Colombia. Land of kidnappings and paramilitaries, where men with long, greasy hair and moustaches run around shooting each other over drugs…

That’s the movie stereotype. Colombia has more than its fair share of shootings, and produces 80 percent of the world's cocaine, but most of the people on the receiving end of the violence don’t have moustaches. The majority are ordinary people caught in the crossfire of a four-decade-old conflict.

At least 35,000 people have been killed since the start of the 1990s. And about 2.73 million have been forced to flee their homes, according to the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants. Such massive displacement makes Colombia one of the world’s worst humanitarian hotspots.

Not that the figures are clear-cut. The official government number is about half this -- just 1.23 million. These are internally displaced people who have been uprooted but stayed within the country.

Why are the official statistics so much lower?

We’re not talking about people living in camps. A lot of the displaced are not registered because they don’t trust the government. And many families move from the countryside and melt into the cities. On top of that, about 234,000 Colombians are seeking asylum abroad, and there are another 290,000 who have fled across borders but haven’t registered as refugees.

Why have they left their homes?

They’re threatened with violence from a variety of players in a complex war that’s been going on since 1948. Large swathes of the country are effectively outside the control of central government. Instead, they’re under the sway of a range of armed groups and major landowners.

Villagers are sometimes forced to turn to one or another armed group for protection, but are then vulnerable to attack from that group’s enemies.

Who’s fighting whom?

This isn’t a straightforward two-sided war, but it does have two political sides, which were exaggerated during the Cold War. There are two Marxist guerrilla groups -- the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN).

FARC is the larger group. It controls an area of Amazonian jungle the size of Switzerland in the southeast, which is a no-go area to the army. It became heavily involved in the drugs trade to fund its activities.

Ideology plays a stronger role in the ELN, which is the smaller group, but it’s not above kidnapping to raise funds.

Who else is there?

There’s the government army, of course. Then you’ve got right-wing paramilitaries, who started off as hired guns for drug barons but have deep links with the army and police. Some human rights activists say they have taken advantage of the state’s anti-Communist stance to justify violence against villagers they accuse supporting guerrillas.

Don’t they know the Cold War’s over?

You may say that, but the inequalities that originally fuelled revolt and attracted people to the cause haven’t changed much. The country’s elite is drawn primarily from descendants of the Spanish, while people with mixed heritage – indigenous, African and European – tend to be less well off, and 25 percent of Colombia’s population of 44 million live in absolute poverty.

In any case, the various insurgent groups don’t really need popular support, since they’ve got their income from drugs and kidnapping. And they don’t have much to gain from giving up their lucrative business. That’s why peace is so elusive.

When did drugs become such an integral part of this conflict?

Since the late 1970s, Colombia has been an important drug producer. FARC and the paramilitaries produce about 80 percent of the world’s cocaine, and they are also involved in growing poppies for heroin.

Nearby Bolivia and Peru also grow coca – the plant that cocaine is made from – but there are some important differences. Firstly, coca leaves have some local cultural significance in the Andes, where they have been chewed for centuries as a stimulant similar to tea. This isn’t the case in Colombia, where its production is entirely linked to the cocaine trade.

Secondly, Colombia not only grows the raw product, but processes it. Once it’s on the way to becoming crack or cocaine, it’s a far more potent drug, and the profit margin is much, much higher.

How is the United States involved in this war?

Washington gives a huge amount of aid, most of it military. A billion-dollar package agreed in 2000 is known as Plan Colombia. Ostensibly, it’s to fight the war on drugs because of the impact of the narcotics trade on the United States, but neither Washington or Bogotá distinguish between their fight against narcotics and their desire to crush armed insurgencies.

U.S. involvement is controversial. Opponents argue that the United States is just buying a stake in Latin America and that this kind of aid doesn’t do anything to stop the violence.

What moves are there towards peace?

Since President Alvaro Uribe came to power in 2002, he’s cracked down heavily on all the armed groups including the right-wing paramilitaries.

Paramilitaries from the United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC) are supposed to be demobilising under a 2004 agreement, but the government has shied away from prosecuting ex-combatants for human rights violations, and the process hasn’t made much progress.

There have been separate talks with the FARC, and contact has been made with the ELN under the auspices of the Mexican government.

Is the government’s crack-down working?

It’s provoked a lot of criticism. Firstly, Uribe has been blasted by activists who say his hardline approach infringes human rights.

Secondly, the government’s failure to distinguish between the war on drugs and the war on insurgents isn’t really constructive. Analysts say the president’s claim that the conflict pits a democracy against “narco-terrorists” doesn’t do justice to the complexity of the struggle.

Then there’s the problem that the military squeeze is pushing the illegal armed groups into remote areas on both sides of Colombia’s borders. This has created serious friction with potentially unstable Venezuela to the northeast and Ecuador to the southwest.

Analysts like Belgian-based thinktank Crisis Group argue that any meaningful move towards peace cannot rely purely on military suppression and forcible eradication of coca crops by aerial spraying.

So what do they say is the answer?

Crisis Group’s main point is that effort needs to go into coming up with alternatives for the rural population. You can’t expect people to stop producing a lucrative crop just because it’s illegal if there’s no other way for them to make a living.

So they say land rights need to be addressed too, since unequal land ownership is one of the issues that has fueled the conflict. And they say the war on drugs should be waged in consumer countries as well, to reduce demand.

So if the war is in the countryside, how safe are the cities?

Sadly, not very. Violent crime is common. There are 3,000 kidnappings a year, and a lot of the victims don’t make it home alive, even if their families pay a ransom. Most of the targets are fairly wealthy, since Colombia has a sizeable elite living in relative luxury with armed guards in gated neighbourhoods.

The poor, meanwhile, often live in crowded, unpleasant conditions. Many rural poor have fled to urban areas and struggle to make a living. And they’re also living in a society where shootings are not unusual.

On top of that, political crime is rife, with journalists frequently targeted for exposing corruption.

Why is violence is so extreme in Colombia?

Colombia has lived through periods of intense violence virtually since independence from Spain. The country’s two main political parties – the Liberals and the Conservatives -- were involved in bloody conflicts after their formation in the mid 19th century, even though their ideologies were almost indistinguishable.

Around 120,000 people died in “The War of a Thousand Days” between 1899 and 1903, and then another 300,000 people were killed in another period of civil conflict between 1948 and 1957.

After this, the two parties agreed to alternate power to end the battles and banned all other parties. The country theoretically has a nominally democratic system now, but some analysts argue that Colombia has never known real democracy or rule of law, and that’s one reason why it’s so hard to achieve peace.

Who are the good guys in this?

Against all odds, there are dozens of Colombian peasant organisations and human rights groups. They face persecution from all sides, so these activists are incredibly brave to poke their heads above the parapet.