Colombia : 50 Years of Insurgency

Colombia is a country that has been in some form of conflict for the past 50+ years. One of only 3 countries in the Western Hemisphere that Foreign Policy has put in the critical condition, Colombia is slowly but surely improving. From an increased national security platform, to increased political maneuvering with homegrown insurgent groups, Colombia has gone from a ranking of 46 in 2010 to 57 in 2013.

While the exact origins of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) are unknown, the group has generally been around since the 1950's, and has gone through waves of popularity and strength. During the late 1990s and beginning of the millennium they reached their peak of power, even gaining complete control of some rural areas of the country. However, since 2005, the government of Colombia has gone on the offensive and put the FARC in a reactionary mode. Killing 4 or 5 of the top leaders, the FARC has never recovered and continues to lose credibility and strength. Since 2012, the government and FARC leadership have been sitting down to meetings in hopes of reaching an end to this half a century conflict the BBC reports.

One of the biggest problems the country still faces is the drug trade and attempted enforcement and regulation. CIA World Factbook reports Colombia as being the world's largest producer of coca derivatives and the largest supplier to the U.S. drug market. This drug trade gives millions of dollars to the various trafficking groups which make them a very difficult adversary for the government to combat. Even after receiving 728 million dollars worth of aid in 2006 just from the United States, the Colombian government is still having problems controlling and effectively enforcing drug laws.