Colombian Ministry of Defence: FARC Operation Christmas Reaching the soft-side of hard-core guerrillas

Juan Pablo Garcia Account Planning Group - (UK) Grand Prix; Best channel strategy; Best use of research, Creative Strategy Awards, 2011

Title: Author(s): Source: Issue:

Colombian Ministry of Defence: FARC Operation Christmas - Reaching the soft-side of hard-core guerrillas Juan Pablo Garcia Account Planning Group - (UK) Grand Prix; Best channel strategy; Best use of research, Creative Strategy Awards, 2011

Colombian Ministry of Defence: FARC Operation Christmas Reaching the soft-side of hard-core guerrillas
Juan Pablo Garcia SSP3 Colombia

In memory of Captain Valdez, military leader of Operation Christmas. Killed in combat, March 2011, during an infiltration operation by FARC at La Macarena

SUMMARY
This entry is about Colombias 60 year struggle against the worlds oldest guerrilla group, FARC, which commits a terrorist act once every 3 days. We were asked to create an idea to demobilise them. Inviting them to rediscover their lives and their freedom. Going back to basics and conducting interviews with 200 ex-guerrillas revealed a powerful insight - that Christmas time is the
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most sensitive period for guerrillas. The interviews also reinforced how difficult it would be to communicate with a target audience who in the main are beyond the reach of conventional media. Consequently we created something extraordinary: OPERATION CHRISTMAS. Two professional anti-guerrilla contingents, 2,000 LED lights, and 2 Black Hawk helicopters travelled into the jungle to find and cover giant trees with Christmas lights. Placed alongside the guerrillas strategic walking paths the lights would come on when they approached, with banners exhorting them to lay down their arms becoming visible too. The powerful, timely and well-located messaging encouraged 331 FARC guerrillas to demobilise and re-enter society - a 30% uplift on the previous year. In challenging circumstances, planning drew together powerful insights to create a core, successful, thought taking the spirit of Christmas to the guerrilla strongholds.

INTRODUCTION
This entry is about Colombias 60 years of struggle against the oldest guerrilla group in the world, FARC. It is the story of how communications can act as a powerful yet fundamentally peaceful weapon in war. It is the story of how planning can draw together crucial insights to shape both message and media to astonishing and positive effect.

BACKGROUND
Sixty Years of Armed Struggle The Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia), also known by the acronym of FARC, is a revolutionary organization based in Colombia1 It is the largest and oldest (60 years old) insurgent group in the Americas with an estimated 8,000 current members.2 FARCs stated goal is to overthrow the current democratic government of Colombia. As such it is denoted as a violent non-state actor (VNSA) and considered a terrorist group by the Colombian government, the United States Department of State and the European Union.3 From 1999 to 2008 the FARC, together with the associated ELN guerrilla group, was estimated to control between 30 and 40% of the territory in Colombia, an area bigger than the size of England. FARC primarily funds itself principally through ransom, kidnappings, extortion and taxation of the illegal drug trade. It has been estimated that FARC supplies more than 50% of the worlds cocaine4. Since 1996, Free Country Foundation has registered more than 3.000 kidnaps committed by FARC and sister organisation ELN.

Colombias guerrilla war has caused more than 40,000 deaths since 1990, most of them civilians.5 On average FARC commit a terrorist act once every 3 days.6 As a result of FARC activity Colombia now has more landmines than any other country in
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the world, maiming on average three Colombians each day.7 The largest concentrations of FARC guerrillas are believed to be located throughout the south-eastern parts of Colombia's 500,000 square kilometres of jungle and plains. Laying Down Arms the Demobilisation Programme Since 2002, the PAHD (the Colombian Ministry of Defences Programme of Humanitarian Attention to the Demobilised) has been striving to promote the demobilisation of guerrillas and enable them to return to a conventional, civilian life. Efforts during 2002-10 have included Government advertising campaigns broadcasting appeals on radio and television. Recognising the attraction of football in particular these appeals were often broadcast during big matches and PAHD was a major sponsor of the 2010 World Cup. The appeals relied on testimonials from demobilised FARC members to encourage their former comrades to lay down their arms. Alongside this messaging, in a process known as reinsertion", the Government has been offering amnesty and trying to reintegrate into society many of these battle-hardened guerrillas. Former members of outlawed guerrilla and militia groups are being re-educated in schools and colleges. Practical job training and psychological support are also available8. 2010 the Need for New Ideas Whilst FARC numbers have fallen during 2002-10, reducing to a hard-core of around 8,000, the chart below illustrates how recent efforts have yielded diminishing returns and the rate of demobilisations has fallen:

Demobilisations have become more difficult to achieve. Firstly, the remaining guerrillas tend to be those with higher ideological convictions. Secondly, FARC have been responding to the PAHD communication tactics by locating in more isolated rural areas and reducing their internal communications (e.g. banning the use of personal radios except by commanders). Consequently there was an emerging need during 2010 to reinvigorate the demobilisation effort and take it to this increasingly hard to reach audience.

STRATEGY AND PLANNING

The strategic challenge Due to the sensitive nature of the subject and the constantly changing landscape, the PAHD has never set numeric targets for demobilisations. However, their strategic challenge and therefore the campaign challenge was to stem the recent slowdown in demobilisations and reach an increasingly hard to reach and hard to convert audience. The brief was therefore to build a message for demobilisation in this context and to make sure that the guerrillas received it.
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The difficulties involved in this challenge cannot be underestimated and fall into four main areas: 1. The campaign needed to resonate extraordinarily strongly, in order to generate a change in behaviour amongst hard-core individuals who may have held particular views for years, even decades; 2. The campaign needed to touch an audience who by definition are incredibly hard to reach and outside the access of conventional media channels; 3. The campaign needed to operate successfully in highly dangerous locations and a fragile situation; and, 4. Having invested heavily in sponsorship of the 2010 football World Cup, the client had a very limited budget for the remainder of the year. Generating Insight Getting into the Head of A Terrorist In order to determine the most effective way of re-energising the demobilisation campaign, the team went back to basics and the people who could advise them the best the guerrillas themselves. Interviews and focus groups were conducted with more than 200 recently demobilised ex-FARC members. Interviewees were of varying ages and drawn from right across the country. Interviews and focus groups

Participants were asked about motivating factors, potential trigger-points and what forms of communication were accessible and credible in the jungle. In addition the data on demobilisations was examined to see if there were any patterns particular peaks and troughs that could be exploited. Key finding Christmas is a particularly acute time for FARC members The seasonal pattern of demobilisations illustrated that numbers tended to rise around the end of the calendar year. Delving deeper through the interviews conducted we were able to ascertain that rather than the weather or any other factor it was the
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approach of Christmas and its sentiment towards family and home that impacted on guerrillas. The major theme that emerged was that in this highly-religious Catholic society, Christmas is the time when many guerrillas begin to think about the idea of quitting. They feel too far removed from their homes, families and children. The awareness of Christmas even being close, with carols and fireworks, makes them feel nostalgic.

Communicating with guerrillas is increasingly difficult The interviews with ex-guerrillas also brought home how difficult it would be reach FARC members. They highlighted the media restrictions imposed by FARC leaders as well as the guerrillastendency to move more frequently and to increasingly remote locations.

Strategic solution The insights identified above led to the strategy of utilising Christmas and its powerful sentiment to encourage FARC members to demobilise. We also decided not to merely broadcast the message. Rather we would go to the heart of FARCs jungle strongholds in order to leave it.

OPERATION CHRISTMAS
Lowe-SSP3 therefore created Operation Christmas. The operation ran for 4 days in December 2010 in the Macarena, Meta region of Colombia, where 52% of the guerrillas are based. The first step was for military intelligence to identify paths used by the guerrillas to transport food, clothes and medicine. Then the military would fly over the jungle to spot large (75 foot-plus) trees adjacent to these strategic guerrilla walking paths.

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The next step, with the help of 2 professional anti-guerrilla contingents and 2 Black Hawk helicopters, was to cover the selected tree with 2,000 Christmas lights. Adjacent to the tree, military light mechanisms were put in place that detected peoples movements and thus lit the trees as guerrillas approached. Finally, beside the tree, large banners were held with our emotive message: IF CHRISTMAS CAN COME TO THE JUNGLE, YOU CAN COME HOME. DEMOBILISE. AT CHRISTMAS EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE".

It should be noted that in order to make the programme work, the Colombian Army ceased all other activity in the zone being utilised. Military actions against FARC stopped and it was agreed that Operation Christmas would not be used to identify and attack guerrillas, only to invite them to demobilise. Initially the operation looked to light one tree but its success in terms of demobilisations and media coverage led to the operation being extended to cover a further 9 trees.
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The success also led to a TV commercial being produced of the operation activity, subsequently broadcast on prime time television during Christmas. Although media access amongst guerrillas is limited, TV remains the most common form of media used by guerrillas and the coverage would also be seen by their families, who in turn would exert some pressure for their demobilisation. Television commercial

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RESULTS
331 demobilisations From campaign launch in December 2010 until January 25th of 2011, 331 guerrillas demobilised, a 30% uplift on the same period the previous year. This uplift is against the trend which saw an annual 24% reduction for demobilisations in 2009. Changing lives, saving lives Most importantly of all, guerrillas themselves report that the campaign had a considerable impact on them, consequently changing both their own lives and those of ordinary Colombians around them:

A shift in context Operation Christmas touched the hearts of the entire country and was shown all over the world. International and national media broadcasted the operation. The campaign, and all of the press and social media coverage, had a unique, broader humanisingeffect on the conflict: 1. The guerrillas increasingly feel they are still part of society it makes them feel wanted and nostalgic; 2. Crucially, it raises the militarys disposition to welcome the demobilised enemyby reminding them that these combatants are as human as they are; and, 3. By touching the hearts of ordinary Colombians, it helps smooth the reinsertionprocess by destroying some of the barriers that society has against accepting demobilised guerrillas back in workplaces or neighbourhoods. International and national media covered the operation

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Over 60,000 views on YouTube in two days

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More than 2 million links referred to the project

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More than 400 links on Facebook and Twitter appeared

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WHAT DID PLANNING ACHIEVE?

In extraordinarily difficult circumstances, trying to communicate to a resistant audience, in remote jungle warzones, planning was critical. It identified a powerful insight the susceptibility of guerrillas at Christmas-time to create the core thought of taking the spirit of Christmas to the guerrilla strongholds. This represented a step-change in thinking and implementation, tapping into the guerrillassoft-side and desire for love and belonging, freedom and hope.

FOOTNOTES
1FARCarenottheonlyguerrillagroupoperatinginColombia,noraretheytheonlygroupinvitedtodemobilise.TheEjrcito deLiberacinNacional(ELN)andEjrcitoPopulardeLiberacin(EPL)aretheothermajorgroupswhooftenoperate alongside FARC. For the purposes of this paper we refer to FARC as they were the key target for this campaign. 2 Colombian government estimate cited by BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7217817.stm). 3 FARC is on both the US State Department list of Foreign Terrorist Organisations as well as the EU list of terrorist groups. 4 US Department of Justice, 2006 (http://www.justice.gov/dea/pubs/pressrel/pr032206a.html). 5 UN estimate reported by Reuters, April 4 2007. 6 A compendium of 557 terrorist acts during 2002-7 attributed to FARC and reported in the foreign press. 7 International Landmine Monitor report that up to 100,000 landmines have been buried in Colombian soil. 8 The Independent, March 2010 (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/after-the-revolution-why-are-farcsyoung-soldiers-laying-down-their-guns-1922847.html).

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