And now we have groups within Colombia who want to defeat the marxists, but don't have the Government's support. We call them the Paramilitaries. There're about five thousand of them. They too are well armed and they have lots of money which they're making of the drug business. So you have a four-sided war.
All groups have lots of weapons.
They steal from each other when they win a battle, they go on the black market and buy weapons. We hear reports about them flying helicopters and aircraft around the region. Everybody in Colombia who has any stake in either side of this conflict is buying weapons on the gray market, on the black market, and on the legal market as well. James Zackrison is an adjunct researcher with an expertise in security issues for Latin America at the Center for Counterterrorism Studies in the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies in Arlington. James L. Zackrison is an intelligence analyst with the Office of Naval Intelligence.