Surprised they are using American weapons (looks like M4 variants in the photos). I would have thought the FARC would have historically held onto Russian / Chinese AK platforms due to their reliability in Jungle environments. Unless they source most of their weapons from cartels?
New Chinese and Russian AKs are currently hard to find in the U.S. due to sanctions. China’s Norinco was sanctioned for trying to sell AKs (and heavy weapons) directly to L.A. street gangs. Russian state-owned arms manufacturers were sanctioned due to Russia’s military involvement in Ukraine. You can find new AKs for sale in the U.S., but they’re from a limited number of manufacturers and more expensive than the equivalent AR-style rifles.
In contrast, AR-style rifles are massively oversupplied right now, in the wake of both the Obama presidency and Hillary Clinton’s presidential candidacy. Manufacturers built up large inventories in expectation of “panic buying” after Hillary’s election. When that didn’t happen and sales didn’t pick up accordingly, prices fell. In fact, Colt recently stopped making AR-15s for consumers, saying “The fact of the matter is that over the last few years, the market for modern sporting rifles has experienced significant excess manufacturing capacity.”