Uribe has worked for the Medellin Cartel and is a close personal friend of Pablo Escobar. He has participated in Escobar's political campaign…."

Perhaps unsurprisingly due to the links between the drugs traffickers and the paramilitaries Uribe also grew closer to those involved in the AUC paramilitary alliance. During his period as Governor of Antioquia, Uribe openly supported and financed local vigilante groups known as CONVIVIR. According to Human Rights Watch many CONVIVIR groups "were directed by known paramilitaries" whilst others "threatened to assassinate Colombians that were considered as guerrilla sympathizers of which rejected joining the [CONVIVIR]".

Since 2003, paramilitary groups, responsible for the vast majority of human rights violations in Colombia for over a decade, have been involved in a government-sponsored "demobilization" process. More than 25,000 paramilitaries have supposedly demobilized under a process which has been criticized by AI and other Colombian and international human rights groups, as well as by the OHCHR and the IACHR. The process is lacking in effective mechanisms for justice and in its inability to ensure that paramilitary members actually cease violent activities.

In fact, paramilitarism has not been dismantled, it has simply been "re-engineered." Many demobilized combatants are being encouraged to join "civilian informer networks," to provide military intelligence to the security forces, and to become "civic guards". Since many areas of Colombia have now been wrested from guerrilla control, and paramilitary control established in many of these areas, they no longer see a need to have large numbers of heavily-armed uniformed paramilitaries.

However, evidence suggests that many paramilitary structures remain virtually intact and that paramilitaries continue to kill. Amnesty International continues to document human rights violations committed by paramilitary groups, sometimes operating under new names, and often in collusion with the security forces.

The government began demobilization talks with the paramilitary umbrella organization, the Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia, AUC), soon after the AUC announced a ceasefire in December 2002. Under the Santa Fe de Ralito agreement, signed in July 2003, the AUC agreed to demobilize all its combatants by the end of 2005. More than 8,000 paramilitaries have so far reportedly demobilized.

However, the latest figures suggest that the paramilitaries have been responsible for at least 2,300 killings and “disappearances” since they declared their unilateral ceasefire.

Colombian government officials and the Bush Administration argue that Colombia is making strides in protecting unionists and prosecuting human rights violators. But despite the work of a courageous few, Colombia has failed to prosecute those responsible for murder, torture, and other abuses during the country's ongoing civil war. The country remains the most dangerous place in the world for trade unionists, with 98 percent of unionist murders going unpunished. Colombia's atrocious human rights record has led members of Congress to block a proposed U.S.-Colombia free trade agreement.

Since 1998, the lobbying firm headed until recently by Charlie Black, one of Mr. McCain’s closest confidants, has earned more than $1.8 million representing the Occidental Petroleum Corporation, the leading foreign producer of gas and oil in Colombia. The lobbying firm, BKSH & Associates, has also represented Colombian textile and apparel manufacturers and a former foreign minister and presidential candidate who is also a prominent businesswoman.

The governor state of New Mexico met on Saturday with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in an effort to restart talks with neighboring Colombia to secure the release of hostages held by leftist rebels.

Chavez this year helped free six hostages held for years by the Marxist FARC rebels in Colombia's four-decade old civil war, but talks have sputtered amid continued bickering between Chavez and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.

"I've had a good meeting with President Chavez ... (he) has told me that he is willing to help in this situation," Gov. Bill Richardson told reporters after the meeting.

"Many times in a conflict like this we forget the human side, that human beings are being held hostage."

High-profile hostages held by the FARC include French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt and three U.S. anti-drugs contractors kidnapped after their helicopter crashed in the jungle in 2003.

Richardson, who was a U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and has helped release Americans held in Sudan, Iraq, North Korea and Cuba, was asked by the hostages' families to help seek their release. His mother is Mexican and he speaks fluent Spanish.

The leftist Chavez and right-wing Uribe have exchanged bitter accusations throughout the year, even during the hostage release negotiations.