School children look at photos of the disappeared and killed at an outdoor gallery of victims of paramilitary violence in Bogota, Colombia, on April 7.

The failure of the two-year-old talks with the 20,000-strong band could damage President Alvaro Uribe's hopes of bringing peace to Colombia after four decades, just as he prepares to run for re-election next year. The Uribe government says the bill was designed to offer a legal framework for any peace settlement with illegal armed groups.

But the United Nations and some congressmen object to clauses that they say could allow cocaine traffickers to escape full punishment. Uribe's close ally, the United States, doubts the AUC's commitment to the peace process.

The AUC has its origins in vigilante groups set up by ranchers and drug traffickers that operated in cahoots with members of the armed forces against their common Marxist rebel foe.

The Japan Times Weekly: April 16, 2005
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