Colombia's far-right paramilitaries pulled out of a peace process with President Alvaro Uribe's government late Wednesday following the decision to transfer jailed militia leaders to a maximum security prison. The announcement came after a three-hour meeting with the government's chief peace negotiator. The peace agreement was thrown into crisis on Friday when the government transferred 59 imprisoned paramilitary warlords from their special prison to a high-security installation on rumors of a possible prison break.More than 30,000 paramilitary fighters have demobilized since 2003 as part of the peace process, which saw militia leaders turn themselves in. But critics say the punishments dished out to the leaders were too light and paramilitary groups continued to operate. The leaders of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, or AUC, a paramilitary umbrella group, are accused of some of the worst atrocities in the country's civil war, now in its fifth decade. The AUC was created two decades ago by landowners and cocaine cartels to battle leftist rebels who held sway over much of Colombia's countryside, though it quickly morphed into one of the country's biggest drug-trafficking organizations.
The latest setback in the peace process with the paramilitaries comes as a scandal continues to grow linking Colombia's political class with the paramilitaries. A dozen legislators are accused of working with the outlawed group to kill political opponents in exchange for votes.
The paramilitary warlords handed themselves over to the government as part of an agreement limiting their prison terms to no more than eight years and suspending extradition requests.