The ''Alianza Americana Anticomunista'' (AAA, pronounced triple-A; "American Anticommunist Alliance") was a

paramilitary A paramilitary is a military that is not a part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. The Oxford English Dictionary traces the use of the term "paramilitary" as far back as 1934. Overview Though a paramilitary is, by definiti ...

far-right Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by ultraconservatism, authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on the far end of the ...

group mainly operating in

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

between 1978 and 1979. Contemporary accusations and declassified U.S. Embassy documents have linked the creation and operation of this group to members of a

Colombian National Army The National Army of Colombia () is the land warfare service branch of the Military Forces of Colombia. With over 361,420 active personnel as of 2020, it is the largest and oldest service branch in Colombia, and is the second largest army in the ...

battalion employing the Triple A name as a label.

Foundation

A 1979 report from the

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Embassy in

Bogotá Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish Imperial period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city, capital and largest city ...

details that then-General Jorge Robledo Pulido and members of the "Charry Solano" Battalion of Intelligence and Counterintelligence (BINCI) were directly involved in the creation of AAA. The report describes a plan intended "to create the impression that the American Anti-communist Alliance has established itself in Colombia and is preparing to take violent action against local

communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

s."

Accusations and activities

In December 1978, the Anticommunist American Alliance bombed the Colombian Communist Party Headquarters, and later the Communist Party's newspaper ''Voz Proletaria''. The bombing of the Communist Party HQ left no casualties according to the 1979 U.S. Embassy's report, which describes Triple A's contemporary activities as "more appropriately characterized as dirty tricks" than human rights abuses. BINCI has been accused of participating in a number of other

bombings A bomb is an explosive weapon that uses the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy. Detonations inflict damage principally through ground- and atmosphere-transmitted mechanic ...

kidnapping Kidnapping or abduction is the unlawful abduction and confinement of a person against their will, and is a crime in many jurisdictions. Kidnapping may be accomplished by use of force or fear, or a victim may be enticed into confinement by frau ...

s and

assassination Assassination is the willful killing, by a sudden, secret, or planned attack, of a personespecially if prominent or important. It may be prompted by political, ideological, religious, financial, or military motives. Assassinations are orde ...

s against

leftists Left-wing politics describes the range of Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social ...

and abuses of guerrilla detainees between the years of 1978 and 1979. In an open letter published on November 29, 1980, by the Mexican newspaper ''El Día'', five individuals identified as former Colombian military detail a number of activities carried out by BINCI personnel operating as Triple A. Among those implicated in the operations of Triple A are then-Lieutenant

Mario Montoya Uribe Mario Montoya Uribe (born 29 April 1949) is a former military general and commander of the Colombian National Army (), until his resignation on November 4, 2008, following the "false positives" scandal, involving the deaths of 11 civilians at ...

, who would have participated in the bombing of ''Voz Proletaria'', and then-Lieutenant Colonel Harold Bedoya, the commander of BINCI who would have given orders to several of the personnel involved. A 1992 publication, ''El Terrorismo de Estado en Colombia'' (State Terrorism in Colombia), prepared by a coalition of

human rights Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...

groups that included

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peace movement A peace movement is a social movement which seeks to achieve ideals such as the ending of a particular war (or wars) or minimizing inter-human violence in a particular place or situation. They are often linked to the goal of achieving world pe ...

Pax Christi International, repeated the accusations found in the ''El Día'' article.

U.S. evaluation

In 1999, the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) concluded that there was no evidence to support the accusations regarding General

's involvement in Triple A, citing the information as "a NGO smear campaign dating back 20 years". This denial took place before the National Security Archive's request and subsequent declassification of the 1979 Embassy document.

References

{{Colombia_conflict, state=collapsed National Army of Colombia Counterterrorism False flag operations Military history of Colombia Paramilitary organisations in the Colombian conflict Anti-communist terrorism Anti-communist organizations

Foundation

Accusations and activities

U.S. evaluation

See also

References