AUC leaders received a two day safe conduct in order to fly to the capital and address Congress. The AUC is trying to convince the legislators that the rebels are serious about negotiating an end to the AUC as a paramilitary organization. The AUC was originally founded as a rural self-defense force against leftist rebels of  the FARC and ELN. All three groups got into the drug business to raise money to meet the payroll (altogether, the three groups have over 30,000 gunmen on the payroll). Put the population has turned against the leftist rebels and the government has come up with tactics for defeating the rebels and reestablishing control in areas dominated by the rebels for over a decade.