Marulanda was born in a coffee-growing region of west-central Colombia in the Quindío Department, to a peasant family politically aligned with the Liberal Party during conflicts in the 1940s and 1950s.

Eventually, Marulanda split with some of his relatives and became part of a column of guerrilla fighters that came under the influence of the Communist Party of Colombia, which developed a more proactive role in the fighting, executing more raids and offensive operations.

Marulanda eventually met and befriended Luis Morantes, also known as Jacobo Arenas, a PCC political cadre sent to the rural areas by the central party structure.

Rojas had offered an amnesty that was accepted by most Liberal irregular fighters nationwide, but reputedly the murder of a few demobilized individuals made Marulanda, his rural comrades and his PCC superiors in the cities uneasy.

[7] On 25 May in a video released to channel teleSUR, Timoleón Jiménez, aka Timochenko, another member of the Central High Command of the FARC, confirmed the death as heart failure.