On May 27, 1964 the Colombian military attacked Marquetalia and other surrounding communities. [5] Marulanda’s forty-eight guerrilla fighters fought back. Following the attack, on July 20th 1964, the guerrillas from Marquetalia met with other communities, organized, and unified in what they called the First Guerrilla Conference. During this conference, in which some 350 guerrillas participated, they formally declared themselves a guerrilla group, taking on the name the Southern Bloc. The Southern Bloc called for land reform, better conditions for those in the countryside, and vowed to defend the communities of followers in the countryside from the Colombian government. Primarily a defense group, the Southern Bloc met again in May 1966 for its Second Guerrilla Conference and renamed itself the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the FARC. [6] In addition to the FARC’s name change, the second conference also marked a shift in strategy for the group; instead of just defending the rural population from government attacks, the FARC started providing educational and medical services to loyal communities, training militants for combat, and carrying out attacks. In 1972, Marulanda established training camps for the guerrillas. In the FARC’s early years, to pay for the camps and social service provision, the FARC kidnapped for ransom, primarily targeting politicians, and elites