In Colombia, paraco is a colloquial and derogatory term for a paramilitary — a member of the illegal far-right armed groups that operated across large parts of the country.
Origin of the word
Paraco is a shortened, informal form of paramilitar ("paramilitary"). The clipped stem para- takes the Spanish suffix -aco, which in everyday speech adds a dismissive or contemptuous edge — the same suffix at work in words such as libraco or pajarraco. The result is a word that names the thing and judges it at the same time.
How it is used
The term belongs to spoken Colombian Spanish rather than to legal or official language. Courts, statutes and peace agreements use paramilitar or autodefensas; ordinary conversation, and much of the press, uses paraco.
- It is almost never neutral — calling someone a paraco is an accusation.
- It is also used loosely as a political insult, aimed at people accused of sympathising with those groups.
- It is essentially unknown outside Colombia and its immediate region.
Historical background
Colombian paramilitary groups grew out of private self-defence forces formed by landowners, businesses and drug traffickers, largely in response to left-wing guerrillas. In 1997 many of them merged into the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC), which was later held responsible for massacres, forced displacement and drug trafficking. The AUC demobilised between 2003 and 2006 under the Justice and Peace Law, and the parapolítica scandal that followed exposed links between those groups and dozens of elected politicians.
That history is why the word carries the weight it does. In Colombia, paraco is not slang for a soldier — it is shorthand for a specific and painful chapter of the country's recent past.
Related terms
- paramilitar — the formal term
- autodefensas — "self-defence forces", the name the groups used for themselves
- parapolítica — the political scandal over ties between paramilitaries and public officials
- parapolítico — a politician implicated in those ties