This page is part of © FOTW Flags Of The World website

Colombia - Political Flags - Part 3

Last modified: 2021-08-26 by klaus-michael schneider
Keywords: colombia |
Links: FOTW homepage | search | disclaimer and copyright | write us | mirrors




Editorial Remark: It must be noted that all the opinions are of the authors and not of FOTW. Our site is non-political and concentrates only on vexillological issues.


Marcha Patriótica

During April 21, 22 and 23, 2012 a massive demonstration took place in Bogotá, during the so called launching of this new sociopolitical movement called "Marcha Patriótica" (Patriotic March). Sometimes referred to as "Movimiento Político Marcha Patriótica" (Patriotic March Political Movement) , "Marcha Patriótica por la Segunda y Definitiva Independencia" (Patriotic March for the Second and Definite Independence) and "Movimiento Político y Social Marcha Patriótica" (Political and Social Movement Patriotic March), it is established as they called themselves "the new left" and "a progressivist movement", with the purpose of bring about change to the current political agenda and its disconformity with several actual measures that the government (elected in 2010) has taken so far, as their political manifesto
expresses:
http://www.marchapatriotica.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=476:declaracion-politica-movimiento-politico-marcha-patriotica&catid=37:en-la-marcha&Itemid=55

However this movement has its roots on a similar rally that took place  on July 20, 2012, the Bicentennial of Colombia's independence from Spain, and is already being labeled as a legal political support for the illegal FARC guerrilla, that leads to a negotiated end of the current armed conflict, similar to the Entramado de ETA (ETA's Surroundings, referring to the cluster of social and political organizations that this Spanish illegal armed group has established to support its activities and have a legal front). One of the similarities with Farc, is the logo used by Marcha Patriótica
Source: http://pupsocvalle.blogspot.com/2010/06/marcha-patriotica-y-cabildo-abierto_3457.html, which is similar to that used by the Movimiento Bolivariano
Sources: http://www.lasillavacia.com/historia/marcha-patriotica-la-nueva-izquierda-que-nace-con-un-estigma-32748
South Moluccas, First flag
http://m.elespectador.com/noticias/judicial/articulo-339131-ejercito-insiste-farc-quieren-fundar-partido-politico
and http://www.eltiempo.com/opinion/columnistas/josobduliogaviria/zona-franca_11593403-4

It is composed of (among a grand total of claimed 1,471 organizations nationwide including trade unions, indigenous people, etc.):
- ACVC (Asociación Campesina del Valle del Río Cimitarra, Peasant Association of the Valley of the Cimitarra River) (official website: http://prensarural.org/acvc/ )
- FEU (Federación de Estudiantes Universitarios, Federation of University Students) (official website: http://feucolombia.org/ )
- Teatro la Candelaria (La Candelaria theater) (official website: http://www.teatrolacandelaria.org.co/ )
- Congreso de los Pueblos (Congress of the Peoples) (official website: http://congresodelospueblos.org/ )
- Minga Social y Comunitaria - Asociación de Cabildos Indígenas (official website: http://www.nasaacin.org/minga-social-y-comunitaria)
- COMOSOC (Coalición de Movimientos y Organizaciones Sociales de Colombia, Coalition of Social Organizations and Movements of Colombia) (official website: http://www.comosoc.org.co/ )
- Dissidents of the Polo Democrático Alternativo
- Coordinadora Nacional de Movimientos y Organizaciones Sociales y Políticas (National Coordination of Social and Political Movements and Organizations) (official communiqué)
- MANE (Mesa Amplia Nacional Estudiantil) (National Broad Student Board) (official website: http://manecolombia.blogspot.com/ )

The two driving forces behind this new movement are:
- Izquierda Liberal en Marcha (Liberal Left Forward) a movement within the Partido Liberal
- Partido Comunista Colombiano

The flag is a white horizontal flag with the logo in the middle as seen in the following pictures:
- http://www.arcoiris.com.co/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/marcha_patrioticados.jpg (Source: http://www.arcoiris.com.co/2012/04/ecos-de-la-marcha-patriotica/)
- http://www.elespectador.com/files/imagecache/560_width_display/images/201204/7c16d6dd755dbcde1834c2d309189dbf.jpg
, http://www.elespectador.com/files/imagecache/560_width_display/images/201204/7f53b307fbc46a1959ba8f5238700f5c.jpg
and http://www.elespectador.com/files/imagecache/560_width_display/images/201204/b89a1774797908de1e4e59f90185dc81.jpg
(Source: http://www.elespectador.com/noticias/bogota/galeria-340672-multitudinaria-movilizacion-de-marcha-patriotica)
For additional information go to: Marcha Patriótica (official website):
Esteban Rivera, 25 April 2012


MIRA Movement (Movimiento MIRA - Movimiento Independiente de Renovación Absoluta

[M19 Guerilla Movement (Colombia)] image from official website

The Movimiento MIRA was established on July 26, 2000. This movement is already featured on FOTW. It has political representation at various levels and different Departments.
Source: Screenshot of official website.
E.R., 3 November 2007

The flag is the logo (without the slogan) on a blue horizontal stripe, over a white horizontal background, as seen here:
https://partidomira.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/partido.jpg
(source: https://partidomira.com/nuestro-movimiento)

For additional information go to Partido MIRA (official website): https://partidomira.com/
Esteban Rivera, 21 August 2018


MOIR - Independent Revolutionary Workers Movement (Movimiento Obrero Independiente y Revolucionario)

image by Santiago Tazon, 2 September 2000

Thousands of workers and students marched on the US embassy and other places in Bogota and Cartagena de Indias, protesting because Clinton's visit. They fly several red vertical flags of MOIR (Movimiento Obrero Independiente y Revolucionario) - Independent Revolutionary Workers Movement. MOIR is a Colombian political (communist) party.
Santiago Tazon, 2 September 2000

This party was established in Medellín in 1971 as a result of the action of former members of the defunct Maoist MOEC (Movimiento Obrero Estudiantil y Campesino - Workers, Students and Peasants Movement). Its youth section is called th JUPA (Juventud Patriótica, Patriotic Youth).  
For more information see MOIR Official website and wikipedia.
E.R., 15 July 2007

image by Eugene Ipavec (based on original by Jaumé Ollé), 3 September 2007

Jaumé Ollé reported in 2004 on a variant of the MOIR flag.
 E.R., 3 September 2007

Patriotic Youth (JUPA - Juventud Patriótica)

image by Eugene Ipavec (based on original by Jaumé Ollé), 3 September 2007

There is also the youth section of the MOIR party, the Juventud Patriótica (JUPA), or Patriotic Youth in English
 E.R., 3 September 2007


Movimiento Civismo en Marcha

[M19 Guerilla Movement (Colombia)] image by Eugene Ipavec, 13 December 2005

There was an illegal organization in Colombia known as "El Cartel de Medellín" (Medellin Cartel). It was also known in its beginning as "Los Extraditables". However, this was some kind of umbrella organization that participated in many illegal activities such as narcotics, assassinations, bribery, racketeering, terrorism, "dirty politics" (corruption, etc.). This flag was used by a political movement called "Movimiento Civismo Unido" also known as "Movimiento Civismo en Marcha". This was a liberal-oriented political party headed by drug lord Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria (a.k.a. El Patrón, a.k.a. El Señor) which started in the outskirts of Medellin to eradicate poverty, build soccer fields and build houses as well (most of this through money laundering derived from narcotics trafficking) and it was his political platform to run for Congress as Member of the House of Representatives (lower chamber). He actually was elected as the second Representative of Jairo Ortega (another liberal) for the Department of Antioquia. So when Ortega was absent Escobar took his place in Congress (shortly afterwards his ties with drugs escalated a war that had already started and he was forced to step down and the manhunt began...). This episode became what is known as Colombia's Drug War (1984-onwards) although drug trafficking had been around since the 1970's. Pablo Escobar was shot dead on December 2nd, 1993 on a raid by the Colombian Police, by Colonel (then Mayor) Hugo Heliodoro Aguilar Naranjo (now the Governor of the Department of Santander), who led the final assault on Escobar's safe house in Medellin. The image is a snapshot of the documentary "Los Archivos Secretos de Pablo Escobar" (Pablo Escobar's Secret Files) by Marc Beaufort, released on February 13, 2004, produced by Centauro Films, with the help of Escobar's family and close relatives. There is a little insight on the documentary which can be found at www.elcolombiano.com.
The flag itself is divided into three equal horizontal stripes and the colors are green (top), white (middle) and red (bottom). In the middle it has a red disc (very similar to the Japanese flag) and also three flags (one green with a white tree and another green flag with a book, the third flag being white with a red heart on it.
E.R., 7 June 2005 and 30 November 2005

The three depicted flags seems to be:  
- Black flag with white open book centered
- White flag with red stylized heart (like the playing card suit "hearts") centered
- Black flag with white tree at the fly.
Probably flagoids standing for some "virtue" each. Perhaps education, peace, and environment?
António Martins-Tuválkin, 18 December 2005

Actually the name is Movimiento Civismo en Marcha, as I verified today searching the web.
Source: Semi official website of the Documentary "Los Archivos Secretos de Pablo Escobar".
E.R., 4 June 2006

In recent news published by the newspaper El Colombiano on its online edition of July 30, 2006, some pictures of this political movement are shown. For example at www.elcolombiano.com/20C--1.pdf, one can see the name of this political movement on a banner on the main stand where Pablo Escobar is giving a speech, one can see the emblem of the movement (a tree, and a book) right next to the person managing the sound.   At www.elcolombiano.com/C--2.pdf one can see a standing person with a moustache wearing a t-shirt bearing the emblems of the political movement.
E.R., 2 September 2006


Movimiento Jaime Bateman Cayón

[Movimiento Jaime Bateman Cayón (Colombia)] image located by Esteban Rivera, 21 August 2018

The "Movimiento Jaime Bateman Cayón" (English: Jaime Bateman Cayon Movement) takes its name from the top commander of the M-19), Jaime Alfonso Bateman Cayón.

Its flag is horizontal with three equally divided stripes, from top to bottom: dark green, red and black, with the initials in white capitals with black outline M-JBC in the middle, crossed by a sword that symbolizes that of Simón Bolívar, as seen here: http://2.bp.blogspot.com (source: http://movimientojaimebatemancayon.blogspot.com). It follows the same location and style of the lettering as the M-19, as to having a hyphen between names. Also, the sword represents the one that was stolen by the M-19 back in 1974, as an act of revolution, since members of this organization consider the armed struggle not to be over for multiple reasons (social inequality, distribution of political power, etc.)
Sources: http://enciclopedia.banrepcultural.org/ and http://elrelojcultural.com/2017/01/17/hace-43-anos-es-robaba-la-espada-de-bolivar-nace-publicamente-el-m-19/

Image located at https://lh4.googleusercontent.com (source: http://movimientojaimebatemancayon.blogspot.com/)
Esteban Rivera, 21 August 2018


Movimiento Revolucionario del Pueblo

"The Movimiento Revolucionario del Pueblo (M.R.P.) (English: People's Revolutionary Movement) is a terrorist movement that is said to be an offshoot of the ELN through its Redes de Apoyo al Terrorismo (RAT) (English: Terrorism Support Networks), organizations that are loosely and independently coordinated but have some affiliation up to some extent to main armed groups (some sort of ad hoc groups).

It is said to have been established in 2016 although a first armed action was carried out on September 2015 as seen on this pamphlet (https://static.iris.net.co/semana/upload/images/2015/9/18/442951_173651_1.jpg, http://trochandosinfronteras.info/wp-content/uploads/comunicadoMRP.jpeg) although several actions had taken place months before (specially rallies on May 1, for the traditional celebration of Labor Day and being used for vindication of social rights) and may as well have been carried out by this group. The main focus (so far) is to shift people's attention that the current peace process between the government and the leftist guerrillas (mainly FARC and ELN. It emerged in the context of criticizing the 2016 peace referendum (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colombian_peace_agreement_referendum,_2016), and it is radically opposed to the polarization of the concept of a peace treaty, currently being mistakenly identified as only a peace deal for business reasons and only a matter of "two political leaders (current President Santos who was a government official of Uribe's Presidency, and former President Uribe) (https://es.scribd.com/document/338620171/LA-PAZ-DE-LOS-RICOS-NO-ES-LA-PAZ-DEL-PUEBLO and http://www.elespectador.com/sites/default/files/9b6585b18e533c45282a0c8bd4339a52_1.jpg), in favor of broadening political participation among non-traditional actors, as well as the current harsh economic conditions in the country that emerged after an increase in VAT (Value Added Tax) from 16% to 19%, and also the takeover of the second biggest mandatory health care provider which went bankrupt".
Sources: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movimiento_Revolucionario_del_Pueblo_(Colombia)#cite_note-Dossier_MRP_1-1, http://www.bluradio.com/nacion/capturados-dos-presuntos-responsables-de-atentados-de-los-ultimos-dias-en-bogota-132489, http://www.semana.com/nacion/articulo/bogota-estalla-petardo-en-la-localidad-de-chapinero/442950-3, https://www.kienyke.com/historias/que-es-mrp-movimiento-revoluycionario-del-pueplo-atentado-andino and http://www.vanguardia.com/colombia/386423-quien-esta-tras-el-movimiento-revolucionario-del-pueblo

Its flag is a horizontal flag with two stripes (top: yellow occupying two thirds of the flag; bottom: blue) with a red five-pointed star in the middle. The color scheme is clearly a reference to the country's national flag, while the star is most likely a reference to leftist ideology and a revolutionary background.

It first appeared on a video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnQGCCwXhiU) uploaded on YouTube on September 20, 2015 where the flag is displayed and afterwards a small explosion throws out some pamphlets (http://www.rebelion.org/docs/218203.pdf) with the group's flag (https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movimiento_Revolucionario_del_Pueblo_(Colombia)#/media/File:Bandera_2017_colombia_pueblo.png) on it (although events seem to have taken place two days earlier, as this article suggests: http://www.semana.com/nacion/articulo/bogota-estalla-petardo-en-la-localidad-de-chapinero/442950-3).

Pictures of the flag appeared first in urban Bogotá, close to one of the offices of DIAN, as seen here: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movimiento_Revolucionario_del_Pueblo_(Colombia)#/media/File:Bandera_DIan.png, closeup: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movimiento_Revolucionario_del_Pueblo_(Colombia)#/media/File:Bandera_DIAN.png), and also on another building over Calle 19 (Street 19) and Carrera 10 (Avenue 10) (downtown) as seen here: https://i.ytimg.com/vi/TnQGCCwXhiU/maxresdefault.jpg.

The flag's GIF image is seen here:
http://periodicopalabrasmayores.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/bandera-copia.jpg
(source: http://periodicopalabrasmayores.com/al-parecer-un-nuevo-movimiento-revolucionario-en-colombia-seria-el-autor-de-los-atentados-a-las-eps/)
Esteban Rivera, 21 June 2017