Clad in jeans and a black Armani Exchange T-shirt, Falcon said such tactics make the paramilitary group a vital component to government security forces. Falcon said in an interview last week at his heavily guarded compound near Puerto Asis. Barely an hour after the interview, Associated Press journalists came across a body on a muddy road outside town. Passers-by stared at the corpse, then quickly moved on. FARC has also murdered its opponents, and allegedly was behind the 1998 assassination of a Roman Catholic priest in Putumayo.
Few people dare discuss the killings.
During daytime, the town bustles. After dusk, Puerto Asis becomes a ghost town. On the few roads carved through the jungle, rebels or paramilitary squads suddenly erect roadblocks. Motorists believed to be partial to the wrong side are sometimes taken away and never heard from again. It is into this lawless land that the United States is making its stand against the drug trade and attempting to shore up an embattled democracy, located only a three-hour flight from Miami.