On January 17, they say, helicopters and other military aircraft attacked their villages with machine-gun fire and bombs. The peasants fled on foot to the city of Barrancabermeja, five hours away. Now more than a hundred of them are trying to make do without shelter in an abandoned urban lot. What I witnessed in this latest displacement were forces sent as U.S. aid to the Colombian government, he says. They fired upon the civilian population, especially our fishing communities, he says.
Military attacks are just the beginning.
Since forming in the 1980s, the groups have mushroomed to include roughly 5,000 combatants coordinated by an umbrella organization called the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia. Like the guerrillas, the paramilitaries wage war for control of areas that produce coca and poppy, the raw materials for cocaine and heroin. Gen. Jorge Mora, the army commander, paged through a draft of a new army report on the subject. Last year we turned over approximately 100 paramilitary members for state prosecution, and we killed more than 25 in combat, the general says. Human-rights groups here tell a different story.