Colombia

Modified 09 May 2003

• Two military anti-government operations, both violent, drug-funded, and very successful.
  • Ejercito de Liberacion Nacional (ELN) -- financed through drugs and the Iranian-backed ``Hezbollah of Colombia and Venezuela'' (US News and World Report, May 27 1996). Formed in 1965 by urban intellectuals inspired by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. Has 3,000-6,000 armed combatants, based mostly in rural and mountainous areas of north, northwest, and southwest Colombia.
    • http://www.voces.org/
    • http://www.berlinet.de/eln/index.htm
    • Carlos Alirio Buitrago Front -- a part of the ELN running Radio Patria Libre:
      • http://www.eln-voces.com
      • http://www.nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/rpl
    • Colombia Popular - Un Servicio Informativo del Movimiento Insurgente Colombiano (Information Service of the Colombian Guerilla Movement) -- Presumably linked to the ELN and Radio Patria Libre, given the Radio Patria Libre artwork on the page: http://www.nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/rpl/index.htm
  • Fuerzas Armadas de Colombia (FARC) -- Armed Forces of Colombia, established in 1964 as military wing of the Colombian Communist Party. Currently funded through drug money. Colombia's oldest, largest (9,000-12,000 armed members), most capable Marxist insurgency. It operates with impunity through much of the country, and the Colombian national government has basically surrendered and given control of one province to FARC.
    • FARC -- http://www.farc-ep.ch/
    • Their Voz de la Resistencia radio station, most recently heard on 6238 kHz, is reported to use a maildrop at: Comision Internacional, Apartado Postal 27552, C.P. 06761, Mexico D.F., Mexico, while their website http://www.resistencianacional.org was based on a server in Switzerland the last time I ran traceroute.
    • Sweden-based FARC news agency Anncol -- http://home.swipnet.se/anncol/
    • Other mirrors, supporters, etc:
      • http://www.resistencianacional.org/
      • http://www.contrast.org/mirrors/farc/
      • farc-ep@comision.internal.org
      • elbarcino@laneta.apc.org
      • http://farc.narod.ru/
      • http://burn.ucsd.edu/~farc-ep/
• Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia -- paramilitary right-wing anti-guerrilla forces. http://www.colombialibre.org/
• Colombian military -- http://www.ejercito.mil.co
• See the links to guerilla movements at: http://www.rose-hulman.edu/~delacova/colombia-rev.htm
• Drug cartels -- They have sophisticated and secure communications systems, including the Internet. However, they don't exactly advertise openly, at least not yet. See the ERRI white paper at http://www.emergency.com/ for details. See The Code Book, pg 305 (Simon Singh, 1999 Fourth Estate Ltd., ISBN 1-85702-889-9) for a fairly vague mention of the Cali drug cartel arranging deals via encrypted communications.