ABSTRACT
During those first bloody years, the UP simply tried to survive the onslaught. But there was no clear strategy on how to deal with the attacks. The killings were happening so often that the party was left constantly off balance. Some party militants eventually took refuge, but many others stuck out their chests and waited for the bullets to come. Throughout, the party pressured the government to comply with the treaty it had signed with the FARC, the Uribe Agreement. “The Government, in accordance with the Constitution and the laws, will give the Unión Patriótica the guarantees and security it needs so that it can campaign as well as participate in elections in the same way other political parties do,” the 1984 agreement read. “The government will use all the force of the law against any citizen or authority that inhibits these rights or denies, ignores, or refuses to recognize the rights that they [the members of the new party] have.”
