The United Nations is calling on Colombia to disavow the right-wing Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC) umbrella paramilitary organization. This is not the first time that an organization has called for the cessation of support by Colombia for the AUC. Human rights groups have been calling for it for some time.

The AUC armies were started by wealthy, private landowners in the 1980s as protection rackets from the leftist Marxist ELN and FARC rebels. While there is some rationale to allowing rival terrorist organizations fight themselves to death, the government has lost its reigns on the groups and now finds itself with three rival groups vying for power and land in gruesome warfare that has cost the lives of thousands of innocent civilians. Since its founding, the group has evolved into a “drug-financed death squad,” according to Newsweek, that controls nearly 40 percent of the country’s $3.5 billion drug trade. President Alvaro Uribe commissioned a study in 2003 into negotiating with the AUC that found that the group sought to protect its drug trade and to gain political legitimacy. According to the Toronto Star, the AUC is active in 26 of 32 departments and in more than 1/3 of Colombia’s municipalities. Further, Newsweek, reported that 1/3 of Colombia’s congressmen support the AUC, and more may come into the fold after the March 2006 legislative elections.