the armed group co-created the left-wing Patriotic Union (UP) political party as a path to leave violence behind and eventually move into politics. However, between 1985 and 2002 right-wing paramilitaries, with the help and support from parts of the government, murdered and disappeared 4,153 members and supporters of the party, including two presidential candidates, six of 16 congressmen, 17 regional representatives and 163 councilmen. This systematic killing decimated the organization and aggravated the broader conflict. In the 1980s the level of violence increased in many parts of the country as a result of the beginning of the drug trafficking. Trafficking had begun in the 1960s and 70s, when a group of Americans began to smuggle marijuana. Later, the American Mafia began to establish drug trafficking in Colombia in cooperation with local marijuana producers. Cocaine (and other drugs) manufactured in Colombia were historically mostly consumed in the US as well as Europe. Organized crime in Colombia grew increasingly powerful in the 1970s and 80s with the introduction of massive drug trafficking to the United States from Colombia. After the Colombian Government dismantled many of the drug cartels that appeared in the country during the 1980s, left-wing guerrilla groups and rightwing paramilitary organizations resumed some of their drug-trafficking activities and resorted to extortion and kidnapping for financing, activities which led to a loss of support from the local population. These funds helped finance paramilitaries and guerrillas, allowing these organizations to buy weapons which were then sometimes used to attack military and civilian targets. During the presidency of Álvaro Uribe, the government applied more military pressure on the FARC and other outlawed far-left groups. After the offensive, many security indicators improved. As part of a controversial peace process, the AUC (right-wing paramilitaries) as a formal organization had ceased to function. Colombia achieved a great decrease in cocaine production, leading White House drug czar R. Gil Kerlikowske to announce that Colombia was no longer the world's biggest producer of cocaine. The United States is still the world's largest consumer of cocaine and other illegal drugs. In February 2008, millions of Colombians demonstrated against the FARC and other outlawed groups. The Colombian Ministry of Defense reported 19,504 deserters from the FARC between August 2002 and their collective demobilization in 2017, peaking in the year 2008. During these years the military forces of the Republic of Colombia were strengthened. The Peace process in Colombia, 2012 refers