Last modified: 2005-04-09 by dov gutterman
Keywords: colombia | m19 | popular national alliance | farc ep | moir |
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Editorial Remark: It must be noted that all the opinions are of the authors and not of FOTW. Our site is non-political and concentrates only on vexillological issues.
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Partido Conservador Colombiano
Partido Liberal Colombiano
The flags of Colombia's traditional political parties. Both
were founded in 1848, the Partido Liberal Colombiano - Liberal
Party's traditional color is red, and the Partido Conservador
Colombiano - Conservative Party's traditional color is blue.
They've shared power for most of the XIX and XX centuries, a
famous joke says that the true meaning of the Colombian flag is:
Yellow for our riches, blue and red for those that distribute
them among themselves. The "L" and "C" were
adopted as "official logos" and featured in the flags.
Jaime Vengoechea, 10 Febuary 2003
by Guillermo Aveledo, 30 November 2000
Here's the flag of the Movimiento Bolivariano para la Nueva
Colombia (Bolivarian Movement for the New Colombia), what has
been instituted as the political wing of the Revolutionary
Armed Force of Colombia - People's Army (FARC-EP), and
founded early this year.
The flag is a typical Colombian tricolori, with a portrait of
Simon Bolivar (in black and white and certain shades of grey)
centered on it. The portrait used is a reproduction of the famous
(and supposedly more accurate) portrait of Bolivar engraved by
French artist Francois Desire Roulin (1796-1874) at Bogota dated
February 15th, 1828.
Oddly enough, it seems an unbecomig choice for a revolutionary
party/army: by 1828 Bolivar was serving as dictator of Colombia
(then the Great Colombia; the union of Nueva Granada, Quito and
Venezuela), allied with conservative and clerical groups who were
interested in the union of the republics and, willing to support
Bolivar, played for the predominance of Bogota in such an union.
The rest is history. Perhaps this paradox is explained by the
fact that, in the actual portrait, Bolivar faces rightwards, and
not leftwards, as is used by the FARC-EP.
Guillermo Aveledo, 30 November 2000
by Esteban Rivera, 23 March 2005
PCC stands for Partido Comunista Colombiano (Colombian
Communist Party). This organization was established in 1930. Its
official website is <www.pacocol.org>.
Esteban Rivera, 23 March 2005
by Esteban Rivera, 23 March 2005
The Partido Comunista de Colombia - Maoísta (Colombian
Communist Party - Maoist) is a split group from the PCC
(Colombian Communist Party). The PCC-M was established in 2001.
It has an official wensite: <pccm0.tripod.com>.
Esteban Rivera, 23 March 2005
by Esteban Rivera, 23 March 2005
The Partido Comunista de Colombia - Marxista Leninista
(Colombian Communist Party - Marxist Leninist) was a split group
of the Colombian Communist Party, established in 1967. The armed
wing of the PCC-ML was the EPL (Ejército
Popular de Liberación).
Esteban Rivera, 23 March 2005
In the 1960's communist revolutionaries in Columbia (FARC)
proclaimed the Republics of Marquetalia and Riochiquitos, that is
an experiment of comunist-countryman administration in Latin
America.
The flag used was probably the FARC flag (red with the name?).
But I found now the local flag of Marquetalia:
This is green borderes white. In the centre is a torch white and
golden, with flamme yellow and red.
Another city of the territory is named MARULANDA, and this is the
name of the FARC head, Manuel Marulanda named too "Tiro
Fijo" (Fix Shooting). The flag of the city is black, white
and green horizontal.
More information?
Jaume Olle , 24 November 1996
About the Communist Revolution and its flag, I'm not aware
that they had a flag, but the actual Independent Republics were
seven: Marquetalia (in the border between the Departments of
Tolima and Huila), Río Chiquito (in the border between the
Departments of Cauca and Huila), El Pato (in the Department of
Caquetá), Guayabero, El Duda, Alto Ariari (all three of them in
the Department of Meta) and Alto Sumapaz (in the border between
the Departments of Meta, Cundinamarca and Tolima) Marquetalia
being the most important. These existed from 1955 through 1965
but they became known in a Congress debate in 1964, and short
afterwards there was a military operation against them. These 7
"Republics" were in an area plenty of mountains and
forrest, along with tall hills and stuff, and they were pretty
much together (if you have a Colombian map you can see that they
are close to each other).
Ramiro Rivera Sanchez, 19 January 1999
by Esteban Rivera, 23 March 2005
PDI (Polo Democrático Independiente, or Independent
Democratic Pole): A broad coalition of leftist movements, it is a
legal democratic party in Colombia. Its official website is <www.polodemocratico.net>.
Esteban Rivera, 23 March 2005
![[M19 Guerilla Movement (Colombia)]](../images/c/co}m19.gif)
by Ivan Sache
Vertically divided blue/white/red, with M-19 in black in the
white stripe.
Source: Photography of the funerals of the murdered
past-leader of M-19 Carlos Pizarro, flag over the coffin.
(Encyclopaedia Universalis, Yearbook 1991, p. 40).
Ivan Sache ,10 December 1998
According to Courrier International #711,
17 June 2004, M19 is the 19 April Movement, founded on 19 April
1970, mostly by students. The M19 entered the armed struggle
against the Columbian government in 1973. On 6 November 1985, the
M19 seized the Court of Justice in Bogota. The seizure ended in a
bloodbath when the tanks of the Columbian army attacked the
Court. In 1989, the M19 abandoned the armed struggle and joined
the political legal life. His leader was murdered when candidate
to the Presidential election in 1990.
Ivan Sache, 27 December 2004
Here is a photo of
Additional flag (variant with a logo showing a map of Colombia
and Simón Bolívar's sword).
Esteban Rivera, 23 March 2005
![[M19 Guerilla Movement (Colombia)]](../images/c/co}adm19.gif)
by Esteban Rivera, 23 March 2005
Here is the flag of the former leftist group when it laid down
arms. The group transformed into the AD M-19 (Alianza
Democrática M-19, or Democratic Alliance M-19).
Esteban Rivera, 23 March 2005
by Santiago Tazon, 2 September 2000
Thousands of workers and students marched on the US embassy
and other places in Bogota and Cartagena de Indias, protesting
because Clinton's visit. They fly several red vertical flags of
MOIR (Movimiento Obrero Independiente y Revolucionario) -
Independent Revolutionary Workers Movement. MOIR is a Colombian
political (communist) party.
Santiago Tazon, 2 September 2000
by Jaume Ollé
by Jaume Ollé
This is the review on the (CNG - CGSB) taken from <www.tkb.org>:
"Mothertongue Name: Coordinadora Guerrillera Simón Bolívar
(CGSB). Base of Operation: Colombia.
Founding Philosophy: In the 1980s, several leftist terrorist
organizations in Colombia created an umbrella organization, from
which to coordinate negotiations with the Colombian government
and to coordinate certain terrorist activities. The National
Guerrilla Coordinating Board (CNG), formed in 1985, was the
forerunner to a broader coordinating board. In 1987, CNG was
reconstituted as the Simon Bolivar Coordinating Board (CGSB).
CGSB was created as a unified front for the
terrorist-organization members. While CGSB engaged the government
in negotiations, the terrorist members simultaneously held onto
their rebel-controlled areas and remained willing, at varying
levels, to commit terrorist attacks. The Simon Bolivar
Coordinating Board was comprised of Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia (FARC), April 19 Movement (M-19), National Liberation
Army (ELN), Popular Liberation Army (EPL), Workers' Revolutionary
Party (PRT) and the Quintin Lame Command.
CGSB participated in a series of government talks in the early
1990s. The talks were jeopardized several times by terrorist
attacks of the FARC and ELN. Despite the continuing aggression of
the two largest terrorist groups, CGSB did achieve limited
success. Resulting from government negotiations, M-19 put down
its arms in 1990. EPL's main body followed step, ceasing its
operations in 1991. However, Colombia's largest leftist terrorist
organizations, FARC and ELN, did not reach a settlement with the
government and continue terrorist operations to this day. In
fact, while some groups seriously negotiated for an end to
hostilities, other elements of the CGSB continued to perpetrate
terrorist attacks, claiming attacks both under the umbrella of
CGSB and as individual terrorist groups.
Current Goals: The Simon Bolivar Coordinating Board (CGSB)
disbanded in the early 1990s. While certain CGSB factions ceased
terrorist operations in the early 1990s, the FARC and ELN remain
significant terrorist organizations".
Esteban Rivera, 23 March 2005
by Ivan Sache, 23 Febuary 2002
The flag of Ejercito de Liberacion Nacional is at <www.eln-voces.com>.
The flag and emblem of ELN is explained by the organization in
this site.
Dov Gutterman, 8 March 1999 and Jaume Olle', 19
April 2001
From <www.tkb.org>:
Mothertongue Name: Ejercito de Liberacion Nacional (ELN). Base of
Operation: Colombia.
Founding Philosophy: The ELN is a Cuban Revolution-inspired
group, heavily influenced by the early actions and theories of
Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. The ELN emerged following the
overthrow of the Cuban government by Guevara and Castro in 1959.
The National Liberation Army was founded by two distinct groups.
The first group comprised of urban, left-wing intellectuals with
strong ties to rural farmers. They co-founded the group with a
radicalized group of oil sector unionists from Barrancabermeja's
oil industry. Radical members of the Catholic clergy joined the
group in late 1965. This was the first time that Christians and
Marxists had joined together in a Colombian revolutionary
movement. The ELN's unique founding philosophy strongly
emphasized socialism, mixing Castro-ism with the liberation
theology of the Catholic Church. More concretely, the ELN's
self-appointed role was to represent the rural poor and decrease
the foreign presence in Colombia. The ELN's goal was to take
power from the Colombian government and replace it with a more
egalitarian "popular democracy" that would represent
all Colombians equally under the law. The ELN strongly opposed
foreign investment, in part due to its location in an oil-rich
area and its connections to trade unionists in the energy sector.
The Colombian Department of Administrative Security estimates
that in 1998 alone, the ELN obtained U.S. $84 million from
ransoms and U.S.$255 million from extortion. Employees of oil
companies constitute a large percentage of the ELN's targets. The
kidnapping and extortion of oil company employees is ELN's
primary source of income. This is a natural legacy of ELN's
formation in an area rich with oil wells and oil companies. A
third, more recent source of income is the collection of a
"property" tax from coca and poppy cultivators. It is
not known whether the collection of property taxes is a
centralized or decentralized activity.
Current Goals: Throughout its history, the National Liberation
Army steadily gravitated towards violence and armed struggle as a
means to attain a socialist Colombia. At the ELN's 1996 national
conference, the group decided to decrease emphasis on creating a
purely socialist Colombia. Instead, the ELN has returned to its
founding objective: popular democracy for all Colombians,
propagated at the local level. The ELN has not given up the use
of violence in its efforts.
Esteban Rivera, 23 March 2005
by Jaume Ollé
The National Liberation Army- Camilista Union, (ELN-UC),
insurgent group in Colombia, uses also Black & Red flag and
generally, with the abbreviations of the group on the division of
the stripes in yellow letters. Given the bonds of ELN with Cuba,
it's possible that the ELN's flag is based fundamentally on the
one of "July 26' Movement".
Carlos Thompson, 30 September 2004
Original EPL Flag
by Jaume Ollé
New EPL Flag
by Esteban Rivera, 23 March 2005
Esperanza, Paz y Libertad (Old Flag)
by Esteban Rivera, 23 March 2005
Esperanza, Paz y Libertad (New Flag)
by Esteban Rivera, 23 March 2005
From <www.tkb.org>:
Mothertongue Name: Ejército Popular de Liberación (EPL). Base
of Operation: Colombia.
Founding Philosophy: The Popular Liberation Army grew out of the
Colombian Communist movement of the 1960s. In 1967, the
Marxist-Leninist Communist Party (ML-CP) broke off from the
larger communist political party, the Colombian Communist Party.
Dissatisfied with the political chaos of 1960's Colombia, the
ML-CP augmented its political organization with an armed wing in
1967. The new group soon embarked on terrorist activities under
the name People's Liberation Army. Both the ML-CP and EPL
advocated the Maoist ideology of sparking a national socialist
revolution by beginning in the countryside. Efforts to
indoctrinate the peasantry largely failed and the EPL never
reached the size of larger Colombian terrorist insurgencies such
as the FARC and ELN. In an effort to expand their support base,
the EPL abandoned strict Maoism in 1980. The group continued,
however, to work toward the goal of overthrowing the
democratically elected Colombian government and replacing it with
a communist state. Furthermore, the EPL continued to pursue these
insurrectionist goals through terrorist activities.
Current Goals: The EPL was one of the principal groups that
pushed for a peace accord with the Colombian government in the
early 1980s. With the signing of the peace accord in 1984, the
EPL attempted to join mainstream Colombian politics. Their
efforts were blocked, however, by the newly formed right-wing
paramilitary groups, such as the ACCU. In an effort to derail the
efforts to grant the politicization of the EPL, the right-wing
paramilitary groups attacked political representatives of the
EPL. The peace accord soon unraveled as other leftist groups, the
paramilitaries, and the Colombian Army continued their attacks on
one another.
Following the failure of the peace accord, the EPL attempted to
rejoin the violent fray involving the guerillas and Colombian
security forces, but this attempt proved futile. The EPL
essentially disbanded in 1991, when it signed a truce with the
Colombian government, although a breakaway faction operating
under the same name refused to accept the truce. This breakaway
faction continues to operate today, despite the arrest of its
co-founder and principal leader, Francisco Caraballo, in 1994.
I reccomend you read the article on Wikipedia
to understand the flags.
Esteban Rivera, 23 March 2005
by Ivan Sache, 6 August 1999
Horizontal blue-white-red. Similar colors to M19
Guerilla Movement flag. Source is Smith (1975) [smi75a], pp. 340-341 ("Symbols
in politics"). Smith says that these are real flags and not
only party emblems, which may differ in colours when used as
emblem or in a flag.
Ivan Sache, 6 August 1999
by Jaume Ollé
by Jaume Ollé
In 1984 a new guerrilla group emerged in Colombia: the
Movimiento Armado Quintín Lame (Quintin Lame Armed Movement),
named after a NASA tribe leader (Manuel Quintín Lame Chantre),
it was a guerrilla group, thus an illegal armed organization. It
entered peace talks with Colombia's government and laid down its
weapons in May 1991.
Esteban Rivera, 23 March 2005
by Pascal Gross and Guillermo Aveledo, 3 June
2000
I found the official site of the FARC guerrilla group on the
web, and you can see their flag. It's the same as the colombian
flag, but it has a Colombian map along with two assault rifles
crossed . There's also a little squared thing, but I can't see
much. The link to it is <burn.ucsd.edu/~farc-ep>.
Their official name is: Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de
Colombia-Ejército del Pueblo (FARC-EP) or Revolutionary Armed
Force of Colombia-People's Army. The guerrilla group known as
FARC-EP was created in 1964.
Ramiro Rivera Sanchez,19 January 1999
I belive that the" little squared thing" is an open
book.
Jorge Candeias,20 January 1999
Revolutionary Armed Forces, People's Army (FARC-EP Fuerzas
Arnadas Revolucionarias de Colombia - Ejercito Popular) - This
well-known guerrilla group is the main guerrilla movement in
Colombia, above from the National Liberation Army
(ELN). The flag of the FARC-EP is a regular Colombian tricolor
with the group's logo on its centre. The logo consists of a
Colombiam continental map, in white, fimbriated in black. Within
the map we see the letters 'FARC-EP' in a bold type, an open book
and a pair of crossed, semi-automatic, rifles.
Guillermo Aveledo, 3 June 2000
A photo of a variant
with shield of the FARC flag, appeared on the front page of
today's (29 June 2001) Miami Herald, with the headline
"Rebels Free Colombian Troops" and the caption
describing the release of "242 government soldiers and
police released Thursday by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia [FARC] outside La Macarena, in the heart of a 26,000
square-mile area of jungle and savanna under FARC control. The
troops were freed by the rebels in a unilateral hand-over after
more than three years in captivity".
Al Kirsch and Jaume Olle', 29 June 2001
The correct name of the movement is: Fuerzas Armadas
Revolucionarias de Colombia - Ejercito del Pueblo. A short
presentation of the FARC, based on Courrier International
#711, 17 June 2004 (French translation of a paper by Eduardo
Pizarro Leongomez, originally published in El Tiempo,
Bogota): On 9 April 1948, the Liberal leader Jorge Eliecer
Galtan was murdered, which triggered violent riots in Bogota,
known as Bogotazo. The next ten years are known as the Violencia
period, a civil war between the Liberals and the Conservatives
that caused more than 200,000 dead. In 1958, the two parties
signed the pact of National Front, by which they abandoned
violence and shared the power. The President of the Republic was
alternatively chosen in each party. The system lasted until 1974.
On 27 May 1964, the Colombian army attacked Marquetalia, which
was the headquarters of Communist revolutionaries and farmers'
self-defense militia, ruled by Manuel Marulanda, aka Tirofijo
(Bang on target). Following the assault, the militia were
organized into guerillas. Initially called Frente Sur (Front
South), the guerillas were renamed FARC two years later. The FARC
were reorganized and renamed FARC-EP in 1982. On 28 March 1984,
the FARC-EP signed an agreement in La Uribe with the
Colombian government. A cease-of-fire was implemented on 28 May.
The agreement included the creation of a legal political party by
the FARC-EP, called UP (Patriotic Union). More than 3,500 members
of the UP were murdered in the next two years, including two
candidates to the Presidential election. In December 1990, the
bombing of the Casa Verde, the FARC-EP headquarters, by
the Colombian army ended the peace process. A new round of
negotiations started on 7 January 1999 between the FARC-EP and
Andres Pastrana's government in the demilitarized area of Caguan
(42,000 sq. km). The area was placed under the control of the
FARC-EP until the breakdown of the negotiations in February 2002.
The FARC have today some 15,000-17,000 members.
FARC-EP homepage at <www.farcep.org>.
Ivan Sache, 27 December 2004
