One hundred years of solitude or solidarity? Colombia's forgotten revolution

Colombia remains a ‘black hole’ on the Latin American continent. For more than half a century this has been made possible through repressive oligarchical rule (Villar and Cottle 2012). Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude described the enduring violence throughout Colombia’s history; the nation’s potential for revolutionary change yet its tendency to wage war on itself. This violent history has been marked by discontinuous conflict and many wars. From the mid-twentieth century, a ‘forgotten’ war waged by the world’s oldest rebel organization, Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia-Ejercito del Pueblo (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People’s Army, FARC-EP), has encompassed a revolutionary war traceable to the Wars of Independence against Spain (Hylton 2006). Although there are other studies of the Colombian question which explore its violence, sociology and political economy this article will offer an historical analysis of the dynamics of Colombia’s forgotten revolutionary struggle. The central argument is that a reassessment of the FARC is critically important in relation to what can be described as a ‘forgotten’ or largely ‘invisible’ revolution. The article therefore tackles a critical problem prevalent in the existing literature: despite the end of the Cold War and other liberation struggles in Latin America, how does the FARC continue to exist in Colombia?