BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Thousands of former combatants in Colombia‘s long-running conflict who surrendered their weapons to the government have since discovered the downside to civilian life: unemployment.
From both sides of the old battle lines, former right-wing militiamen and leftist rebels are being lured into jobs as kidnappers, drug runners and hit men for emerging crime rings — a new security threat that ranks among the biggest challenges confronting President Juan Manuel Santos‘ government.
Former rebel Sabas Duque, who uses a wheelchair because he was partially paralyzed in a shooting, now helps run a Bogota workshop that teaches craft-making with papier-mache and fabric. But he knows plenty of other ex-fighters who have left their jobs and drifted back to gunslinging.
“It’s easy and that’s what you know how to do,” said Duque, 43.
Since 2003, about 54,000 fighters have agreed to give up their weapons, many receiving cash benefits and other aid in exchange. Most belonged to far-right militias that disbanded under a peace pact with the government in which their leaders were offered reduced prison sentences.
The government is still providing assistance to about 32,000 of them, including at least 6,000 who found jobs. But the rest
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