THE Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) was removed from the United States terror list on Tuesday, just over five years after it signed a peace accord with the Colombian government.

“The Department of State is revoking the designations of the Revolutionary Forces of Colombia as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.

While removing Farc from the list, two splinter groups — La Segunda Marquetalia and Farc-EP — were designated as terrorist organisations.

All property belonging to the dissidents will be blocked and those that trade with them could also be designated terrorist. Financial institutions could face sanctions.

The move to de-list Farc was anticipated with Washington telling Congress earlier this month that it was preparing to do so to boost support for the fragile peace deal as the government faces criticism for slow implementation of its commitments.

Mr Blinken said de-listing Farc does not change the US position regarding charges or potential charges against former leaders of the organisation.

Former Farc leader Rodrigo Londono — known by the nom de guerre Timochenko — welcomed the announcement as “recognition of our commitment to peace and our rigorous compliance” with the peace agreement.

Colombia remains a key regional ally for the US which fears a loss of influence as leftist governments continue to win elections across Latin America, most recently in Honduras.

Farc was first added to the US terror list in 1997 under the Clinton administration which launched Plan Colombia three years later.

It saw millions of dollars pumped into Colombian military and paramilitary organisations, but was criticised for widespread human rights abuses and the alleged funding of death squads.

At least 1,400 people, and by some estimates many times that number, were massacred in the 2008 False Positives scandal, with innocent civilians passed off as Farc guerillas because killings were incentivised by the military in order to hit targets.

The peace deal was signed in 2016 bringing an end to decades of conflict in which 260,000 people were killed, according to a 2018 report by Colombia’s National Centre for Historical Memory.

Some former Farc fighters entered parliament and the organisation rebranded as a political party, now known as the Commons.

But almost five million people have been displaced since the signing of the accord as violence continues to plague Colombia.

At least 116 social leaders have been killed so far this year, including a number of signatories to the peace deal.