III. Facts about measures

A) Paramilitary groups in Colombia

In response to the FARC kidnapping family members of drug lords or stealing from them, some of the drug lords respond by hiring paramilitary troops to fight alongside the government army against the FARC. The paramilitary are much more ruthless and direct in the methods as they carry out massacres of whole villages and towns who allegedly are either sympathetic to or have shown their support to the FARC.

They are also by some accounts responsible for 70% of all the human rights abuses of Colombia. The methods employed by these paramilitary groups of Colombia force vulnerable peasants to offer their support to the FARC as they are seen as a safe haven in their eyes which only makes the problem worse.

Colombian Government

The Colombian government has started employing a much harsher strategy towards the FARC in recent years which has led to a number of successes with the leaders of the FARC being either murdered during aerial bombings or dying of natural causes. In addition to this thousands of guerrilla forces (not necessarily all FARC) have turned in their weapons and have defected to the government. However FARC still controls the Switzerland sized territory in the south of Colombia and it will virtually be impossible for the Colombian authorities to regain possession of the land with the use of force.

US support to the Colombian government

Colombia is the recipient of the second largest financial and material aid provided by the US to any region in the world annually receiving over a billion dollars in aid. Despite this, the US aid has not had the desired effect on the problem to say the least. Because of the fact that the problem is not with the quality or the quantity of the aid they are receiving, it can be safely assumed that they are being deployed to the wrong part of the conflict. Up until now, the US has mainly tried to train and educate and train Colombian soldiers in their fight against drug production. However, corruption at all ranks of the military makes this a very controversial issue. Moreover, the actual tactic employed by the US in eradicating drugs has caused concern and mass dissatisfaction among the peasants which are starting to doubt whether US military presence in Colombia is in fact in the best interests of the people of Colombia.