Paramilitary fugitive proving hard to find

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Miami Herald/El Nuevo Herald

Posted on Fri, Jun. 08, 2007
Paramilitary fugitive proving hard to find
A paramilitary leader and suspected drug trafficker is thought to be hiding in a remote area of Colombia.
BY GONZALO GUILLEN
El Nuevo Herald

BOGOTA -- Vicente Castaño, one of Colombia's most-wanted drug traffickers and paramilitary leaders, is hiding in the bleak Guajira peninsula while directing the reorganization of dozens of paramilitary units around the country, according to spokesmen for two intelligence agencies.

Castaño is one of the few paramilitary leaders who has not demobilized and gone to jail under a peace agreement with the government that demobilized more than 30,000 paramilitary fighters. There is a $5 million reward for his capture.

Castaño is alleged to have murdered his brother, Carlos, then the top commander of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, the paramilitaries' umbrella group, for favoring peace negotiations and wanting to surrender. Both have been linked to drug trafficking as a way to finance the paramilitaries' fight against leftist guerrillas.

The intelligence agency spokesmen, who requested anonymity under their agencies' rules, said that authorities have established that Castaño is in the mountainous area of La Macuira, in Guajira, in Colombia's northernmost region.



Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/579/story/132528.html

---

(emphasis mine.)

http://www.alvaralice.org.nyud.net:8090/Pictures/Images/40.jpg

Vicente Castaño, on the left,his brother,
death squad leader, the late Carlos Castaño
on the right.

[Kagemusha]

1. Well yeah, if the other leaders are demilitarized, sure, take over their units.

Basic self-aggrandizement, paramilitary-style.

[Judi Lynn]

2. The crisis of Colombia's state

The crisis of Colombia's state
Jenny Pearce

The intimate connection between paramilitary groups, state-security institutions and politicians in Colombia is corroding the foundations of Álvaro Uribe’s rule, says Jenny Pearce.
15 - 05 - 2007


The editor-in-chief of the Colombian weekly, Semana, is driven around in an armoured car with several bodyguards. Semana is a key source of some extraordinary political revelations over the last few months in a country with extraordinary politics. At the same time, it should be said that the "news" about connections between paramilitary groups and politicians in Colombia - which on 14 May 2007 led to the arrest on criminal conspiracy charges of twenty politicians and business leaders, including five congressmen, almost all political allies of Colombia's president, Álvaro Uribe - only confirms what many observers have known for a long time.

In 2005, I visited Sincelejo in the northern department of Sucre, and found a town in the grip of fear. Locals talked about a new form of politics: narcoparamilipolismo (rule by an alliance of paramilitary, politicians and drug-traffickers). Nearby in San Onofre, they were digging up the remains of some 500 victims of the local paramilitary boss known as Cadena (Chain), whose henchman had just spilt the beans on a mass grave on El Palmar farm. It was from here that a group of paramilitary set off on 17 January 2001 to massacre twenty-seven peasants in El Chengue village.
(snip)

War and politics intertwined
(snip)

The revelations began, following the impounding in 2006 of the computer of the paramilitary leader known as "Jorge 40". The computer revealed in great detail the formal agreement made in 2001 between northern regional and local political elites and the paramilitary, now known as the "Ralito accord". Following judicial investigations, nine congressmen and a provincial governor, all supporters of President Álvaro Uribe from the Atlantic coast region of the country were in prison even before the 14 May arrests. And the net is extending further. Detailed research conducted by the NGO Nuevo Arco Iris, the Javeriana University and others found that at least 30% of the present congress won their seats through illegitimate deals with the paramilitary and no less than sixty congressional representatives and a good number of governors, mayors and councillors might end up in prison.

In January 2007, Salvatore Mancuso was the first senior paramilitary leader to voluntarily confess to kidnappings and mass murder; although he confessed to only a fraction of his crimes and named only deceased collaborators, amongst them was the head of the army's fourth brigade. In February 2007, Jorge Noguera, the former head of the intelligence service (DAS) and a direct presidential appointment, was arrested, accused of allowing the paramilitary to penetrate the state service. Noguera brought the scandal closer to the president, who had offered him a diplomatic post in Milan as the evidence mounted against him. Then, on 19 February, Uribe's foreign secretary María Consuelo Araújo resigned. Her brother, Álvaro Araújo, is one of the imprisoned senators, her father is on trial for kidnapping and murdering indigenous leaders, and her cousin is accused of winning the governorship of Cesar thanks to his pact with the paramilitary.

More:
http://www.opendemocracy.net/democracy-protest/colombian_crisis_4617.jsp