the armed struggle is illegal and that the FARC represented intolerant political views to the established democracy, these proven by the numerous military actions perpetrated against the civilian population and its involvement in the illegal drug trade. The Colombian government, the United States and the European union classified FARC as a terrorist organization also arguing that the whole notion of armed struggle or political crimes perpetrated by FARC were irrational, also adding that their actions illegitimated their claim of fighting for the people.

Political doctrine
The political doctrine of the FARC-EP is based on Marxism-Leninism, Cuban and Guevarean influence, Bolivarian ideology and Christian Liberation theology. The FARC's political doctrine covers every fact relating to their society as result of the mixture of the above philosophies, illustrating the perspectives of the political and socio-economic model of their future socialist state.

Several resulting beliefs are symbolically represented in the FARC-EP's flag. The symbol in the center is a book, surrounded by two rifles in the middle of a map of Colombia, transmitting the message "learn and fight for Colombia", which is of ideological importance as it highlights the pedagogic aspect of the FARC's socio-economic structure. The three colors in the background are yellow, blue and red, which are common to the flags of Ecuador, Venezuela and Colombia in northern Latin America. These colors also indicate the region's shared past and identity under Simón Bolívar's Greater Colombia.

The person who is usually credited for introducing the proper political doctrine to the organization was Jacobo Arenas. He spent most of his time in the mountains, jungles and remote villages, having to make several sacrifices and enduring hardships. Arenas intended to build the FARC's political doctrine, believed that the FARC would eventually guide Colombian society towards what he perceived as liberation from socio-economic inequality.

The Colombian government argues that the FARC uses the idea of a political doctrine for the whole purpose of distracting attention from their main focus which is their terrorist criminal industry.

Marxism and Leninism
In February 1848, Communists of various nationalities under the leadership of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels assembled in London and sketched the "Manifesto of the Communist Party", which was later published in English, French, German, Italian, Flemish and Danish.

The preface of the book begins like this: "A spectre is haunting Europe - the spectre of communism. All the powers of old Europe have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this spectre: Pope and Tsar, Metternich and Guizot, French Radicals and German police-spies". From a Communist perspective, the reality of this statement is similarly applicable into the situation of Latin America today, as considered by the FARC. In other words, "a spectre of Communism is haunting Latin America and the United States is allied with the capitalist and imperialist powers to exorcise this spectre". In recent years, the FARC and its support have related this to the former president of the United States George H. W. Bush, who once said that "the imperialist, aggressive communism is dead, and there are no chances for its revival, in my view", at a media conference held soon after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

The FARC has openly sought to put in practice Communist theory from 1964 onward. One person believed responsible for this practice was Jacobo Arenas, and he taught his fellow revolutionaries quoting the books such as Das Kapital, Development of Capitalism in Russia and Guerrilla Warfare, written by Karl Marx / Friedrich Engels, V.I. Lenin and Che Guevara respectively. Many writings of Jacobo Arenas are about the adaptation of Communism into the Colombian socio-economic reality. In particular, the status given to women in the FARC's doctrine is considered to be a significant starting point, stating that men and women can assume the same roles in the guerilla organization, in spite of some differences due to their biological structure. In the FARC's ideal socialist state, women would participate in production while continuing to fulfil their duties as mothers, quoting the writings of Marx and Lenin regarding "women's liberation".

Jacobo Arenas is thought to have loved what he referred to as the "peasant culture" in China, appreciating the role of the People's Liberation Army (PLA). He believed that the PLA were supporting their people's work, just as he considered that the guerrillas in Marquetalia were doing the same. He taught FARC cadres to have solidarity with China in the future, for the future benefit of Colombia. He also stated that everybody in FARC should keep in mind that the workers in the Chinese manufacturing field were capable of producing from "the needle to the aircraft", as a displaying of their commitment to work for the benefit of their own country. Arenas further taught his cadres that the foundations for a manufacturing culture in China were established by Mao Zedong, and that one day they would be the leaders in the field, by supplying anything required in the world. The idea of having solidarity with China as a way of giving more benefits to a future state is also considered to have been supported by two famous people's thoughts about China. Napoleon, Emperor of the French, once stated that "China is like a sleeping giant, one day the will giant get up, and he will terrorize the whole world". Margaret Thatcher, the former prime minister of the United Kingdom later said that "China will be the next superpower".

One of the most significant activities put into practice by the FARC is their analysis of the failures and benefits of every Marxist theory, adapted to the diverse revolutionary states and movements around the world. The clandestine political bases of the FARC within rural villages and urban municipalities study these aspects deeply. Sometime in the future, it is thought that the FARC and their political bases will seize power in Colombia. After this, the FARC's political cadres and workers will be to carry out different tasks regarding nationwide socio-economic development. They also consider that they will then take into consideration the significant participation of women in the processes of production and agriculture in the People's Republic of China.

An important subject that Jacobo Arenas taught to the FARC cadres was anthropology, which intended to give them a suitable attitude for the "future socialist state of Colombia and the Communist world, which Karl Marx described is not a dream, it will become true one day". Anthropology was taught in lower to roughly equivalent to college level grades in FARC schools in different forms. Most of the guerrillas study in lower level grades which taught this subject in a summarized form, but in the higher grades the teachings are very in depth.

This subject has been historically taught in U.S.A. and U.K universities, sometimes divided into four fields, such as physical anthropology, cultural anthropology, linguistic anthropology and archeology. Jacobo Arenas intended to combine all the fields of study and also apply Marxist dialectical theory to it. Arenas also added to the FARC's anthropology courses an additional emphasis on the study of Colombian indigenous communities of the Cauca department (some of them partially related to the Inca civilization, whose northernmost limit was near the southwest of Colombia). Marquetalia, where Arenas was involved in what was termed a "Project of Socialism", was located around the Tolima department, close to parts of Cauca. It is believe that his thoughts on the matter still echo within the FARC, and thus a number of its members would still believe that socialism is not a dream but will be future of mankind. This belief is thought to give them more strength to continue their life as a Marxist revolutionary in remote Andean jungles and valleys.

The study of anthropology, as Arenas taught, started with the study of civilizations. Karl Marx "believed that the beginning of the civilization was the beginning of the oppression", by analyzing early communist societies. Significant early civilizations include the Maya and Inca in America, in addition to others in Africa and the Middle-east such as the Mesopotamian and Babylonian civilization, as well as Europe's Western civilization from Athens (Greece), the Asia Indus Valley and China Howangho civilizations. Jacobo Arenas found an easy way to meet the goals of his study by analyzing the Inca civilization because of its famous archaeological site Machu Pichu in the Andean mountains of Peru. The famous Inca leader Tupac Amaru, from a Marxist interpretation, is thought to have showed the way to fight against oppression. Modern Latin American society has acquired massive influences from the Athens based Western civilization, but ever dwindling minority segments of the Latin America population still have strong indigenous roots dating to the archaeological heritage of the Inca and Maya civilizations and their communities.

Arenas taught his students about the "evolution of man" in a Marxist perspective, supported by the theories of Charles Darwin. This is seen as very important in teaching communist ideology, because the theory of evolution can lead to conclude that the progression of humanity from primitive to modern status is similar to progression of society from early communism to feudalism, feudalism to capitalism, capitalism to socialism, and socialism to communism. The Soviet scientist Nesthurrh wrote a book called "Evolution of Man" (published by : The Progress Publishers, Moscow) including how all those theories apply to Marxism, giving what can be considered as a clear picture of the scientific background of communism.

Cuba and Che Guevara
The 1959 triumph of the Cuban revolution greatly influenced revolutionaries all over the world and even in Latin America. This had been among the influences of the Colombian Communist Party's strategy of sending promising Party cadres such as Luis Morantes to organize the Liberal and Communist peasants in its areas of influence, in a manner akin to how Argentine-born Marxist revolutionary and guerrilla leader Ernesto Guevara ("Che" Guevara) helped organize Cuban revolutionaries.

After the fall of Marquetalia and the formation of the FARC in 1964, the ideas of Che Guevara and the Cuban revolution influenced Jacobo Arenas in his work as the ideological leader of the group. The death of Che Guevara in October 1967 was interpreted by the FARC as a display of revolutionary sacrifice, one that was held as an example by Jacobo Arenas and other guerrilla ideological figures.

The current health policies of Cuba, as understood by Communists, was introduced by Che Guevara, who gave top priority to their implementation. The FARC have taken this into consideration, teaching their cadres that while the United States and United Kingdom, as the main imperialist states, are spending large amounts of money and time in military matters, in Cuba the government is spending its own money and time for health and medical research. In other words, the FARC contrasts these two scenarios as, respectively, unfavorable and favorable examples for the rest of humankind. The efficiency of Cuba's health policies is usually accepted by most analysts in the world. An example of this refers to a graduation ceremony in the Havana medical school on August 20 2005, where Fidel Castro and Hugo Chávez participated as presidents of Cuba and Venezuela. During this event, more than 1500 graduates came from low-income families from all over the world, including from the United States, illustrating the universalization of Cuba's educational and health policies.

Guevara's ideas, as well as those of Cuba, came to be held as the correct revolutionary path in Latin America by Jacobo Arenas and his FARC comrades. Guevara's written works, such as Guerilla Warfare, Message to the Tri-continental and the Bolivian Diary were closely studied and appreciated by Colombian guerillas and are usually still kept as handbooks. Photos or images of Che Guevara, as well as political propaganda slogans such as "Che, the hero of Latin America", are prominent among FARC ideological teaching schools and media offices inside and outside Colombia, sometimes to a greater extent than those of other Communist leaders and theoreticians.

Bolivarianism and liberation theology

Simón Bolívar was born in Caracas, Venezuela and is considered as a South American revolutionary leader, credited with leading the fight for independence in what are now the nations of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Panama and Bolivia. He is often revered as a hero in these countries and is usually respected throughout much of the rest of Latin America. In 1812 Bolívar wrote his famous Cartagena Manifesto, whose interpretation has served as one of the inspirations for the FARC's own ideology.

The FARC considers him as a hero of Latin America, similar to José Martí in Cuba and others around the region. Bolivar fought against Spaniards to liberate the continent from their control and gave freedom to the people. The FARC consider that his ideas, while not precisely belonging to the far left or the far right, are useful as an example of revolutionary spirit and of the attention given to socio-economic matters. Bolivar paved the way for a better society in the region by "standing steadily" during challenging situations, which makes FARC cadres keep in mind that his role managed to change the attitudes of the people by making them feel independent and allowing them to organize in order to protect their independence. The president of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, is thought to share much of the same thinking and has stated that his "Bolivarian revolution" includes the protection and promotion of the values presented to Latin American society by Simón Bolívar, by defending the actions of his government from potential threats.

Liberation theology has sometimes been considered a form of Christian socialism and as such it greatly influenced Communists in Latin America, as well as Jesuit priests. Its influence has diminished in the Roman Catholic Church after the Second Vatican Council. While the Council included several important aspects of previous liberation theology, other elements were rejected by the Vatican. In particular, it is believed that Pope John Paul II's, opposition to the certain Marxist tendencies in the liberation theology increased the Church's rejection of liberation theology.

The FARC has adapted elements of this theology through its concern for the poor's suffering, their daily struggles and hopes, as part of a critique of modern society and the traditional attitudes of the Catholic faith. The relationship between this Christian theology and political activism, particularly in the areas of social justice and human rights, is considered important. The focus on Jesus as a liberator places emphasis on those parts of the Bible where Jesus' mission is described in terms of liberation, as a bringer of justice. From such a perspective, liberation theology can be added to Marxist concepts such as the doctrine of perpetual class struggle.

The FARC's interpretation of liberation theology to the FARC was inspired by the work of Óscar Romero, the archbishop of San Salvador which was killed by troops of the U.S. trained Atla Catle battalion while conducting a mass on March 24 1980. In 1997, he was assigned sainthood by Pope John Paul II, bestowing upon him the title of "Servant of God". Outside of Catholicism, Romero also is honored by other religious denominations, like the Church of England through its Common Worship. Romero has also been considered as a spiritual patron of Latin America and of liberation theology.


According to the Colombian government the FARC promotes fallacies about Bolivar's thoughts demonstrated in their indiscriminate military actions on to their own countrymen. In regards to liberation policy the FARC many times persecuted and executed members of the catholic church, adding to cases in which the FARC persecuted and confronted members of the liberation theology based National Liberation Army (ELN). These clashes with the ELN were mostly for the control of illegal plantations for the illegal drug trade.

"People's education"
The concept of "people's education´" was significant to the FARC even before the 1964 attack on Marquetalia. Traditionally, proper education has been limited to higher income classes in Latin America, as well as in Colombia, due to the historical absence of possibilities for free education. Illiterate peasant communities have historically existed throughout Colombia and the region. The FARC believe that human beings have the right to be educated, as education serves as the bridge towards a more developed society, in particular a socialist-based society. The FARC has come to spend resources to educate some of the people living inside territories where their influence is high and public education is otherwise lacking. Much of Western Civilization is based on the importance of education, but Latin American ruling classes tended to ignore that fact by not introducing free education policies in their nations. In some remote rural regions, FARC has implemented small scale free education programs, according to their limited facilities and resources, in order to improve the educational level among their social bases. These programs are designed to teach the people basic literacy and, in higher levels, attempt to introduce subjects such as anthropology, politics, economics and elements of civil administration, from a Marxist perspective.

Anthropology in FARC schools includes the history of humankind in Latin America and Colombia, taught using very simple methods. In particular, popular historical figures are highlighted. Simon Bolivar's role in South American history is mentioned as very significant to the FARC's ideology because it increased the morale of early Latin American independence fighters in the face of outside threats. Anthropology also covers the modern history of the region, some aspects of the evolution of human being and relatively little biology. These things are taught in simple ways due to the target audience's limited past educational background. The goal of this educational subjects is that the students will finally come to understand that socialism is the only solution to history's unresolved problems.


Economics, traditionally a subject for higher education, brings with it some difficulties in teaching its contents to rural Colombians with limited basic education. The FARC found a sufficient way to teach this by starting with basic things like domestic economy, which includes an explanation as to how all family members play a role as part of their own economical reality. In this study, domestic economy is then expanded to include the entire economy inside the student's rural enclave. After reaching that point, it is taught that human beings have a right from their birth to be educated, to own a house, to have a better health, to have entertainment, to participate in cultural programs and, altogether, to have a more comfortable life. However, this must be done without harming other people's lives, as the FARC considers that capitalists and imperialists do by gaining other people's wealth, both directly and indirectly. The final stage economics tries to make students understand how the United States is gaining direct benefits from their natural resources such as petroleum, natural gas and coal, and also investing its capital in local businesses. The concept of a Free Trade Area (FTA) is used to show how the United States seeks to indirectly gain their wealth. The FARC further teach that this has happened in Latin America for decades, and that countries like Cuba and Venezuela have later learned how to stand on their own feet to give more benefit to their people. As a result of these teachings, the Colombian people must learn to realize that poverty has infiltrated their lives since decades, generation after generation, due to economic exploitation.

Illegal drug trade

According to the Colombian government and the United States, the FARC no longer has ideological purpose and rather manage an illegal drugs emporium in a mafia-guerrilla style.

Politics and the state's power
Politics and the state's power is a subject taught by the FARC to its students starting from the current political situation of the country. It begins by analyzing the slogans used by political movements within their campaigns before coming to power. Later, the gap between their slogans and the promises implemented after gaining power is highlight with contemporary examples. The FARC teaches that the present politicians only introduce temporary solutions which make the situation worse by not acting on a national plan that will benefit all the people. This situation is considered as part of the "crisis of capitalism". The capitalist system collects capital from society, and since this capital is not used for the overall benefit of the people, it finally leads to crisis. Politicians do not have a proper solution for this, because their real policies are meant to establish capitalism and support imperialists in order to protect the state's power. FARC, quoting Lenin's "State and Revolution", teaches that the state's power is the legal framework of capitalism and it is working beyond society itself to gain more capital. The FARC teaches its students that the most political organizations are allegedly controlled by the CIA, as they serve the imperialists and not the people. In order to argue in favor of this, the socio-economic policies implemented by present politicians are analyzed, finding that present and future benefits for the imperialists. The FARC's teachers pose questions to students, such as why do financial budgets have to be balance according to the conditions demanded by foreign aid organizations, and why do politicians surrender to the socio-economic changes proposed by supranational organizations, such as the IMF and the World Bank.

Further education
After a series of formal educational programs are taught, the FARC changes the style of its educational system, focusing on discussion and not on standard teaching. "People's committees" are organized and gathered frequently to discuss present matters. If the committee decides that the solution to a particular matter can be provided by a military revolutionary action, a plan to be carried out is suggested and implemented. In several FARC influenced enclaves, farms and food crops are maintained by the "people's committees", and the benefits are shared among the committee members as well as among FARC fighters. The FARC encourages the inhabitants of these remote rural areas to work towards establishing smallscale manufacturing processes, giving them the necessary knowledge and technical advice. The goal of the FARC is to encourage their popular base towards building a manufacturing culture proportionally similar to that developed by the Republic of China.

In some areas under FARC control, some healthcare programs are organized to educate locals to develop and protect their own health. As for civil administration, it is taught through day to day examples and events. The judicial system, where possible, depends on the concept of revolutionary justice, where the necessary punishments, as judged by local guerrillas and the committees, are applied according to the different criminal acts. All these elements in the FARC's system of education seek to develop and sustain the image of the practical implementation of the FARC's model for a future socialist state.

People's economy
The base of the every economic system is production and depending on the different focuses it divided into two kinds that is focus of production is based on the requirement of the market and the requirement of the society. The production is based on the market we called it market economy and it is based on the needs of the society we called it socialist economy. The requirement of the market is depending on the amount of money which the people have and in the socialist economy they do a survey among the society to find out the requirement and the entire economy is focused on that. In the socialist economy they categorize the people's needs such as domestic goods (essential for day to day life such as food, clothing, medicine etc.), semi luxury items (not very much essential but it need for a comfortable life such as quality clothing, music/movies, telephones, radio/television, small vehicles (bicycles) etc.) and luxury items (the items are not essential). The production of the domestic items are very high amount in socialist economy and very little amount is luxury items.

The economy inside the FARC controlled enclaves around the country is at a very basic stage only producing domestic items but it influenced people greatly about the image of a socialist economy. The other side of this process is solidarity that is the FARC fighters supporting the people doing labor work to them in the production activities and also providing necessary knowledge to them. These activities feel the peasant community inside the enclaves that they are not isolated every matter which occurred to them the FARC also supporting them. The decades of practice in this economic system built a socialist sub culture inside the Colombian society but the majority of the people living with the underdeveloped economic system which practiced more than five decades with neglecting economic policies not the national plans.

The imperialist powers seizing their wealth like robbers they said, and they introduced a policy to gain its income for the benefit of the poor people in the country. The local capitalist are mostly involved in businesses which has no benefit for the country only for their prosperity such as investing their money in multi-national firms which takes the profit and most of the money flows outside the country. The FARC should consider all these things and will introduce a proper economic plan based on the policies which gave the benefit for the country.

Initial stage of socialist economy
The economy based on the requirements of the human. The top priority is given to the food, clothing and shelter. The leftists guerrillas in Colombia has got the experience about the small economies inside their rural enclaves. They first do the infrastructure development for the cultivation of domestic products such as some kind of grains. Then after getting the crop they stored it and distribute among the people under their control areas accordingly and they keep some stock another safety place for use it in the future disasters. The manufacturing of clothing has some difficulties then they bought some large stock from a cheaper place for distribution among the people for their daily needs and some quantity of good quality clothing for use of ceremonies for the people is also distributed. The making of shelter is more difficult than clothing and they participated with the people for the building of shelter. This small kind of economic system would gain some income and the people's support to the FARC.

The rural economy and the economy based on domestic consumption is quite different. The humans requirements are expanding and they need money for the education of the children, health, transportation, entertainment etc. The people living in these enclaves also find the ways to earn more money to fulfil the above requirements. The rebels has to involved in small manufacturing industries and cultivating of the plants which has high market value. In 1980's after paramilitary threat increased and their main business of drugs provoke and encourage the people in these enclaves to cultivate coca, the plant with a very high market value because it used to extract the cocaine (the most expensive drug in the world today).

There is another area which the people are involved in, that is the supplying of things to the FARC such as food and equipment needed them. The people who are living inside their control areas also encourage to supply things regularly to the FARC and they paying money to the people. The vocational training also provided by them to manufacture the things and some of the things relating to military are manufacturing secretly under the supervision of the guerrillas.

It has long been believed by the United States and the Colombian government that the FARC's main source of income is that of coca plant cultivation and cocaine production. The CIA believes that reducing coca farming and eliminating cocaine production will have strong economic repercussions for the FARC . Towards this end, the Plan Colombia has been organised.

Future plans
Colombia is a country which has valuable natural resources such as petroleum, natural gas and coal, which at present are controlled by American and Colombian corporations. The FARC, ELN, and similar organisations are in opposition to the foreign ownership of resources and wish to expropriate them in order to finance their own efforts and build their infrastructure further. There were several attacks carried out by the ELN to destroy the petroleum pipe line (Trans Andean) which runs through the north-eastern part of the Colombia and the United States aided and trained special army unit is operating in this area to protect it. The Colombian government has claimed that in the future it will use the revenue from these natural resources for the development of rural infrastructure, education and healthcare although they have yet to follow through with this proclamation; a majority of the population still lives in poverty with a declining standard of life. Although the countryside is well suited for agricultural purposes the land for the most part is not cultivated due to underlying circumstances; civil war, government intervention, and the large amount of coca farming by left and right-wing militias, and crime syndicates towards the end of cocaine production all being contributing factors. There has been a push in recent times by the government to build a strong agricultural sector but this has been hindered by both the ongoing civil war and the government's failure to control much of its claimed territory.

In recent times the FARC has been known to expropriate land owned by both foreign corporations, government agencies and Colombian civilians to further its military, economic, and political agendas and there is no foreseeable end to this in the future. It is likely that they will continue expropriating land for various purposes so as to further their war.

The FARC has implemented a plan of economic strangulation on the government through cornering the large urban centres. In controlling the countryside they effectively restrict the profit that the state government is able to make and are forced to redirect their economic plans largely into the cities themselves as the outlying areas become largely military concerns. The FARC has been known to kidnap influential intellectuals for various purposes and although this is not an integral part of their plans it seems that it will remain a part of their agenda for a time to come.
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