El poder paramilitar en Colombia o de cómo los paramilitares llegaron a cooptar el estado colombiano (1980-2010)

Abstract

Introduction and objetives Recently it has appeared in the Colombian press that army general Mauricio Santoyo during the presidency of Alvaro Uribe, was related to parapolitics, meaning, having connections with paramilitary groups1. It appears that these contacts not only happen during the early 80’s when the Castaño brothers were supported in Cordoba by the XI Battalion, Bombona Battalion and general Alejo del Rio, against the guerilla aggression and the uncontrolled situation by the state: He needed to rely on support from the six division of the paramilitary army. These connections have been ongoing on the course of time. Not only, with the paramilitary forces, but also with businessman, ranchers, politicians and national and international agencies, such as DAS, DEA and CIA. This means that we are dealing with a very dynamic and complex phenomenon, which cannot be interpreted as only an ally of the military of narcotrafic world. The complexity of the paramilitary phenomena is analyzed in this research Project. Therefore, this work goes over the influence of the paramilitary groups in Colombia and its interference in the local government. It is a preliminary study that tries to point out the co-optation of the local government from the time of the government presided by Belisario Betancur (1980-1984) to the presidency of Alvaro Uribe (2002-2010).