Anayibe Rojas Valderrama, also known as Omaira Rojas Cabrera (nom de guerre: Sonia) born in the Colombian town of Palestina, Huila Department, on 16 June 1967. She comes from a low-income peasant family and had only completed two years of middle school before joining the FARC guerrilla by the late 1980s.
She was captured by the Colombian Military on 10 February 2004 in a location called Peñas Coloradas, jurisdiction in the Municipality of Cartagena de Chairá and was taken to the Larandia AB to be interrogated mainly about the three Americans the FARC had kidnapped and about FARC's Secretariat. She was later transferred to many other locations for security reasons.
The United States accused "Sonia" of directly negotiating illegal drugs deliveries to Peruvian and Brazilian drug traffickers. Sonia was handed to U.S. officials on 9 March 2004 at Barranquilla's Airport in northern Colombia.
On 20 February 2007, Sonia was convicted of drug charges in a Washington D.C. court.
The history of Colombia includes the settlements and society by indigenous peoples, most notably, the Muisca Confederation, Quimbaya Civilization, and Tairona Chiefdoms; the Spanish arrived in 1492 and initiated a period of annexation and colonization, most noteworthy being Spanish conquest; ultimately creating the Viceroyalty of New Granada, with its capital at Bogotá. Independence from Spain was won in 1819, but by 1830 the "Gran Colombia" Federation was dissolved. What is now Colombia and Panama emerged as the Republic of New Granada. The new nation experimented with federalism as the Granadine Confederation (1858), and then the United States of Colombia (1863), before the Republic of Colombia was finally declared in 1886; as well as constant political violence in the country. Panama seceded in 1903. Since the 1960s, the country has suffered from an asymmetric low-intensity armed conflict, which escalated in the 1990s, but then decreased from 2005 onward. The legacy of Colombia's history has resulted in a rich cultural heritage; while varied geography, and the imposing landscape of the country has resulted in the development of very strong regional identities.
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People's Army is a Marxist–Leninist guerrilla group involved in the continuing Colombian conflict starting in 1964. The FARC-EP was officially founded in 1966 from peasant self-defense groups formed from 1948 during the "Violencia" as a peasant force promoting a political line of agrarianism and anti-imperialism. They are known to employ a variety of military tactics, in addition to more unconventional methods, including terrorism.
Íngrid Betancourt Pulecio is a Colombian politician, former senator and anti-corruption activist, especially opposing political corruption.
Simón Trinidad is the alias of Juvenal Ovidio Ricardo Palmera Pineda, a high-ranking member of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), and reputedly the first high-ranking member of that guerrilla group to be captured. "Simón Trinidad" is currently serving a 60-year sentence in solitary confinement in the United States at ADX Florence "Supermax" prison in Florence, Colorado.
Pedro Antonio Marín Marín, known by his "nom de guerre" Manuel Marulanda Vélez, was the founder and main leader of the Marxist–Leninist FARC-EP. Marulanda was born in a coffee-growing region of west-central Colombia in the Quindío Department, to a peasant family politically aligned with the Liberal Party during conflicts in the 1940s and 1950s.
The Patriotic Union or UP is a leftist, Colombian political party, founded by the FARC and the Colombian Communist Party in 1985, as part of the peace negotiations that the guerrillas held with the Conservative Belisario Betancur administration.
The Colombian conflict began on May 27, 1964, and is a low-intensity asymmetric war between the government of Colombia, far-right paramilitary groups and crime syndicates, and far-left guerrilla groups, fighting each other to increase their influence in Colombian territory. Some of the most important international contributors to the Colombian conflict include multinational corporations, the United States, Cuba, and the drug trafficking industry.
"Marquetalia Republic" was an unofficial term used to refer to one of the enclaves in rural Colombia which communist peasant guerrillas held during the aftermath of "La Violencia". Congressmen of the Colombian Conservative Party described these enclaves, including Marquetalia, as "independent republics" which needed to be brought under state control through military force. This area was eventually overrun by the National Army of Colombia in May 1964.
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC–EP) is a Marxist–Leninist revolutionary guerrilla organization based in Colombia, which is involved in the ongoing Colombian armed conflict.
Víctor Julio Suárez Rojas — a.k.a. Jorge Briceño Suárez a.k.a. Mono Jojoy — was a high-ranking member of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a Colombian guerrilla organization. He was second-in-command to Alfonso Cano and top military commander. Suárez Rojas commanded the Eastern Bloc of the FARC and was a member of the FARC Secretariat. His nom de guerre was Jorge Briceño Suárez; to the Colombian army he was known as Mono Jojoy.
Luis Edgar Devia Silva, better known by his nom de guerreRaúl Reyes, was a leader, Secretariat member, spokesperson, and advisor to the Southern Bloc of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia–People's Army (FARC–EP). He died during an attack by the Colombian army 1.8 kilometres (1.1 mi) within Ecuador, sparking the 2008 Andean diplomatic crisis.
The FARC-Government peace process (1999–2002), from January 7, 1999, to February 20, 2002, was a failed peace process between the Government of President Andrés Pastrana Arango and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrilla group in an effort to bring to an end the ongoing Colombian armed conflict.
The Valle del Cauca Deputies hostage crisis refers to the kidnapping of 12 Deputies of the Assembly of Valle del Cauca, Colombia, on April 12, 2002 by members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to pressure a prisoner exchange between them and the government and to negotiate the demilitarization of the municipalities of Florida and Pradera to initiate peace dialogues.
Guerrilla movements in Colombia refers to the origins, development and actions of guerrilla movements in the Republic of Colombia. In the context of the ongoing Colombian conflict, the term 'guerrilla' is used to refer to left-wing movements, as opposed to right-wing paramilitaries.
Jorge Enrique Rodríguez Mendieta known by his nom de guerre Iván Vargas is a Colombian guerrilla leader member of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC-EP), former commander of the 24th Front of the Middle Magdalena Bloc of the FARC-EP. Vargas was arrested in late 2004 in the city of Bucaramanga by Colombian authorities and extradited to the United States on 3 November 2007 on charges of narcotrafficking.
Children' rights in Colombia is the status of children's rights in the Republic of Colombia. Colombia signed the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989 and later ratified the CRC on September 2, 1990. Internally issues related to children are mostly under the Instituto Colombiano de Bienestar Familiar, or the ICBF, which is translated as the Colombian Institute for Family Welfare.
Operation Emmanuel was a humanitarian operation that rescued politician Clara Rojas, her son Emmanuel, and former senator Consuelo González from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in Colombia. The operation was proposed and set up by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, with the permission of the Colombian government of Álvaro Uribe. Chávez's plan was supported by the governments of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, and France, as well as the Red Cross, which also participated in the operation. Venezuelan aircraft were flown to an airport in the Colombian town of Villavicencio, were resupplied, and from there flew to the secret rescue point set up by the FARC. On December 26, 2007, through the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Colombian government approved the mission, only requesting that the aircraft used for the operations were labelled with Red Cross insignias.
Clara Leticia Rojas González is a Colombian lawyer, university lecturer, and campaign manager for former senator and presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt. She was kidnapped along with Betancourt by the FARC guerrilla group near San Vicente del Caguán on February 23, 2002, while Betancourt was campaigning for the presidency. After the kidnapping, Rojas was named as Betancourt's vice-presidential candidate.
Tanja Nijmeijer, also known as Alexandra Nariño, is a Dutch former guerrilla fighter and English teacher who has been a member of the Colombian guerrilla group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) since 2002. She has also been one of the group's leading public figures since the discovery of her diary in 2007. She was part of the negotiating team involved in successful peace talks with the Colombian government.
Jineth Bedoya Lima is a Colombian journalist who was abducted in May 2000 and August 2003. In 2001, she was awarded the Courage In Journalism Award of the International Women's Media Foundation.She also won the Golden Pen of Freedom award by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers in 2020.
This article includes a list of references, related reading, or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations .(December 2014) |
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