FARC leader Manuel Marulanda 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 |