BOGOTA, Sept. 13 (UPI) -- Colombian military purchases are set to go up after the country's new President Juan Manuel Santos signaled the start of a tough line against the drug-fueled FARC guerrilla group.
FARC -- the Spanish acronym for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia -- has been fighting a succession of governments in Bogota under the banner of Marxism, a guise that is practically in tatters as FARC moves more in tandem with heavily armed organized gangs reaping rewards of a lucrative drug trail to North America.
So tight is the embrace of FARC and its drug overlords that it funds and supports, that it, in turn, is bolstered by a subculture of narcotics business worth tens of billions of dollars and stretching from South to Central to North America.
The multinational operation involves politicians, lawmakers, law enforcement agents and thousands of foot solders tainted by the lure of illegal tax-free earnings from drugs.
Santos, a former defense minister who succeeded Alvaro Uribe on a platform of stamping out the drug trail, is busy reinforcing government forces for an all-out assault on FARC and drug overloads.
The government has been shopping worldwide for military equipment and weapons as part of its campaign of armed forces modernization.
FARC began 46 years ago as an offshoot of the Communist Party and an agrarian revolt against the excesses of landowners and military governments.
The drug link, a source of funding amid dwindling sponsorships, turned the agrarian militias into drug traffickers, profiting little from the transformation but always in the front line as the first victims in drug wars and government crackdowns.
The new tough line is unlikely to be without costs for the thousands who report to the wealthy gang leaders, all equipped with personal helicopters and apparently secure hideouts. Previous clashes between FARC gangs and government forces led to deaths of hundreds of innocent villagers caught in the cross fire.
Santos pledged a new offensive against FARC after a series of clashes left 40 military and police personnel dead. He said FARC's attacks appeared to be a defiant response to his inauguration as president Aug. 7.
Santos said the new violence appeared to signal a kind of "welcome to the new government. If that's the welcome, be prepared for the reply to that welcome," said Santos.
FARC is known to mark government transitions with increased attacks on military and police forces and Santos' inauguration is no exception.
Santos said, "These armed groups were born when there was no rule of the law in Colombia but nowadays we live in democracy. There's no reason for them to continue with their violent actions."
