Colombia’s war was sparked more than fifty years ago by the assassination of liberal leader Jorge Gaitan. A brutal conflict broke out between the two main political parties, so vicious, that it became known simply as La Violencia – the violence. More than 300,000 people were killed before the Conservatives and Liberals signed the National Front Pact – a 1958 agreement that allowed the two parties to take turns running the government. The pact ended political opposition for the next sixteen years, ensured that the wealth and power of the nation would be retained by the urban elite, and gave rise to the guerrilla war that has lasted ever since. In response, Colombian children assumed a leading role in building peace in their country.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – known by their initials in Spanish as the FARC – emerged in the mid-sixties and is today the largest and longest surviving guerrilla organization in the western hemisphere. With the smaller National Liberation Army (known as the ELN) they possess a combined force of about 20,000 well-armed combatants and control about forty percent of Colombia.