A report by Amnesty International estimates that over 20,000 people have been killed in Colombia between 1986 and 1994, mainly by the USA backed military and its paramilitary allies: "not in the 'drug wars' but for political reasons". Many of the victims are trade unionists, human rights activists and leaders of legal opposition movements. The report concludes that:
"USA supplied military equipment, ostensibly delivered for use against narcotics traffickers, was being used by the Colombian military to commit these abuses in the name of 'counterinsurgency'."
In 1999, 743kg of cocaine would be found in a Colombian Air Force cargo plane landing in the USA.
