CONVIVIR, an acronym for Servicios Especiales de Vigilancia y Seguridad Privada (English: Special Vigilance and Private Security Services) (the word to which the acronym owes its namesake, “convivir”, means "living in harmony" in Spanish) was a national program of cooperative neighbourhood watch groups created by a February 11, 1994 decree of Colombia's Ministry of National Defense and a law passed in the Colombian Congress, in response to growing guerrilla activity.
[citation needed] Members of some former paramilitary groups transitioned into CONVIVIR, where they were joined by newer recruits and victims of guerrilla aggression, while others, such as the ACCU, remained operating independently.
The then governor of Antioquia, Álvaro Uribe Velez (who later became President of Colombia), whose father had been killed by the FARC during a kidnapping attempt in 1983, gained notoriety for his open support and promotion of the CONVIVIR at the time.
Reports argued that some CONVIVIR groups achieved results in providing security to communities and intelligence coordination to military forces, but apparently numerous members committed abuses against civilians, without a serious oversight over their operations and organization.
[2] According to a 2007 U.S. indictment against the Chiquita Brands International fruit company, a number of payments to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia passed through an "intermediary" Convivir group which operated in the Urabá region.