although all human rights groups, and others have made statements that they are nothing other than the AUC, reorganized into smaller groups with new names.
The AUC, if you are familiar with it, has been shown, through court testimonies (sometimes by former paras who were murdered after testifying) for years and years, to have been joined at the hip to the Colombian military, which you know IS deeply funded by US hard-earned taxdollars.
Court trials have been going on for years regarding this unsavory alliance, the paras have been considered the adjunct group which would handle the truly evil work the Colombian military didn't want to associate its name with, although in some massacres, it has been testified various Colombian military personel actually did wade in a participate along with the paras.
In some cases they were known to surround towns and keep traffic out, and the citizens in while the paras did their "magic," sometimes taking human beings apart with chain saws for dramatic effect, and to create terror, as a psychological trauma which would last far longer to Colombians who heard about it: a good way to paralyze people with fear at a distance to keep them so frightened they wouldn't dare rise up against you.
Investigations are still going on regarding current Colombian military personel, extremely high ranking, and their ties to the former paras.
Same guys in the new paramilitary groups, just the names of the groups have changed. They pursue the same goals, and achieve them the same way. Everything is exactly the same except for the names.