The next step for the FARC guerrilla group, having disarmed in accordance with the 2016 Havana Accords signed with the government of Colombia, is to form their new political party. It has long been speculated that the FARC would choose a name that conforms with their existing acronym, and today those rumors were confirmed when Iván Márquez, the FARC’s chief negotiator in Havana, released the group’s new name. The former terrorist group will now be known as the “Colombian Revolutionary Alternative Forces”.
“Soon, we will hold a foundation congress for our new political party, which will probably be named as the Colombian Revolutionary Alternative Forces. We don’t want to break links to our past, we’ve been and we will always be a revolutionary force”, Márquez announced to the press.
Pablo Catatumbo, another FARC leader, said that 1,200 FARC representatives will participate in their constitutive congress, where they will make decisions with regard to their political leadership, party policies, as well as their party’s principal objectives.
According to the 2016 Havana Accords, the FARC are entitled to 10 seats in congress, 5 in the country’s Senate and 5 more in the Chamber of Representatives. The seats are guaranteed, regardless of vote totals in any election, through 2023. Sources indicate that Iván Márquez will most likely occupy one of those positions in the Senate, with Pablo Catatumbo in the Chamber of Representatives.
