Although these groups are well armed and dangerous, some appear to be more criminal than ideological, focused on kidnapping and drug smuggling.
Over the past year militiamen of different ideological stripes have briefly kidnapped the prime minister, repeatedly attacked the elected congress, abducted foreign diplomats, and blockaded eastern oil ports, slashing the country's main source of revenue.
Originally numbering only 200 or so fighters, it has focused more on the business of kidnapping than on ideological warfare.
Westerners are occasionally kidnapped in Kabul for ideological reasons, more often economic ones, because Afghanistan is poor and its people don't see enough of the aid money sent their way.
Can we really justify kidnapping a child for his own ideological protection?
All five of the victims are Malian citizens, which begs the question of whether this kidnapping was performed for transactional reasons or ideological.
They are also in the kidnapping business, with a mix of pecuniary and ideological motives.
However, the lucrative returns from drugs and kidnapping came to dominate the rebels' agenda, and largely replaced ideological motivations.
This branch of Al Qaeda has kidnapped foreigners, apparently for ransom at least as much as for ideological reasons, in a belt from Mauritania to Niger.
But the government, which shares an ideological affinity with Colombia's rebels, officially denies that the FARC or ELN kidnap Venezuelans, or that the two groups hold hostages inside Venezuelan territory, as families here contend.
