Instead, U.S. dollars are used to fund counterinsurgency campaigns and a vast land grab by those who already have large tracks of land. The paramilitary groups work hand in glove with the Colombian military. As a result of this violence, the U.S. State Department records over 750,000 displaced persons in Colombia. Between 1990 and 1994, Colombians living below the poverty line increased by one million, to include about half of Colombia's population of 33 million people. Giraldo's Justicia y Paz magazine.
Paramilitaries are private armies, usually hired to protect large landowners in Colombia.
Since wealth and influence have always been concentrated in the hands of those with land in Colombia, drug traffickers have been able to buy their way into the social life of agribusiness, military defense, and mainstream politics. During this period, there were 462 cases officially accounted for by the Attorney General for Human Rights in Colombia. At this point, perhaps such an admission might not be possible. At least fifty of these graduates were involved in ten civilian massacres, totaling over 521 victims in several regions. Funding for the SOA was again renewed on September 4th of this year.