One event seems to have broken the proverbial camel’s back: the assassination of the liberal party’s main leader-Jorge Eliécer Gaitán on 9 April 1948. While the liberal party tried to promote peaceful movements, it could hardly contain the increasing tension that had been building for years. Government-sponsored repression was met with an ever-increasing diverse base of resistance: farm workers, small business owners, transportation workers, etc. Despite the economic growth sparked by the industrialization process, which was aided by the post WW II global development, and a rise in international coffee prices, the political and socio-economic divisions that kept the country in a state of perpetual conflict only continued to deepen. Under this view, any type of land reform was of little interest to the government, though it was a what many Colombians, who made a living out of agriculture, vehemently pursued. Sponsored by the World Bank on a mission to Colombia, Currie favored the transition to a predominantly urbanized and industrialized Colombia where working the land was not as important as the promotion of factory work. The influence of an international economist, Lauchlin Currie, generated changes in the country that would continue to fuel the social inequality struggle. On the economic front, the industrialization process was crucial. Economic: strife for the ownership and use of land, industrialization process, and (once more) the surge of the communist ideology in the country. Religious: a strong catholic church opposing liberal ideas that were taking hold in the country, mainly of communist origin. La Violencia (1946–1958) as is commonly known, has many pillars: Political confrontation, mainly attributed to a long lived and bitter power struggle between the liberal and conservative parties.
Identifying the underlying causes behind this important historical period is crucial to our understanding of the motivation behind the rise of the longest-lived insurgency in the western hemisphere. Las Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia or FARC have their origin in a period of continuous and widespread political, social, and economic unrest that is commonly known as “La Violencia” in contemporary Colombian History.
Perspective: The Sunset of FARC and the Execution of a Comprehensive Counterinsurgency Program
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