As the FARC rejected Uribe 's new policies , the government unleashed a large-scale military , political and judicial offensive against the guerrillas , resulting in a drastic reduction of their military capacity , albeit at the cost of grave human rights violations by the armed forces ( " false positives " ) . The State 's offensive forced the FARC to retreat to their hinterland , and achieved significant results such as securing the country 's main roadways , a reduction in the number of kidnappings , a substantial drop in the homicide rate and the recovery of government authority in several regions of the country . Taken on the whole , these well-publicized results made Uribe extremely popular and granted him sufficient political capital to successfully seek congressional approval of a constitutional amendment allowing him to run for a second consecutive term in 2006 . However , while the army and the police 's operations recovered control of regions where the guerrillas had expanded their influence during the 1980s and 1990s , the FARC displayed a capacity to re-accommodate and reactivate themselves militarily in new strategic hinterland and border regions . The FARC showed their military resilience through terrorist attacks in urban environments ( El Nogal Club bombing in 2003 ) and a counteroffensive in 2005
El Nogal Club bombing
2003 El Nogal Club bombing
Colombian peace process