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As a Colombian myself, let me give you an overview of this situation:

For the FARC, any American citizen working in Colombia on anything (doesn't need to be military aid-related) is considered as a "CIA agent" and kidnapped for ransom or for a "prisoner exchange", which in practice is a guerrilla release.

The FARC has not taken over just because they're highly impopular inside Colombia, who is mostly an entreprising people (you have your moochers and those who expect the gubmint to do everything for them) and despises Communism. It survives because of the drug trade and the support it has from the Colombian leftist academia (entirely within the public schools and universities) and the leftist elites, governments and intellectuals in Europe and North America (USA and Canada).

The only effective way for the US to help fight the guerrillas is helping the constitutional Government and Armed Forces of Colombia. Supporting the AUC (paras) will only make matters worse. Paras are equally unpopular among the peasantry, which is more likely to collaborate with the Army than with the AUC.

As mentioned earlier by others, the AUC also finances themselves with drug money, and their human right abuses are as bad or worse than those of the FARC's, which is why they're unpopular.

The only ones needing any help are the Colombian Armed Forces.

P.S: You may want to set up a Colombia ping list... there's a lot of people who always post on Colombia-related threads.

Another aspect of this "prisoner of war" thing is that FARC wants to portray itself as a legitimate government with a legitimate military (since, naturally, only "legitimate" armies can engage in war, as opposed to the guerrilla attacks carried out by FARC).

Dealing with them as legitimate - which Pastrana, under the guidance of Bill Clinton, did - only encourages them and confuses the populace.

One of the greatest struggles faced by Uribe now is to reassert the legitimacy of the Colombian government and State, because FARC has portrayed itself as a parallel government/state and in some parts of the country has even been accepted as such.

I think that negotiating with them as if they were a state or a government only legitimizes them and strenghthens their hand. Building the Colombian military and exterminating FARC is the only way to go.