The Unites States government left Colombia’s paramilitary organizations off Washington DC’s updated list of foreign terrorist organizations.
In a press statement, the US Department of State announced that it would remove the FARC, the guerrilla group that disarmed in 2017, from the list.
Dissident factions of the now-defunct guerrilla group were added to the list of “global terrorist organizations.”
US Department of State
Paramilitary organization AGC was not added to the list despite the fact that this group is behind much of the violence in the South American country, according to human rights organizations.
The State department has accused the paramilitaries of forming the “Clan del Golfo,” Colombia’s largest drug trafficking organization.
The AGC and the FARC dissidents violently oppose the 2016 peace deal that included the disarmament of the FARC and the demobilized guerrillas’ participation in politics.
According to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the updated terror list seeks to support the peace process and “is directed at those who refused to demobilize and those who are engaged in terrorist activity.”
The American government official didn’t mention the paramilitaries who refused to demobilize with now-defunct paramilitary organization AUC between 2003 and 2006, and formed the AGC and other groups.
All Colombia’s illegal armed groups combined carried out more than 200 acts of terror between January and October, according to the Defense Ministry.
The guerrillas and paramilitaries are also behind massacres that have surged throughout Colombia since last year, according to human rights organizations.