According to the BBC, "They make at least $300 million from the drug trade every year, added to which is their income from kidnapping and extortion, making them probably the richest insurgent group in the world." The FARC is responsible for most of the ransom kidnappings in Colombia; the group targets wealthy landowners, foreign tourists, and prominent international and domestic officials. Recent FARC operations include the February 2002 hijacking of a domestic commercial flight and kidnapping of a Colombian senator onboard; the February 2002 kidnapping of a presidential candidate, Ingrid Betancourt, who was traveling in guerrilla territory; and the October 2001 kidnapping and assassination of a former Colombian minister of culture. Terrorist acts committed by the FARC do not pertain solely to Colombians, in March 1999 the FARC executed three U.S. Indian rights activists on Venezuelan territory after it kidnapped them in Colombia. It is clear that the FARC is a violent group without any respect for human life. They have been able to thus far operate smoothly despite Colombian government opposition. In the earlier days of the FARC, the Colombian government was utterly unable to deal with its terrorist activities. When law and order break down, you end up with vigilantes. And that's what happened in Colombia with the emergence of the paramilitary organization United Self-Defense Forces (AUC), designated by Secretary Powell as "a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) due in part to its explosive growth - the AUC swelled to an estimated 9,000 fighters in 2001 - and reliance on terrorist tactics. .
The question is, will the United States now deepen its involvement in Colombia? One would think that such allegedly well-informed people as members of the United States House of Representatives would do everything in their power to help the Colombian government - our allies in the war against terrorism - defeat this band of homicidal thugs.