When coca is grown, there is always a market and a means of transporting the goods. The drug cartels train young people as assassins. In addition to the war between the guerillas and the paramilitaries in Colombia, this nation has the highest rate of homicides. 25,000 people are murdered every year by domestic or other criminal violence. Homicide is the leading cause of death among adults over age 15.
Youth gangs are prevalent in the cities, and domestic violence and child abuse are rampant.
Many of the murders go unsolved. Out of 3,600 murders in Bogota in 1996, police arrested fewer than 100 people. Inspired by the Cuban and Chinese revolutions, they aimed to break the power of the Colombian elite and support social and economic justice for the poor, especially the rural poor. Over the years, several guerilla organizations have emerged and receded. They possess a powerful presence in about 50 per cent of the country and have the tacit or overt support of many poor peasant families who feel they have been abandoned by their government.