Along a rural road in western Colombia early this month, some 40 men dressed as soldiers swarmed out from behind roadside boulders and halted an oncoming auto. Brandishing rifles and submachine guns, the men in uniform bandits in disguise ordered the three frightened riders out of the car, marched them to a nearby abandoned house, and tied them up. That done, the bandits returned to their hiding place be side the road.
During the next half-hour or so, the bandits halted a loaded passenger bus and three government trucks carrying road workers. Each time the captors herded their prisoners back...