Refugees tell stories of wildly indiscriminate killing sprees: “They cut people’s heads off. Many people were disembowelled. They are laying down the seeds of terror.” We track the paras to a wealthy ranch they now use as a training base. With the backing of these ranchers the AUC and its leader, Carlos Castano, defeated the guerrillas and liberated them from the guerrilla’s protection rackets and raids. But the fear and death spread by the new power brokers is a heavy price to pay for their security. And now, as the government tries to broker peace, the force it has unleashed goes on killing and prolonging the agony of civil war in Colombia.

Produced by ABC Australia