Bad Rep
Some struggles have gone on so long that fighting becomes a way of life where few can remember how and why it started, or even what it was originally designed to achieve, let alone if it is still a valid form of struggle or ever was. On November 20th Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos Calderón arrives in Britain for a brief visit. In this series of articles Fitted-In reviews the origins of the recent trials and tribulations of that country over eight decades and the efforts of Santos to ensure that Colombia tackles its problems and takes its rightful place on the world stage at last.

Few countries have suffered from such a bad international reputation as Colombia has. Even now, despite Santos' heroic efforts to right the many wrongs of the past, it is remembered for all the wrong reasons. Its problems are legion. Armed insurgencies have lasted over half a century and paramilitary violence began long before its supposed creation in the 1980s. Kidnappings and banditry were also rife and before long the pervasive power of drug cartels cast its long shadow over many aspects of life in the land that Simón Bolívar and even more so, Francisco de Paula Santander y Omaña, struggled to create almost two centuries ago.

Disappearances were widespread too, but long before the paramilitaries adopted these tactics. That eventually led to the False Positives Scandal. Kidnappings were used as a weapon by the FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia – Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia), but both disappearances and kidnappings were used decades earlier after the era of armed paeasant groups fighting each other gave way to the struggle of the bandoleros (as the groups of insurgents that continued the struggle unleashed by La Violencia, came to be known).

Journalists and writers bold enough to try to expose and inform about atrocities in that period – the late 1950s and first half of the 1960s – received death threats or worse then and now. The exodus cost the country much-needed talent, and some who refused to leave were murdered. These methods continued for decades, but now Colombia has an unlikely champion – Santos – a Conservative who has not only tackled the FARC  head on, but has also initiated land return policies and set about redressing the numerous human rights wrongs of the past, including the recent past. He faces a daunting task to undo so many wrongs, but where did it all start?

The Road to Violence
Long before the notorious Pablo Escobar and other drug lords came to prominence, Colombia was still a dangerous place. Social inequalities in its largely agrarian economy came at a very high price. Power was concentrated in the hands of a rich minority that defended its privilege through violent means, including political assassinations – one of which plainly benefited them even if they were not directly involved in its planning or execution. That killing would send this beautiful country on a path that threatened destruction.

 

The FARC has been fighting the governments of Colombia for 45 years, whatever their political hue. It was established in 1964, purportedly as a response to a terrible period in Colombian history , La Violencia, but the conditions that gave birth to the FARC can be traced back to an earlier pivotal event in Colombia's history that is widely believed to have been the trigger of La Violencia – the assassination, near his office in downtown Bogotá of Liberal Party leader and radical politician Jorge Eliécer Gaitán Ayala on April 9th 1948. This was no ordinary assassination; it set Colombia on a dangerous track that it is only now beginning to emerge from. So who was Gaitán and why was he so important?

The People's Champion
Gaitán was just 45 when he died, but he had packed a great deal into his short life. He cut his teeth in radical politics, leaving the Liberal Party in 1933 before rejoining it in 1935 when the more radical brand of liberalism of Alfonso López Pumarejo held sway. Gaitán railed against the power of oligarchies, while praising ordinary people. He possessed a rare gift for oratory that could inspire crowds. That made him dangerous.

He showed no fear of the powerful forces ranged against him and seemed set to either change Colombia or be martyred. His political inclinations were obviously leftist, but also conflicted. He denounced both the liberal élite and conservative oligrachies and both hated him passionately. Some labelled him a demagogue, but Gaitán possessed a dangerous power. He had the ability to combine his oratorical skills with programmes that could improve the lives of his consituency – a following he could label noble at one point and alcoholics later.

He was an inspirational and divisive figure in Colombian history, often at the same time. The powers that be had good cause to fear and despise him, but so did the Communist Party, because he was a rival for the loyalty of their support base and an effective one too. There was no shortage of enemies that would not mourn the loss of Gaitán and saw the opportunity to profit from it, even if they could not foresee the huge consequences that his assassination would bring.