THE MEANING OF A MASSACRE

Victims Of A Battle Over Drug Income

It remains a violent country, but the mass slaughters of peasant farmers
that were common in Colombia over much of the past decade had become much
rarer since Alvaro Uribe became president in August 2002. So the killing Of
34 coca pickers (another seven were wounded) near La Gabarra on June 15th
came as a shock to Colombians. in the past, such massacres were usually the
work of the right-wing paramilitary vigilantes of the United Self-Defence
Forces of Colombia (AUC). This time, according to the police and a survivor,
the killers came from their chief opponents, the FARC guerrillas. The
victims, it is said, were working for the AUC.

The massacre says much about the way that Colombia's conflict is evolving.
Mr Uribe has taken the offensive against FARC - and that has persuaded the
AUC to declare a (much-violated) ceasefire. Overall, violence has fallen.
But in some places conflict has intensified.

One such is Norte de Santander department, where the massacre occurred.
According to a report this week by Cambio, a Colombian magazine, this area
has become a strategic priority for both FARC and the AUC. Close to the
Venezuelan border, it is a corridor for the import of arms and the export of
drugs. A third armed group, the leftist ELN, was once influential in the
area, but is now seeking peace with the government. FARC is said to have
moved in to try to prevent the AUC from taking control.

Both groups depend heavily on drug profits. These may be dwindling -
especially for FARC. With help from the United States, Mr Uribe is busy
spraying Colombia's crop of coca (from which cocaine is derived) with
herbicide. in 2002, coca cultivation was cut by 30% according to the United
Nations. Its 2003 survey has yet to be published. But much coca has been
eradicated in FARC strongholds in the south. In Norte de Santander, by
contrast, police say that fumigation of an estimated 20,000 hectares (49,000
acres) of high-yielding coca will not start until August.

All this raises two other questions. One is what will happen to areas under
AUC control if peace talks, due to begin on July 1st prosper. AUC chiefs
want the army to move in to their former territories to protect residents
against FARC reprisals. But it is unclear whether the army has enough troops
for the job.

If the massacre underlines that FARC has long since lost any scruples about
slaughtering civilians, it is also a reminder that in talking to the
paramilitaries the government is negotiating with big-time drug traffickers.
Nearly all of the ten AUC chieftains who will gather for the talks at a
government-protected "location zone" in Cordoba are under investigation for
drugs. More than ever, the drug "war" and the real war in Colombia are
intertwined.