Depiste the Pressure, FARC Still Operates

Despite some setbacks facing FARC, they are still operating and terrorizing the region. Colombia has made some progress into defeating the Marxist drug-peddling group, yet challenges still lay ahead. Click here for an article at the LatinAmerican Post.

Colombia's FARC guerrillas are reeling from military attacks and defections. While the ranks have fallen about 40 percent from a 2002 peak, the group nevertheless remains a potent force.

-- A six-year Colombian military offensive has put the FARC on the run, experts say, driving the guerrillas to more remote areas, neutralizing their ability to launch attacks and killing an unprecedented number of key leaders.

Colombian intelligence officials believe that the deaths -- including those of two top leaders known as Raúl Reyes and Iván Ríos in the past eight days -- desertions and captures have thinned the FARC's ranks from 16,900 in 2002 to about 10,000 today.

''They have less support of the population, less money, less discipline and don't have the same ability to carry out attacks,'' said Alfredo Rangel, a leading FARC expert who heads the Security and Democracy Foundation, a Bogotá think tank. ``The guerrillas are in decline.''

Will more military aid by the United States help? Will this effort to squash FARC have a backlash in the region, like say Venezuela? When will Colombia address its human rights issues? The questions are endless.

FARC: Unfortunately, still in operation.