SUMMARY

AUC (Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia; United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia) was a national alliance of paramilitary groups in Colombia, formed with the stated goal of protecting local communities against the guerrilla groups active in the country. In connection to its non-state conflict with the guerrillas, AUC also targeted people suspected of supporting them, thus committing acts of one-sided violence against civilians. Reportedly, civilians constituted the large majority of AUC's victims. On several occasions, AUC's attacks on civilians were said to have been either actively or passively supported by the army.

In a typical attack, an AUC unit would enter a village with a list of suspected guerrilla supporters, seize the people on the list from their homes and kill them, and leave. Reportedly, the victims’ bodies were frequently mutilated or dismembered. Leftist politicians were also targeted on account of their ideology; at an early AUC summit, it was stated that as long as the guerrilla war continued, ‘political and trade union operatives of the extreme left’ would be legitimate targets. Carlos Castaño, who was the leader of AUC for many years, argued in 1996 that the nature of the guerrilla war made it difficult to distinguish between combatants and civilians. On another occasion, he stated that the deliberate strategy of targeting civilians aiding the guerrillas in any way was a very successful one, which would continue to be employed. In March 2002, it was reported that AUC troops had crossed into Ecuador and killed two people there.

AUC first became active as a one-sided actor in UCDP data in 1989, when the one-sided violence resulted in over 25 civilian deaths. The threshold was reached in mid-December when the group's violence against civilians had resulted in 28 civilian deaths.