On Tuesday, Nov. 30 the Biden administration announced the revocation of the designation of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) as an international terrorist organization.

 

Secretary of State Antony Blinken assured in a statement that FARC formally dissolved following a 2016 peace agreement with the Colombian government, and no longer exists "as a unified organization engaged in terrorism."

 

At the same time, the Biden administration also announced it will add two dissident groups formed by former FARC rebels to the terrorist list. One is La Segunda Marquetalia, led by a former FARC commander, and the other is FARC-EP. These groups are partly why the conflict persists in many parts of Colombia.

 

"The decision to revoke the designation does not change the position with respect to any indictment or potential indictment in the United States against former FARC leaders, including for drug trafficking," Blinken said.

 

In August 2019, former FARC commanders, including Luciano Marín Arango, alias Iván Márquez, created the Second Marquetalia after abandoning the Peace Accord.

 

The FARC's official withdrawal coincides with the fifth anniversary of the historic peace agreement between the group and former President Juan Manuel Santos, an issue over which Colombians are divided.

 

The former commander of the former Colombian guerrilla group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and now leader of the leftist Comunes party, Rodrigo Londoño, Timochenko, also welcomed the U.S. government's decision.

"The information that was leaked was only about the removal of the FARC from the list, so the reaction was, as expected, very negative," Juan S. González, senior director for Western Hemisphere affairs at the National Security Council, said in an interview.

 

While the move has been characterized as a lifting of pressure on the FARC, Gonzalez said it is a shift toward dissident FARC organizations.

 

"This does not forgive anything the FARC has done in the last 52 years. It is shifting the tools of the U.S. government to focus on those organizations that are still involved in terrorist activities," said Gonzalez, who was born in Colombia.

 

For its part, the Colombian government considered the U.S. decision to be an endorsement of the implementation of the Peace Accord.

 

"It is a recognition that in the implementation of the agreement, through the Policy of Peace with Legality, this former terrorist group was dissolved, disarmed and is no longer capable of committing terrorist acts," Presidential advisor for Peace Emilio Archila, said in a video released by his office.