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PART III — COUNTRY PROFILeSCOLOMBIASome 140 school teachers were murdered and morethan 1,000 school teachers received death threats in2009-2012, with threats increasing in 2013. Childrenwere recruited from school by armed groups and therecontinued to be reports of public security forces usingschools for military purposes, despite legal curbs.ContextViolence and abuses associated with Colombia’sinternal armed conflict, which has continued for nearlyhalf a century, have displaced more than 5 millionpeople. 527 Approximately 220,000 people have died,according to the government-created National Centerfor Historical Memory. 528The main actors involved in the fighting have includedgovernment armed forces and the police; left-wingarmed groups, notably the Revolutionary ArmedForces of Colombia (FARC) and the National LiberationArmy (ELN); and right-wing paramilitaries, especiallythe United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC),which underwent a deeply flawed official demobilizationprocess during the administration of PresidentÁlvaro Uribe (2002-2010). New paramilitary successorgroups, led largely by former paramilitaries, emergedafter the demobilization process. 529Juan Manuel Santos replaced Álvaro Uribe aspresident in 2010 and initiated peace talks with theFARC in November 2012. 530Human rights defenders, community leaders, tradeunionists, journalists, indigenous and Afro-Colombianleaders, and displaced persons’ leaders have all faceddeath threats and other abuses during the conflict.According to the teachers’ trade union the ColombianFederation of Educators (FECODE), 360 teachers weremurdered and 342 threatened in the decade up to2009. 531 The president of the National University ofColombia is reported to have stated that the universityregistered 312 reports of threats in 2007 and 2008. 532At least twelve Colombian university students werekilled between 2006 and 2008, most of whom werewell-known student leaders, according to a report bythe UK’s National Union of Students, University andCollege Union and UK-based NGO Justice forColombia. 533124