Colombia's FARC party rebrands itself as ‘Comunes’

BOGOTA, Colombia

Colombia’s FARC political party is changing its name to Comunes, it announced after its second national assembly held during the weekend.

The FARC party was created in 2017 as the political successor of the former rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, (FARC).

“From now on we will bear the name Comunes, because we are a party of common people working for a fair country with welfare for the common people," said the former head of the now demobilized FARC rebels and current leader of the political party, Rodrigo Londono Echeverri, better known as Timochenko.

The name Comunes was chosen as former combatants considered FARC to be a name that generated rejection in the country as a result of the armed conflict of more than half a century that left thousands dead and millions displaced.

The new name also allows them to distance themselves from dissidents Ivan Marquez and Jesus Santrich, former senior leaders of Colombia’s guerrilla group, who in August 2019 announced a break with the 2016 peace accord that ended Latin America’s longest war, saying that the government had betrayed the deal.

The FARC party has also performed poorly in the elections in which it has participated since it entered political life.

Back then former President Juan Manuel Santos, who signed the peace agreement, criticized them for keeping the same acronym for the political party.

"The practice, the reality, showed that it was not the right thing to do (to keep the name FARC)," Londono said this week.

The decision was not endorsed by three FARC senators including Victoria Sandino and Israel Zuniga, who withdrew from the process because they considered it was “ not democratic".