Colombia's Violence Described Succinctly

The Miami Herald also acknowledged the 40th anniversary of the FARC. This is the money comment, however:

The FARC is flush with cash from links to drug trafficking -- its annual income from the drug trade is estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars -- and years of extortion and kidnapping that landed it on Washington's list of international terrorist groups. Its top leaders are also wanted on drug-trafficking charges in the United States.

As the rebel group grew and became stronger, the government branded the FARC as mere ''bandits,'' then ''narcoguerrillas'' and, now, after Sept. 11, ``narcoterrorists.''

Although the group still proclaims a Marxist revolution to topple the government, its drug links and the exponential growth of recruits in recent years have eroded its ideology.

''This war is becoming increasingly autonomous from the underlying grievances that inspired some of the revolutionary rhetoric,'' said Bruce Bagley, a Colombia expert at the University of Miami. ``Greed is prevailing over grievance.'' [my emphasis]

The same can also be said of the AUC.