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

paramilitary A paramilitary is an organization whose structure, tactics, training, subculture, and (often) function are similar to those of a professional military, but is not part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. Paramilitary units carr ...

far-right Far-right politics, also referred to as the extreme right or right-wing extremism, are political beliefs and actions further to the right of the left–right political spectrum than the standard political right, particularly in terms of being ...

group mainly operating in

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

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 ( es, Ejército Nacional de 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, an ...

battalion employing the Triple A name as a label.

Foundation

A 1979 report from the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Embassy in

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

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 (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

s."

Accusations and activities

In December 1978 the Anticommunist American Alliance bombed the

Colombian Communist Party The Colombian Communist Party ( es, Partido Comunista Colombiano, PCC) is a legal communist party in Colombia. It was founded in 1930 as the Communist Party of Colombia, at which point it was the Colombian section of the Comintern, and changed i ...

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 mechanica ...

kidnapping In criminal law, kidnapping is the unlawful confinement of a person against their will, often including transportation/asportation. The asportation and abduction element is typically but not necessarily conducted by means of force or fear: the p ...

s and

assassination Assassination is the murder of a prominent or important person, such as a head of state, head of government, politician, world leader, member of a royal family or CEO. The murder of a celebrity, activist, or artist, though they may not have ...

s against

leftists Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...

and abuses of guerrilla detainees between the years of 1978 and 1979. In an open letter published on November 29, 1980, by the

Mexican Mexican may refer to: Mexico and its culture *Being related to, from, or connected to the country of Mexico, in North America ** People *** Mexicans, inhabitants of the country Mexico and their descendants *** Mexica, ancient indigenous people ...

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 Colombian military General and Commander of the Colombian National Army ( es, Ejército Nacional de Colombia) until his resignation on November 4, 2008 following the 'false positives' scand ...

, 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 Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...

groups that included

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

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 peac ...

Pax Christi International Pax Christi International is an international Catholic peace movement. The Pax Christi International website declares its mission is "to transform a world shaken by violence, terrorism, deepening inequalities, and global insecurity." History ...

, 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 A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...

smear campaign A smear campaign, also referred to as a smear tactic or simply a smear, is an effort to damage or call into question someone's reputation, by propounding negative propaganda. It makes use of discrediting tactics. It can be applied to individual ...

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 History of Colombia Paramilitary organisations based in Colombia Anti-communist terrorism

Foundation

Accusations and activities

U.S. evaluation

See also

References