Can Colombians back the new FARC?
The former guerrilla group is entering the political scene but finds reintegrating into civilian life, and appealing to Colombians, difficult.
Rodrigo Londono, also known as Timochenko, FARCs top commander speaks during the groups National Congress in Bogota, Colombia, Sunday, Aug. 27, 2017. The nations once-largest rebel movement launched its political party as part of a historic peace deal signed last year.
For more than half a century, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) were regarded as renegades.
But then they laid down their arms in a peace accord that was signed in 2016, ending a conflict that killed more than 220,000 people
And now, FARC has taken a major step towards joining the civilian political process under the same famous acronym.
"We have in front of us many challenges and many difficulties. Nothing is easy in politics, much less revolutionary activity," the group's leader, Rodrigo Londono, said.
Remaining the FARC
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia rebels, whose first political conference will close on Friday with a concert and speeches in Bogota's central square, will now go by Revolutionary Alternative Common Force, preserving the Spanish initials.
Under the 2016 deal, most of the group's fighters were granted amnesty and allowed to participate in politics.
Whether the rebels will get backing from Colombians, many of whom revile them, remains to be seen.
The group had originally floated several other names, including others which kept the initials, but the new name won against New Colombia in voting at the conference on Thursday, FARC leader Rodrigo Londono, known by his nom de guerre Timochenko, said on Twitter.
TRT World’s Francis Collings reports.
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