Weekly Report - 6 April 2004

A breakthrough appears to have been reached in the process of `demobilising' the paramilitary organisations. The three big groups that had been negotiating separately have all returned to the fold and together they have implicitly reversed their policy by agreeing to congregate in certain predetermined, government-approved areas. A formula has also been floated which might allow the government and the US to back off from their commitment to extraditing prominent members of the paramilitary. In another development, the top paramilitary leader, Carlos Castaño, has been dropped from the negotiating team with no explanation.