Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) -- Founding Group and Faction

The Latin American Patriotic Army is probably not a formally structured terrorist organization.  Colombia's 37-year long civil war has taken its toll on neighboring Venezuela, especially in the Venezuelan borderlands, where cattle ranchers are frequently kidnapped by bands of roving Colombian militants from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).  Since 1976, more than 300 similar abductions have taken place in Venezuela.  The Latin American Patriotic Army (EPLA) is a name adopted by one band of FARC members, who kidnapped Venezuelan rancher, Franchesco Palapiano, in the spring of 2001.  Although Palapiano was eventually released for free, the kidnapping tactic is most often employed in the hopes of extorting ransoms from ranchers' families.  Often, ranchers are threatened with kidnapping unless they pay protection money to the militants.

Although kidnapping continue unabated in Venezuela, no group of abductors has used the EPLA name since the lone instance in 2001.  This is not expected to change anytime in the near future.

United Popular Action Movement -- Founding Group

The Lautaro Youth Movement was a Chilean terrorist organization active from the late 1980s through 1994.  The Lautaro Youth Movement, also known by its Spanish acronym MJL, was born of the leftist movement in Chile.  In the late 1960s, the United Popular Action Movement (MAPU) broke off from Chile's Christian Democratic Party.  MAPU, a leftist-leaning organization, then yielded yet another splinter organization, United Popular Action Movement-Lautaro (MAPU/L).  Within the MAPU/L organization, there existed a military wing, the Lautaro Popular Rebel Forces (FRPL), and a youth faction, the Lautaro Youth Movement. <P><br /><br />The Lautaro Youth Movement, or MJL, was formed in the shadow of Augusto Pinochet's military regime. While Pinochet had ruled since 1973, his regime would end a few years after MJL was formed.   One of MJL's founding objectives was to disrupt Pinochet's military regime and the group attacked Chilean police officers, ostensibly as an attack against Pinochet's police and security forces.  In addition, Lautaros committed bank robberies to support the group's operations.    In 1990, Chile successfully transferred power to a democratically elected president.  While one of MJL's principal objectives, namely to disrupt Pinochet's regime, was now irrelevant, MJL did not cease its terrorist operations.  Among other activities, the group assassinated former colleagues of Pinochet, and even more disturbing, MJL assassinated politicians unconnected to Pinochet, who were deemed insufficiently vigorous in prosecuting Pinochet-era officials.