Between peace and justice

FOR three long days in February 2000, a group of some 300 of the right-wing vigilantes known as paramilitaries inflicted a reign of terror on the small town of El Salado, in the Montes de María hills near Colombia's Caribbean coast. They killed at least 36 people, having tortured some of them and raped women. It was one of the most horrific incidents among the many acts of violence that Colombia has suffered in recent decades. Last week, the paramilitary group involved handed over their arms to the government's peace commissioner and gave up their self-declared war against the FARC guerrillas and civilians alleged to sympathise with them.