Impunity

Paramilitary groups in Colombia have spread death and destruction for years. In 2005, a specially established Commission for Peace and Justice started gathering evidence about the horrific violence. During emotional hearings, their gruesome acts are exposed in detail. The odds of them being sentenced are against, however, since many leading figures come away unscathed.

Since the 1960s, a desperate civil war has been raging in Colombia between state forces and FARC paramilitary guerilla units. Particularly para-militias such as the AUC have inflicted a huge amount of violence on the civilian population. The Commission for Peace and Justice called upon the militias to hand in their weapons and give themselves up voluntarily in exchange for reduced sentences. Political scientists analyze the AUC's double agenda: the main objective was to combat the gorillas, but at the same time they dispossessed small farmers on the orders of big business. It turns out that the government also acted questionably.