BOGOTA, (Reuters) – Colombian criminal bands linked to former paramilitary groups drove a 40 percent rise in massacres in 2010, slaughtering human rights activists, public officials and civilians, the United Nations said yesterday.
The Andean nation is the world’s No. 1 cocaine producer, and multiple illegal armed groups are all engaged in the drug trade — including demobilized, former members of Colombia’s right-wing paramilitary groups.
New criminal bands, known by their Spanish acronym
