A Visit to FARC's Jungle Lair(spiegel.de)
spiegel.de
A Visit to FARC's Jungle Lair
https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/farc-preparing-for-renewed-fighting-deep-in-colombian-jungle-a-1286296.html
25 comments
Slightly related: the co-author of this piece, Juan Moreno, has discovered that his colleauge, an award-winning Spiegel author, instead of doing honest journalistic work, completely invented his stories (including the ones he got the awards for). He discovered the fraud, collected evidence, and called it out despite resistance from inside the newspaper organization (who wants to admit that they have been printing fradulent stories for years and not noticing it). Amazing guy! More reading: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claas_Relotius
Surprised they are using American weapons (looks like M4 variants in the photos).
I would have thought the FARC would have historically held onto Russian / Chinese AK platforms due to their reliability in Jungle environments.
Unless they source most of their weapons from cartels?
I would have thought the FARC would have historically held onto Russian / Chinese AK platforms due to their reliability in Jungle environments.
Unless they source most of their weapons from cartels?
Assuming most FARC arms are sourced in the U.S. and then shipped south, I could speculate as to the AK’s present scarceness.
New Chinese and Russian AKs are currently hard to find in the U.S. due to sanctions. China’s Norinco was sanctioned for trying to sell AKs (and heavy weapons) directly to L.A. street gangs. Russian state-owned arms manufacturers were sanctioned due to Russia’s military involvement in Ukraine. You can find new AKs for sale in the U.S., but they’re from a limited number of manufacturers and more expensive than the equivalent AR-style rifles.
In contrast, AR-style rifles are massively oversupplied right now, in the wake of both the Obama presidency and Hillary Clinton’s presidential candidacy. Manufacturers built up large inventories in expectation of “panic buying” after Hillary’s election. When that didn’t happen and sales didn’t pick up accordingly, prices fell. In fact, Colt recently stopped making AR-15s for consumers, saying “The fact of the matter is that over the last few years, the market for modern sporting rifles has experienced significant excess manufacturing capacity.”
New Chinese and Russian AKs are currently hard to find in the U.S. due to sanctions. China’s Norinco was sanctioned for trying to sell AKs (and heavy weapons) directly to L.A. street gangs. Russian state-owned arms manufacturers were sanctioned due to Russia’s military involvement in Ukraine. You can find new AKs for sale in the U.S., but they’re from a limited number of manufacturers and more expensive than the equivalent AR-style rifles.
In contrast, AR-style rifles are massively oversupplied right now, in the wake of both the Obama presidency and Hillary Clinton’s presidential candidacy. Manufacturers built up large inventories in expectation of “panic buying” after Hillary’s election. When that didn’t happen and sales didn’t pick up accordingly, prices fell. In fact, Colt recently stopped making AR-15s for consumers, saying “The fact of the matter is that over the last few years, the market for modern sporting rifles has experienced significant excess manufacturing capacity.”
2nd page of the article:
> He is very eager to have a Kalashnikov like Lorena's, a comrade having told him that there's no better rifle for the jungle. Unfortunately, those rifles are currently hard to find, so Carlos has to make do with an American M16.
US is very happy to sell arms left and right, so its either through cartels or just good old arms dealers.
> He is very eager to have a Kalashnikov like Lorena's, a comrade having told him that there's no better rifle for the jungle. Unfortunately, those rifles are currently hard to find, so Carlos has to make do with an American M16.
US is very happy to sell arms left and right, so its either through cartels or just good old arms dealers.
For sure, putting gun runners out of a job
Didn't Colombians vote against Amnesty for farc in 2016? How is this not mentioned in the article
We didn't votate against amnesty, but against the full bunch of laws derivated from the process. Anyhow, after some discussions, the peace process was implemented and now over 95% of the guerilla members left the guns behind. There are a few remaining in narcotics business.
Yes. That and Duque's election were big moves against peace. These people want punishment over anything else.
Fascinating.
Jungle ops always intrigues me. So do insurgencies. But a jungle insurgency ...? I mean, good luck countering that if you're averse to burning down the entire forest. It takes some fanatically dedicated fighters to put up with that kind of life and still maintain even a rudimentary level of combat effectiveness.
Jungle ops always intrigues me. So do insurgencies. But a jungle insurgency ...? I mean, good luck countering that if you're averse to burning down the entire forest. It takes some fanatically dedicated fighters to put up with that kind of life and still maintain even a rudimentary level of combat effectiveness.
Hmm except that’s what the Colombian military has been doing for almost two decades.
At least 10 head commanders of FARC were killed through out the years, when the Colombian Military found their location and bombed their camps deep in the jungle.
At least 10 head commanders of FARC were killed through out the years, when the Colombian Military found their location and bombed their camps deep in the jungle.
I don't think that's an exception. That's exactly what I'm saying. These guys are the real deal.
Gotcha. I read it differently. I thought you were saying that because they were hiding on the jungle it was hard to fight them.
The Colombian Military is probably the best military when it comes to fighting in this terrain.
The Colombian Military is probably the best military when it comes to fighting in this terrain.
I would have thought the Syrian rebels would have learned from the fate of the Tamil Tigers ... guy with the bigger stick wins.
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And how does Alvizú expect the government to fix any problems if they're fighting a war against guerillas?
The problem is many in the government are right wingers hell bent on continuing the same war, same with many Colombians, just ask any of them, they don't support doing anything with the FARC.
Kind of a sad story if you ask me, seems like Colombians don't learn from their own mistakes even though the FARC have been operating on the same premise for more than 2 decades.... their Government doesn't take care of their own people and it's not hard for plenty of farmers to see.
Kind of a sad story if you ask me, seems like Colombians don't learn from their own mistakes even though the FARC have been operating on the same premise for more than 2 decades.... their Government doesn't take care of their own people and it's not hard for plenty of farmers to see.
Here is a web developer pretending to understand a multi generational gap of power. The complexities of this armed conflict cannot be possibly explained in a line as rude as `colombians don't learn from their own mistakes`. For those of us the grew up in the midst of it, everyone you'll ever talk to wants better and more often than not, working on it. It's not just 2 decades. It's closer to 60 years.
> Here is a web developer pretending to understand a multi generational gap of power.
Don't you know that computer science is the only degree program to make you an expert in math, physics, history, economics, and politics?
Don't you know that computer science is the only degree program to make you an expert in math, physics, history, economics, and politics?
Do not forget arts, nutrition, and exercise.
Way to take my comments out of context, I make these comments actually as a Colombian myself first except I don't live there, also I don't believe it's as simple as saying Colombians don't learn from their own mistakes, but obviously there seems to be a lot of political turmoil much of which people instantly want engage with in emotional reaction instead of thinking about the bigger picture for the entire country at whole and what it would take to unite it.
There can't be unity as long as the political leaders care only about their own small interests.
Like Álvaro Uribe. Good first mandate. Second mandate: it was all about making his sons richer, he stopped caring about the country. And now he only cares about staying out of jail.
Like Álvaro Uribe. Good first mandate. Second mandate: it was all about making his sons richer, he stopped caring about the country. And now he only cares about staying out of jail.
> operating on the same premise for more than 2 decades.... their Government doesn't take care of their own people and it's not hard for plenty of farmers to see.
... and so we should have a marxist-leninist class revolution to install a dictatorship of the proletariat, by armed insurgency if necessary, and if so, funded by drug trafficking, extortion, and kidnapping.
^ it helps if you at least attempt to describe things fully.
and yes, I realize the contras don't have clean hands either and are guilty of many of the same things.
... and so we should have a marxist-leninist class revolution to install a dictatorship of the proletariat, by armed insurgency if necessary, and if so, funded by drug trafficking, extortion, and kidnapping.
^ it helps if you at least attempt to describe things fully.
and yes, I realize the contras don't have clean hands either and are guilty of many of the same things.