El Origen de las Guerrillas en Colombia ‐ Historia de Colombia | Un poco de Historia — Transcript

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1. 0:05Hello and welcome to this video, where
2. 0:07we will delve into the depths of
3. 0:09Colombian history to understand one of
4. 0:12its most complex and painful chapters:
5. 0:15the rise of the guerrillas. This is not
6. 0:19a simple story, but an intricate
7. 0:21tapestry woven with threads of violence
8. 0:23, social injustice, and a political
9. 0:25context, both national and
10. 0:27international. The violence and the
11. 0:30origin of distrust. To understand the
12. 0:35origin of the guerrillas, we must
13. 0:37travel back in time to a period known
14. 0:39as "La Violencia." This was not a
15. 0:42guerrilla conflict as we know it today,
16. 0:45but an undeclared civil war that
17. 0:47ravaged the country between 1948 and
18. 0:49the mid-1950s. The catalyst was the
19. 0:53assassination of Liberal leader Jorge
20. 0:55Eliécer Gaitán in Bogotá. This event
21. 0:59unleashed uncontrollable fury known as
22. 1:01the "Bogotazo" and spread armed
23. 1:03confrontation throughout the territory,
24. 1:06especially in rural areas. In this
25. 1:10chaos, the traditional political forces
26. 1:12—Liberal and Conservative—used
27. 1:14violence to control the territory.
28. 1:18Hundreds of thousands of peasants were
29. 1:20caught in the crossfire, stripped of
30. 1:22their lands, murdered, or forced to
31. 1:24displace. Faced with the total failure
32. 1:29of the State to protect them, many
33. 1:30peasants, mostly of Liberal affiliation
34. 1:33, were forced to arm themselves to
35. 1:35defend against Conservative and army
36. 1:37repression. These groups initially did
37. 1:41not have a revolutionary agenda, but
38. 1:43rather a purpose of self-defense and
39. 1:45survival. Distrust in State
40. 1:49institutions was sown forever in the
41. 1:51hearts of thousands of Colombians. A
42. 1:54sentiment that would be key in the
43. 1:56years to come. The failure of the
44. 2:01National Front and the influence of the
45. 2:03Cold War. At the end of the 1950s, a
46. 2:07solution to the violence was sought
47. 2:09with the creation of the National Front
48. 2:11, a pact that would alternate power
49. 2:14between the Liberal and Conservative
50. 2:16parties for 16 years. While this
51. 2:20agreement put an end to open
52. 2:21confrontation, it created a new source
53. 2:23of frustration. The pact closed the
54. 2:26doors to the political participation of
55. 2:29any other movement, marginalizing
56. 2:32leftist sectors, agrarian leaders, and
57. 2:34peasants who had laid down their arms.
58. 2:38Many felt that the democratic system
59. 2:40had failed them, leaving them without a
60. 2:42voice or representation. In parallel,
61. 2:46the entire world lived under the shadow
62. 2:48of the Cold War. The Cuban Revolution
63. 2:51became a beacon for leftist movements.
64. 2:54throughout Latin America. Its success
65. 2:58in overthrowing a dictatorship through
66. 3:00armed struggle convinced many that it
67. 3:03was the only way to achieve social
68. 3:05justice and topple the elites. Colombia
69. 3:08, with its historical concentration of
70. 3:11land in few hands and its deep
71. 3:13inequality, was fertile ground for
72. 3:15these ideas. Furthermore, the very
73. 3:18influence of the United States, which
74. 3:20saw a communist threat in every leftist
75. 3:22movement, was a factor. Through
76. 3:26military aid programs like Plan Lazo,
77. 3:28the United States promoted the creation
78. 3:30of counterinsurgency forces in Colombia
79. 3:32. This led the Colombian army to attack
80. 3:37and bomb peasant territories that had
81. 3:39organized autonomously since the time
82. 3:42of La Violencia, known as independent
83. 3:45republics. This attack was perceived as
84. 3:49confirmation that there was no room for
85. 3:51peaceful dissent. The emergence of the
86. 3:56main guerrilla groups in Colombia was
87. 3:58the result of social injustice,
88. 3:59military repression, and the lack of
89. 4:01political channels. The FARC emerged in
90. 4:061964 following a government attack on a
91. 4:09peasant self-defense group. Its
92. 4:13Marxist-Leninist ideology focused on
93. 4:15the fight for agrarian reform and the
94. 4:17defense of the peasantry. Founded that
95. 4:21same year, it was inspired by the Cuban
96. 4:24Revolution and liberation theology. Its
97. 4:27struggle, promoted by figures like the
98. 4:29priest Camilo Torres, focused on social
99. 4:32liberation and the denunciation of the
100. 4:34elites. The M-19 was born in 1974 as an
101. 4:40urban and political response to the
102. 4:42alleged electoral fraud of 1970. Unlike
103. 4:46the other groups, its actions were more
104. 4:49symbolic, such as the theft of
105. 4:51Bolívar’s sword, seeking media
106. 4:53impact. In conclusion, the rise of the
107. 4:57guerrillas was not an impulsive act or
108. 4:59the result of a single factor. It was a
109. 5:03complex and multifaceted process,
110. 5:05fueled by the violence of traditional
111. 5:07parties, the political exclusion of the
112. 5:10National Front, social inequality, and
113. 5:12the influence of revolutionary
114. 5:14ideologies in a Cold War context. These
115. 5:19groups, which emerged with promises of
116. 5:21social justice and self-defense, would
117. 5:23end up plunging Colombia into an
118. 5:25internal war that has left deep wounds
119. 5:27and scars that have yet to heal.