200 words 1 reference (in text citations a must) Response to peer DB
One group that stuck out to me in this week’s reading was FARC, also known as the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia (Sullivan & Beittel, 2013). They were started in Columbia but are now one of the largest terrorist groups in all of South America. They are responsible for 377 attacks which is over 2/3 of all terrorist attacks in their hemisphere. IN 2007 several of the FARC commanders were killed by the government’s military which has weakened their forces. Even after the killing of their Raul Reyes, their second in command, the FARC is still thought to have around 8,000 members. At their peak in 2002, it is estimated that they had a membership of over 20,000. Although this group has gotten smaller it has not stopped the amount of destruction they create. They are still responsible for kidnappings, extortion, infrastructure and terrorist attacks (Sullivan & Beittel, 2013). In 2013 they were responsible for the Columbian military seized 3.9 tons of cocaine from a drug storage that was controlled by the FARC.
The FARC has managed to spread over the years from Columbia into several other countries. The Panamanian government has made an effort in recent years to keep patrol and paid the FARC camps. They are also present in Peru where they use certain areas to recuperate and make arms purchases (Sullivan & Beittel, 2013). The FARC seems to slowly have their resources and aides cut off, but then magically find more help in different countries. Although they are thousands of miles away I found it interesting that the FARC seem to hold the same level of power as other terrorist groups such as Al-Shabaab that are thousands of miles from them. If they were to join forces, I think the United States would be in a great amount of danger.
