Last May a group of paramilitaries entered the oil producing city of Barrancabermeja with the aim of spreading terror amongst the civilian population. This they did with extreme efficiency and the by now usual cooperation of the army.

They began in the north east and south east of the city going from house to house dragging people out of their houses and loading them on to a waiting lorry. Those who resisted were summarily executed in their own homes. Eight people died that night and a further 25 were taken prisoner by Fidel CastaÒo’s paramilitaries. Initially the paramilitaries denied responsibility for what had happened but a later communique acknowledged that they were indeed responsible. Barrancabermeja is a highly militarised town and is of vital strategic importance to the state due its oil refinery and oil wells in the area. It is also the centre of operations of one of the strongest unions in Colombia USO. Both of these facts ensure a constant military presence which is always on the alert, for a lapse on their part would bring with it drastic consequences for them given the strong guerrilla presence in both the city itself and the surrounding rural areas. So where was the army when the paramilitaries were rounding up their captives and shooting those who put up some resistance?

The army was just on the outskirts of the two areas mentioned. They were close enough to hear the shots and intervene in a matter of minutes. They however, held their position to protect the paramilitaries from attack by the guerrillas who were trying to enter the town to come to the aid of the civilian population. Once again the army has publicly collaborated with the death squads, which are not just some spontaneous response to guerrilla violence as some such as the Jesuit priest Alfredo Ferro would have us believe on his recent visit to Ireland. Indeed he is not alone in presenting the problem in such terms. Both the state and some conservative NGOs also make such outlandish claims when the para/military connection is well documented and their leader Fidel CastaÒo has publicly recognised that they enjoy a very good relationship with the army. This is one monster which has no intention of falling out with its Dr Frankenstein, its mentor and creator.

The paramilitaries subsequently murdered their civilian hostages, delaying the announcement until after the first round of the presidential elections. The families built 25 empty white coffins in response demanding that their loved ones’ bodies be handed over. To date they have met a wall of silence and wait in silence outside the union office with their coffins decorated with a photo of those killed. Barrancabermeja was the victim of this attack because of the strength of popular organisations in particular the trade union USO which was capable of preventing the privatisation of the oil industry and for its trouble has had its national leadership thrown in gaol on trumped up charges of being guerrilla collaborators. They were not killed in response to guerrilla violence, they were killed as part of a strategy of weakening the resolve of those who stand in the way of the neo-liberal agenda being pushed through in Colombia. The paramilitaries are only a tail belonging to the state, which is firmly in control and never lets itself be wagged by Fidel CastaÒo.