The Washington Office on Latin America adds that:
"the vast majority of those who have disappeared in recent years are grass-roots organizers, peasant or union leaders, leftist politicians, human rights workers and other activists."
During the campaign for the general election, 19 of 87 mayoral candidates of the sole independent political party, the UP, are assassinated, along with over 100 of its other candidates. The Central Organization of Workers, a coalition of trade unions formed in 1986, had by then lost over 230 members, most of them found dead after brutal torture.
A year later, the USA sells subsidised (by American tax payers) military equipment to Colombia, "for antinarcotics purposes." The sales are justified by the USA State Department because:
"Colombia has a democratic form of government and does not exhibit a consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights."
