Paramilitary designates forces whose function and organization are similar to those of a professional military force, but which are not regarded as having the same status. The term uses the Greek/Latin prefix
para- ("beside"), also seen in words such as
paramedic. The term paramilitary is subjective, depending on what is considered similar to a military force, and what status a force is considered to have. The nature of paramilitary forces therefore varies greatly according to the speaker and the context. For instance, in
Northern Ireland, paramilitary refers to any illegally armed group, but in
Colombia, paramilitary refers specifically to illegally armed groups which are considered right-wing (e.g.
AUC), while illegally armed groups considered left-wing, such as
FARC, are referred to as
guerrillas.
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