FARC-EP Chain of Command

The military structure of the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia – Ejército del Pueblo ("Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People's Army", or FARC–EP), formally began to be developed after the middle of 1964, when the Colombian Army occupied the town of Marquetalia.

The Colombian Army claimed they were cleaning the last remnants of "bandolerism", a mob justice system for displacement of adversaries, developed in the 10-year struggle for power between the Conservative and Liberal parties, during La Violencia (The Violence). They were influenced by the counterinsurgency tactics developed by the United States through its famous School of the Americas. This, of course, was opposed to the vision that the farmers had of themselves, as a demobilized Communist self-defense and guerrilla force, refugees from the government of Gustavo Rojas Pinilla, working in a peaceful community. Following this attack, the scattered rebels reunited and eventually founded the FARC in 1966, establishing the beginnings of the internal structure and strategic outlook.

According to internal regulations, every member of the FARC–EP's military forces has to take a vow in which they formally assume the commitment of fighting to establish "social justice" in Colombia. FARC members consider the necessary path to achieve this goal is through Marxism and Leninism, additionally influenced by the ideas of the Cuban Revolution and Che Guevara.

The symbol in the center of the FARC–EP flag is a book and two rifles in the middle of a map of Colombia, which transmits the message "learn and fight for Colombia", as a sign of the importance ideological education has for the FARC–EP. The three colors in the background are yellow, blue and red, common to the flags of Ecuador, Venezuela and Colombia in northern South America. These colors also indicate the region's shared past and identity under Bolívar's Greater Colombia.

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