UCDP: "Colombia has experienced a long-lasting armed conflict between the government and several guerrilla organisations. In fact, the over half a century on-going conflict makes it the oldest of today’s civil wars. Some rebel groups found negotiated settlements and disarmed in the early 1990s. FARC, formed in the 1960s, is still active. The left-wing guerrillas wish to overthrow the government but one underlying reason for the conflict’s longevity is the income of the coca leaf.

In 2012 the conflict remained active with unchanged intensity level. However, peace negotiations between the government and FARC opened in Oslo in October and continued in Havana in November. President Santos continued military airstrikes on rebel camps throughout the year and declared that the government wouldn’t consider ceasefire until a final agreement is reached. In April FARC released members of the security forces that had been held prisoners for over a decade and in November, when peace talks started on Cuba, the organisation declared unilateral ceasefire as a goodwill gesture. As of December 2012 the conflict in Colombia was still on-going, active only in the FARC dyad."

Source: Uppsala Conflict Data Program (Date of retrieval: 2013-07-27) UCDP Conflict Encyclopedia, Uppsala University