FILE PHOTO OF THREE PARAMILITARY FIGHTERS STAND GUARD IN BARRANCABERMEJA, 2001-03-04 (photo)

Three paramilitary fighters members of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) stand guard in a neighborhood of Barrancabermeja in this file photo taken on March 4, 2001. The army and police, still a showy presence in the city, have not controlled Barrancabermeja for years. The port of 250,000 people, many of them radical workers, was long a hotbed of the National Liberation Army (ELN), and to a lesser extent, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). This steamy river port on the dun-colored River Magdalena is set to become the first major city to lose control of its poor neighborhoods to increasingly strong strong-wing paramilitaries in Colombia's 37-years old war. JMG