Left : A soldier helps an exhausted companion into a truck
after a training exercise. 18th Battalion Headquarters, Arauca. Centre : The
FARC guerrillas live in makeshift camps varying in size. The larger camps
commonly have assault courses on which the fighters can train and keep
fit. Los Posos, Caqueta. Righ t: The FARC routinely set up checkpoints on
remote stretches of road, where they take identification details from travellers
and search them. These roadblocks have been the site of many kidnappings.
Nr San Vicente del Caguan, Caqueta, Colombia.
During the 1980’s, when faced with rising taxes and kidnap threats from
the FARC, the heads of the cocaine trade along with wealthy ranchers and landowners
began to fund private armies to protect them and their interests. One of these
was AUC (United Self-defence Forces of Colombia). Since its very inception
this organisation has been brutal in the methods it has used to combat the
guerrillas. The AUC have always had the tacit approval of Colombia’s
Armed Forces.
For a period of time the Government did little to hide their view that the
AUC could be the answer to the ever-growing insurgent groups. Members of the
Armed Forces were seen actively supervising and assisting paramilitary raids.
Human Rights abuses in Colombia rocketed, massacres became and still are commonplace.
Assassinations are a daily occurrence, with entire villages displaced as a
‘scorched earth’ policy is put into action.
