Alvaro Valencia Tovar: former general who fought the FARC Retired general Alvaro Valencia Tovar fought against the FARC from the very beginning 50 years ago. He says that his enemy at the time, Manuel Marulanda, founder of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, was the “best guerrilla” in history. He now remembers Marquetalia, the autonomous peasant zone in Colombia which the army retook control of on June 22, 1964. The FARC consider this day as their date of birth. Images and soundbites.