MEDELLIN, COLOMBIA — On some days, former Colombian rebel Wilmar Quintero says, he feels like a research monkey.
He recently spent his morning taking "psycho-social" tests, sitting through an hourlong accounting course and meeting with victims of this country's endemic violence at the Peace and Reconciliation Program training center in Medellin.
But he's not complaining.
"It's a beautiful opportunity for the education, the social aspects and to be able to go forward with my life," said Quintero, 24, a former fighter in the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, who is now seeking a business degree.
Quintero is one of 40,000 former leftist rebels and right-wing paramilitary combatants whom the Colombian government is preparing for reentry to society through training, counseling and financial aid.
The mounting battlefield successes of the country's military aside, failure to make law-abiding citizens of Quintero and other hardened fighters could doom Colombia to continued violence.
The United States, which since 2000 has spent more than $5 billion on a counter-narcotics and counter-terrorism effort known as Plan Colombia, is on board. Washington has ponied up millions to support the reentry program, which embassy officials here describe as crucial to long-term peace.
Administrators say it could take years or even decades to measure the results. But there are hopeful signs. Once-skeptical U.S. sponsors say the national program, modeled after one developed in Medellin, may eventually serve as a template for war-torn societies.
Quintero's tightly monitored regimen reflects an overhaul of the reintegration program. After four years in the FARC, Colombia's largest rebel group, Quintero decided to take advantage of an amnesty being offered by the government as well as the benefits of the program -- education and a $200 monthly stipend -- for laying down his arms. He said he heard about the offer on the radio.
Back in 2002, when the government first tried to socialize hardened fighters, its approach was to issue monthly checks to meet subsistence costs and, in essence, wish the participants buena suerte (good luck) in reentering a world they were ill-equipped to cope with.
That turned out to be a prescription for failure. Fifteen percent or more of early enrollees were back on the street when the checks ran out, joining gangs or committing crimes.
