an irregular military organization involved in the continuing Colombian armed conflict since 1964.[9][10][11][12] The FARC-EP have a claim to be an army of peasant Marxist–Leninists with a political platform of agrarianism and anti-imperialism. The operations of the FARC–EP are funded by kidnap to ransom, illegal mining, extortion and the production and distribution of illegal drugs.[13][14]...
In 2013 it was reported that 26,648 FARC and ELN members had decided to demobilize since 2002.[15] According to a report from Human Rights Watch, approximately 20–30% of the recruits are minors, most of whom are forced to join the FARC.[16]...
FARC has been accused of committing violations of human rights by numerous groups, including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the United Nations as well as by the Colombian, U.S. and European Union governments. A February 2005 report from the United Nations' High Commissioner for Human Rights mentioned that, during 2004, "FARC-EP continued to commit grave breaches [of human rights] such as murders of protected persons, torture and hostage-taking, which affected many civilians, including men, women, returnees, boys and girls, and ethnic groups."[226]