{"id":4131,"date":"2026-03-06T17:49:40","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T17:49:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/?p=4131"},"modified":"2026-03-06T17:49:40","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T17:49:40","slug":"out-on-the-campaign-trail-with-the-farc-npr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/?p=4131","title":{"rendered":"Out on the campaign trail with the FARC : NPR"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\n Election posters for FARC candidate Luis Alb\u00e1n, who is campaigning for a seat in Colombia’s congress on the 8th March.
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John Otis\/NPR<\/p>\n

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John Otis\/NPR<\/p>\n

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BUGALAGRANDE, Colombia\u2014Ten years ago, former Marxist guerrillas in Colombia signed a peace treaty with the government. The deal allowed them to lay down their weapons and run for elected office.<\/p>\n

Now, a decade later, they’re discovering that winning votes can be harder than waging war.<\/p>\n

Among them is Luis Alb\u00e1n who is campaigning to keep his seat in Colombia’s congress. At a get-out-the-vote rally in the western Colombian town of Bugalagrande. the stocky, bearded candidate seems shy and disoriented. He neglects to tell people that legislative elections are on Sunday or even to state his own name.
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Alb\u00e1n, 68, is more accustomed to hiding who he is. At age 12 he joined a clandestine communist youth group then spent 40 years on the run as a high-ranking member of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. Known as the FARC, it used to be the country’s largest, and most feared, guerrilla group.
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Speaking to NPR from a crowded coffee shop, Alb\u00e1n admits: “I never thought I’d be a congressman.”<\/p>\n