Let's assume a mixture of government incompetence and/or instability coupled with feverish efforts by the Soviets and Cubans to assist it with all sorts of arms and money results in FARC taking power in the capital. What happens next besides inevitable anti-communist rebellions? How significant would this be vis-à-vis other Latin American countries?
the problem with communists is that mind control works and so
does redistribution of wealth -- albeit temporarily. (Eventually the
productive people disappear, especially since no one wants to
follow in father's footsteps if he were a highly productive person.)
So if Politician A gives Mr. C the wealth of Mr. B, A & C are perfectly
happy. B remains an imbittered and forgotten man. Once in place,
the process takes a long time IOTL, like steady hollowing out of the
base support, unless outside forces tweeked it just so (never
happened IOTL with a entrenched and serious communist totalitarian
state already modestly industrialized until the 1980's.)
So if communism becomes entrenched, there only slow corrosion & sort of
like movies The Thing or Alien(s), the disease spreads. It would be hard to
do that to most Columbians, though, as from my fairly little experience
with the group, think Appalacian hillbillies with a family oriented compound.
Every little hill and hollow of a most rugged upland Andes cordilla needed
to be rooted out, unlike the relatively tiny Sierra Maestra Mountains of
Cuba for Fidel. Yes, Fidel killed many of his former hill comrades as they
were proven free thinking rebels!! Who cared if they had helped him fight
before? (Bill Maudlin's 1959 political cartoon of this is hillarious.)
Should this be done thoroughly, practically a fortress would remain, one
that the Soviet Union should favor pouring in resources to spread the
impact of communism. The Conquistador/Spanish Creole dominant
culture would crack and maybe fail utterly in widespread Latin
American locations, particularly the attractive target of oil rich Venezuela
just next door. Panama would also be attractive, but far better staffed
with US alliances, support and stiffening coercion.
