The World - News from April 21, 1989
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Colombia’s President Virgilio Barco Vargas said he is creating a 1,000-man force to wipe out right-wing death squads run by drug traffickers. The death squads have killed an estimated 1,500 people in Colombia in the last five years, most of them leftist sympathizers. “These groups are not just common criminals,” Barco said in a televised address. “They are real terrorist organizations supported and financed mainly by drug traffickers.” Colombia has asked the United States, Britain, Israel and Italy to help train anti-terrorist troops.
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