Such groups are hard to disrupt. Dismantling one has little impact on the others. The increase in drug production acted like gasoline thrown on the fire of Colombia's insurgency problems. Guerrilla and paramilitary groups on both the left and right profit enormously from the drug trade and organize peasants who grow illegal substances. Dollar estimates of their income from drugs run as high as hundreds of millions annually.
Drug money augments the funds such organizations get from kidnapping, extortion and bank robbery.
The State Department documented that these groups hijack airplanes and murder Americans as well as innocent Colombians. Serious human rights violations committed by the outlaws include torturing and executing prisoners, expropriating property and recruiting minors. Colombia's economy is shrinking for the first time in three decades. The gross national product decreased 5 percent in the first six months of 1999. Unemployment exceeds 20 percent.