The State Department announced Tuesday that it had officially removed the far-left rebel group Revolutionary Forces of Colombia (FARC) from its list of foreign terrorist organizations.
The announcement came on the fifth anniversary of an agreement negotiated by FARC and Colombia’s government meant to end more than 50 years of fighting.
According to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, FARC “formally dissolved and disarmed” after the 2016 treaty was brokered, and the rebel group is no longer a unified organization “that engages in terrorism or terrorist activity or has the capability or intent to do so.”
Blinken added that removing the foreign terrorist group designation from FARC does not affect criminal charges that have been or may be brought by the US against the rebel group’s onetime leaders.
Nor, the secretary continued, does the move undo judgments by a special Colombian court “which found their actions to be crimes against humanity.”
FARC was first designated a terrorist organization by the US in 1997. In its place, Blinken announced foreign terrorist organization designations for two splinter groups, Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia — People’s Army (FARC-EP), and Segunda Marquetalia, as well as their respective leaders.
Both breakaway groups were founded in 2019 and have since engaged in terrorist activity in the South American nation. According to Blinken, both organizations have targeted former members of FARC as well as political leaders for assassination and kidnapping.
The move to take FARC off the foreign terror list was first reported by the Wall Street Journal last week. It has been sharply criticized by Republican lawmakers, including Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who called FARC “an organization of Marxist-Leninist narco-terrorists.”
“For decades they have killed, kidnapped, and extorted Colombians,” Cruz tweeted last week. “They have murdered and seized American citizens. They continue to pose an acute threat to Colombian security and to American interests across the region.
“Removing FARC from the list of terrorism organizations will embolden them to widen their violence and interfere with civilian activities,” he added.
On Monday, Colombia-born National Security Council member Juan S. Gonzalez defended the move in an interview with NBC News.
“This does not forgive anything that the FARC has done over the last 52 years. It is shifting the tools of the US government to focus on those organizations that are still involved in terrorist activity,” Gonzalez said. “If a guerrilla group, through an accord, disarms and demobilizes and gets involved politically, that’s ultimately what you want to happen and what you want to encourage, and it sends a signal that these processes can produce an outcome that can lead toward peace.
“Unfortunately, it’s been misrepresented, and it’s become part of a political debate, which we should have — based on facts.”