Manuel Marulanda Velez -- the legendary mastermind of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) -- is the world's oldest guerrilla leader. He was born on May 13, 1928 (a date that has been disputed), in a coffee-growing region of west-central Colombia to a peasant family that gave him the name Pedro Antonio Marin.
According to most accounts, Marin was the oldest of five children and received an elementary school education before he began a series of jobs that included cutting wood and selling candy. After the leader of the left-wing Liberal Party was assassinated in 1948, Marin and several of his cousins took to the mountains to become guerrillas for the Liberal Party. Marin later fought with peasant defense groups and in 1964 became one of the founders of FARC.
When he became a rebel fighter, Marin took the nom de guerre of Manuel Marulanda, but he is known throughout Colombia by his nickname --"Tirofijo," or "Sureshot." In recent years, his political aim has proven as accurate as his prowess with a gun.
FARC began as a Marxist-Leninist movement, but polls show that many Colombians today view it as a terrorist group that kills civilians and increasingly relies on drug trafficking to survive. Despite FARC's declining popularity, Marulanda managed to shore up its political position after he took over the top spot of the organization in 1990.
After helping Conservative Party presidential candidate Andres Pastrana win election in 1998 by implying that he endorsed his peace plans, Marulanda persuaded Pastrana to grant FARC a safe haven the size of Switzerland in southern Colombia. Marulanda failed to make any concessions to the government in return, and the rebels have yet to sign a cease-fire agreement.
FARC has used the safe haven to expand its reach into the lucrative drug industry. Operating in nearly half of Colombia, its 15,000-strong army continues to attack towns and military outposts.
Marulanda insists that FARC remains committed to basic socialist ideals such as the nationalization of industry. Officially, FARC also stresses self-reliance and opposes most international investments in the country.
In a January 1999 interview with the Colombian weekly news magazine "Semana," Marulanda said: "We cannot allow our people to continue dying of hunger, without a home, without a car, without a roof over their heads, without education without health, while others have huge buildings filled with dollars. No. That must be changed. It will not be easy because the confrontation will be with a state that has given nothing and wants to give nothing."
Critics, however, accuse Marulanda of putting his own quest for power above the needs of Colombia's poor.