The increase in attacks committed by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) is a strategic attempt by the guerrillas to ease recent pressure put on them by the military in the southeast of the country, according to General Jairo Antonio Herazo, commander of Colombia’s Joint Pacific Command.
In an article published in the Colombian daily El Tiempo, Herazo described the FARC’s recent activities as desperate. “We’re in their burrows, where they never thought we’d get to,” said Herazo. “So they’re attacking soldiers and police from civilian homes, installing mines, all so we leave the areas that we have won.” The article also cited a recent NGO report, which described the September death of military chief “Mono Jojoy” and the resulting decline of his Eastern Bloc as the “conclusion of a strategic phase that began in 1995, which consisted of widespread occupations of towns and small cities.”
The report, produced by the Colombian think-tank Corporación Nuevo Arco Iris, notes that despite this accomplishment, “the military is winning the war in the air, but when it comes to infantry the FARC is ahead.”