Chronicle of a Massacre Foretold: “The growing power and brutality of Colombia’s paramilitary forces have become the chief concern of international human rights groups
and, increasingly, Colombian and U.S. officials who say the 8,000-member private army might pose the biggest obstacle to peace in the
country’s decades-old civil conflict.

This massacre, the largest of 23 mass killings attributed to the paramilitaries this month, comes as international human rights groups push
for the suspension of U.S. aid to the Colombian armed forces until the military shows progress on human rights. The armed forces, the
chief beneficiary of the $1.3 billion U.S. anti-drug assistance package known as Plan Colombia, deny using the paramilitaries as a shadow
army against leftist guerrillas, turning a blind eye to their crimes or supporting them with equipment, intelligence and troops.” Washington Post