Most important, Santos staked his political capital on negotiating peace and disarmament with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) – the powerful guerrilla group (often characterized as a “narco-guerrilla”movement) that has been wreaking havoc on the country for four decades. While some progress had been made since peace talks began in Cuba three years ago, the negotiations were moving along slowly, giving opponents like Álvaro Uribe, Santos’s predecessor, ample time to mobilize public opinion against the talks.