Bjesse, the AUC was not only formed by coffee growers and cattle ranchers but some groups were formed by the drug cartel leadership. Incidentally, there was some overlap between the cartels and coffee plantation owners and cattle ranchers, all of whic complicates the picture.

On sources such as activist human rights groups, one needs to be careful since they have specifc policy agendas which color their work. Of the Human Rights groups, I have found WOLA to be most objective in their regional coverage. On the other side, be cautious with regard to the post Jim DeMint Heritage Foundation. Prior to his taking over last year Heritage had gotten very professional. Now, on Latin America, I'm not as sure since I don't know who is running their Americas program. AEI (also on the right) has a very good professional, Steve Johnson in charge of the region. Steve was with Heritage until the Bush Admin made him Dep Asst SECDEF for Western hemisphere.

Cheers

JohnT