The guerrillas, known as FARC, have murdered thousands of Colombians, kidnapped or killed Americans and earned for themselves the reputation as one of the most brutal terrorist groups in the world.

FARC closely cooperates with other communist movements in South America and with Fidel Castro's regime in Cuba.

The FARC and ELN communist narco-guerrillas, supported by Castro since 1962, now control more than half of Colombia and seek to replace the republican government.

According to "Patterns of Global Terrorism, 2002," issued by the U.S. Department of State in April 2003, FARC was established in 1964 as the military wing of the Colombian Communist Party. It is Colombia’s oldest, largest, most capable, and best-equipped Marxist insurgency.

FARC, governed by a secretariat, is organized along military lines and includes several urban fronts. In February 2002, the group’s slow-moving peace negotiations with the Pastrana administration was terminated by Bogota afer the group’s plane hijacking and kidnapping of a Colombian senator from the aircraft.

Communists Killing the Poor

On Aug. 7, FARC launched a large-scale mortar attack on the Presidential Palace, where President Alvaro Uribe was being inaugurated. High-level foreign delegations, including from the United States, attending the inauguration were not injured, but 21 residents of a poor neighborhood nearby were killed by stray rounds in the attack.

FARC engages in bombings, murder, mortar attacks, kidnapping, extortion, hijacking, as well as guerrilla and conventional military action against Colombian political, military and economic targets. In March 1999, FARC executed three U.S. Indian rights activists on Venezuelan territory after it kidnapped them in Colombia. Foreign citizens often are targets of FARC kidnappings for ransom. It has well-documented ties to full range of narcotics trafficking, including taxation, cultivation and distribution.

FARC is composed of 9,000 to 12,000 armed combatants and several thousand more supporters, mostly in rural areas. In addition to Colombia, is engages in extortion, kidnapping, logistics, and provides rest and relaxation for its guerillas in Venezuela, Panama and Ecuador. Cuba provides some medical care and political consultation.

Roger Noriega, U.S. assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, recently expressed his "disappointment" that during Foreign Minister Rafael Bielsa's recent trip to Cuba he failed to meet dissidents.

In response, Vice Foreign Minister Jorge Taiana told a radio station:

"We consider the declarations aggressive ... and inopportune, and the foreign minister has expressed this in the name of the Argentina government."

Tensions are growing between the United States and Argentina, as Kirchner has continued to establish closer ties with Washington's main political enemies in Latin America, from Castro to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Last year, for example, Kirchner appeared in a regional summit photo opportunity with Chavez and Evo Morales, a leader of coca growers in Bolivia who angers Washington by opposing the U.S.-led war on cocaine trafficking from Latin America which has been fueling communist insurgencies in Colombia and elsewhere in the hemisphere.

The Worst Kind of Big Labor

Morales is a controversial figure whose base of power is in the coca-growing areas of central Bolivia where his connections to the growers caused ousted President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada to call him a "narco-trade unionist" and, in the past, open condemnation from the United States.

His influence in Bolivia was obvious when he came in second in the presidential election campaign two years ago, and widespread support he won during Bolivia’s "gas riots" shows the radical socialist congressman is a key figure in Bolivian politics.

In the presidential election, his campaign received a healthy boost when the U.S. ambassador in Bolivia, Manuel Rocha, warned that Washington could cut off aid if Bolivians chose candidates like Morales. The comments reinforced Morales' position as a radical anti-U.S. candidate.

Venezuela's military attache to Bolivia was expelled a few months ago for giving money to Morales, and it is reported that Morales received money from Venezuelan officials in a visit to Caracas.

Gutierrez is an open admirer and friend of Chavez and is also likely to emulate Chavez by openly or secretly helping pro-Castro radicals in other countries.

He announced that he would seek to mediate in the war in neighboring Colombia. Given the support for FARC by Castro and Chavez, Gutierrez is likely to use any mediating role to secretly assist FARC and help it take power.

There are credible reports that Ecuador is permitting FARC to have more than six bases on its territory.

Note: Report Gives CIA-Style Analysis for Latin America

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