Amnesty International report on Demobilization of Colombian paramilitaries

Issued : Thursday 15 September, 2005

Imagine: Its 9am. You are riding a bus to work along with 30 other people whose faces look vaguely familiar. The bus stops, and a well dressed smiling man boards. You make eye contact for a second, and then freeze. Your heart pounds as you realize this smiling man murdered your father, and possibly dozens more like him. This is the nightmare of so many Colombian citizens today, as thousands of paramilitaries are demobilized and reintegrated into society without proper judicial checks on their previous human rights violations.

Currently, more than 50 years after Colombia's bloody civil wars began between partisan groups, the government claims that peace is on the way after highly publicized ceremonies of paramilitary demobilization. In response, Amnesty International has published its own conclusions based on research done in Medellin, Colombia's second largest city. Their findings show that demobilization is happening in name only, in order to create a Colombia more palatable to international investment.

In 1965 it was made legal for the military to create brigades of armed civilians for carrying out counter-insurgency operations against guerrilla groups. Since then, these paramilitary organizations have infiltrated Colombia politically, economically, and socially through the use of terror, murder, "disappearances," and forced displacement. In the 1980's, using drug trafficking profits, the paramilitaries became capable of concerted action throughout the country. Their actions included political assassinations, as well as murder of trade unionists, human rights activists, and community leaders.

In 1989, the decree that legalized the paramilitary was suspended. Since then, however, it has continued to grow due to the failure of successive administrations to bring to justice Securities Officers in support of paramilitarism. There have been 2,300 killings or "disappearances" since 2002, Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC), the umbrella organization encompassing 80% of the paramilitary, called a ceasefire. Amnesty International also cites the demobilization of the Bloque Cacique Nutibara (BCN), the dominant paramilitary group in Medellin, as a farce, with members being recycled back into the system and allowed to work as informants for security forces, even run for office.

Current President, Alvaro Uribe, issued Decree 128 in 2003 in an attempt to bring peace. The decree grants legal and economic benefits to paramilitary members who demobilize, and excludes those who have committed atrocities outside of combat.
Guarantees of this exclusion are yet to be seen, as judicial authorities have inadequate time and means to process each paramilitary in detail.

Adding to the inadequacies of the demobilization process, the recently passed Justice and Peace Law not only provides reduced sentences of 5 to 8 years for human rights violators, but also restricts the amount of time for investigations into atrocities.

Amnesty International credits the farce of demobilization to the desire of the BCN to become a legal socio-political force in Medellin. A witness explains, "Today their control is more subtle; there are no hooded patrols armed with assault weaponry. It is an invisible control which is carried out through threats, with hidden small arms, with forced displacement from neighborhoods."

Amnesty International suggests that unless solid guarantees are put in place to ensure that truth, justice, and reparations are conferred upon victims, the paramilitary will continue to be as strong as ever in the shadows in Colombia.