The People's Revolutionary Army ( ERP) was a small marxist guerrilla

Guerrilla warfare

Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare and refers to conflicts in which a small group of combatants including, but not limited to, armed civilians use military tactics, such as ambushes, sabotage, raids, the element of surprise, and extraordinary mobility to harass a larger and...

 organization in Colombia

Colombia

Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...

. The group originated in the municipality of Venadillo, Tolima Department in c. 1985 as a splinter group of the National Liberation Army

National Liberation Army (Colombia)

National Liberation Army is a revolutionary, avowed Marxist guerrilla group that has been operating in several regions of Colombia since 1964....

 and was commanded by its founder Édgar Castellanos, aka "Gonzalo" until his death in January 2007. The group became a military objective of the larger guerrilla Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia

Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People's Army is a Marxist–Leninist revolutionary guerrilla organization based in Colombia which is involved in the ongoing Colombian armed conflict, currently involved in drug dealing and crimes against the civilians..FARC-EP is a peasant army which...

 whom declared the group as an enemy and was persecuted by paramilitary

Paramilitarism in Colombia

Paramilitarism in Colombia refers to the origins and activities of far right-wing paramilitary groups in Colombia during the 20th century.Right-wing paramilitary groups are the parties considered to be most responsible for human rights violations in Colombia during the later half of the current...

. The Colombian government wanted the group for rebellion, kidnappings and extortion crimes.

It operated mostly in the vicinity of the city of Ibague

Ibagué

Ibagué is the capital of the department of Tolima in Colombia. It is situated 1,285 m above sea level, on the eastern slopes of the Cordillera Central between the Chipalo and Combeima rivers, tributaries of the Coello River...

 capital of the Tolima Department and in the mountainous area of the Montes de María

Montes de María

The Montes de María are a group of mountains of the northern coast of Colombia , which do not belong to the Andes ranges, and the highlands around them. The Montes de María are the last part of the Serranía de San Jerónimo.Montes de María is a zone located in the center of the Colombian...

 in the Colombian Caribbean region, between the departments

Departments of Colombia

Colombia is an unitary republic formed by thirty-two departments and a Capital District . Each department has a Governor and a Department Assembly , elected by popular vote for a four-year period. The governor cannot be re-elected in consecutive periods...

 of Sucre

Sucre Department

Sucre is a department in the Caribbean Region of Colombia. The department ranks 27th by area, and it has a population of 772,010, ranking 20th of all the 32 departments of Colombia...

 and Bolivar

Bolívar Department

Bolívar is a department of Colombia. It was named after one of the original nine states of the United States of Colombia. It is located to the north of the country, extending from the coast at Cartagena near the mouth of the Magdalena River, then south along the river to a border with Antioquia.Its...

which demobilized in June, 2007. The ERP lost its marxist political background with the years and concentrated on criminal practices such as kidnappings and extortion and went down on the number of members to end up with 14 guerrillas which demobilized on September 15, 2007.