Neo-paramilitaries announce ‘the end of communist, homosexual students’ in Bogota

[gbscar]

19. They do descend from the AUC and they share a percentage of the same personnel

But the situation has been complicated, in many ways, since even the former AUC was never a monolithic entity. It was an umbrella alliance of drug lords and other parties, with connections to the Colombian military and, by extension, yes, with the U.S. government, that tried to present themselves as having a central command as well as an unified political project.

Yet the demobilization process, while definitely never complete and partial, did lead to more than just a "renaming" in practice if you actually do read up on various reports that not only chronicle their continuing human rights abuses but also what has happened in the places where they turned against one another. There has been in-fighting and splitting up of the different factions.

In some areas it's true nothing has changed, as you have pointed out, but in others things did vary. Colombia has room for multiple realities in a large and diverse country, not just one vague generalization or single narrative that is applicable to every single part of it.

The majority of the old paramilitary leaders have been extradited to the United States as part of a process that they themselves considered to be a betrayal. The subordinates and the ones remaining behind then engaged in a struggle for power and did not even attempt to create any sort of overarching structure as a result.

Then you also have the fact that the parapolitics scandal has resulted in several of their former allies being jailed, killed or otherwise turning against their previous allegiances. Don't you think that has an effect?

The new groups obviously include among them those that never demobilized, but to say that there is no difference is simplistic.