Landowners in Honduras hired Colombian paramilitaries, UN says

Honduran landowners have reportedly hired former Colombian paramilitaries as mercenaries to protect them against possible violence stemming from government tensions, a UN panel said today. The UN working group on mercenaries said that it has received reports that some 40 former members of United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, or AUC. The US government classifies the AUC as a terrorist organization. They will protect properties and individuals "from further violence between supporters of the de facto government and those of the deposed President Manuel Zelaya," it said. Separately, a 120-person group of paramilitaries from several countries in that region was reportedly created to support the coup in Honduras, the panel said.