Jacob Ogles
A resolution to condemn a Colombian revolutionary group as terrorists is advancing in the House with bipartisan support.
The House Local Administration, Federal Affairs & Special Districts Subcommittee unanimously supported a nonbinding memorial (HM 167) urging Secretary of State Antony Blinken to redesignate the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia as a foreign terrorist organization.
Better known as FARC, the Marxist guerrilla group since 1964 conducting bombings, assassinations and other attacks on political groups in Colombia. But the government reached a peace accord with FARC in 2016. Blinken announced in November 2021, more than five years into that agreement, that the U.S. would remove FARC’s terrorist designation.
That hasn’t eased fears among the Colombian diaspora in Florida, many of whom fled violence in their nation.
“My district alone has a large population of Colombian Americans,” said Rep. Juan Carlos Porras, a Miami Republican and the bill sponsor. “Violence occurring in Colombia and South America by organizations like FARC is causing a huge amount of migrants to come to North America.”
Rep. Michael Gottlieb, a Davie Democrat, raised the question in committee of whether FARC can still even be considered active. “Didn’t FARC disband in 2016?” he asked Porras during the Wednesday hearing.
He suggested the removal might allow the State Department to focus on other dissident groups in the region.
Blinken, when he announced the organization’s reclassification, stressed that the U.S. won’t ignore past actions by FARC as it deals with Colombia.
“The decision to revoke the designation does not change the posture with regards to any charges or potential charges in the United States against former leaders of the FARC, including for narco-trafficking, nor does it remove the stain of the decision by Colombia’s Special Jurisdiction of Peace, which found their actions to be crimes against humanity,” Blinken said at the time.
Porras said the treaty with FARC hasn’t stopped violent factions from continuing to operate under the same revolutionary banner. The memorial itself notes that leaders have continued cooperation with Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, whose government has been called a narco-regime by U.S. officials.
He said reclassifying FARC as a terrorist group should cover the criminal and violent acts by subgroups still operating under the revolutionary army umbrella.
Ultimately, the bill flew through committee with support from Democrats and Republicans on the panel.
It now heads to the House State Affairs Committee.
