Killers target leaders of Colombia's dispossessed as new Victims Law takes effect

[Judi Lynn]

Killers target leaders of Colombia's dispossessed as new Victims Law takes effect
FRANK BAJAK, VIVIAN SEQUERA
Associated Press
1:02 p.m. EDT, August 13, 2011

SAN ONOFRE, Colombia (AP) — The cornerstone of President Juan Manuel Santos' year-old government is a bold plan to compensate an estimated 4 million victims of Colombia's long-running civil conflict.

The so-called Victims Law, enacted in June, is an ambitious proposition: Nothing similar has ever been attempted on any continent.

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Colombia's is a dirty war in which most victims are civilians, and land tenancy has been at the heart of the nation's bloodletting since independence two centuries ago.

Shadowy far-right militias known as paramilitaries have done most of the killing. First formed in the 1980s to defend ranchers and drug traffickers against rebel extortion, they evolved into criminal bands that often operated in concert with the military. Shakedown artists and drug runners, many now work as hired guns for holders of stolen land.

More:
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-lt-colombia-killed-for-land,0,1940110.story