Carlos Castaño Gil

Carlos Castaño Gil (born May 15, 1965 in Amalfi , Colombia , † April 2004 in Antioquia ) was the founder and long-term leader of the Autodefensas Campesinas de Córdoba y Urabá (ACCU), a right-wing paramilitary organization in Colombia.

childhood

Carlos Castaño was born on Finca La Blanquita in the Amalfi community in Antioquia and grew up in the Catholic faith . At the age of 14 he had his first encounter with the guerrilla group FARC , which controlled him and his father during a road block. His brothers Ramiro and Manuel were left ideological at the time, the latter even stayed temporarily at the 4th Frente of the FARC.

Kidnapping and murder of Jesús Antonio Castaño

Carlos' father Jesús Antonio was kidnapped from his Finca El Hundidor by the FARC . This destroyed Carlos' view of the world, as he had previously sympathized with this guerrilla group. His dislike of the guerrilla troops can be traced back to this time, as no release was possible even with the help of middlemen. Even after several ransom payments, which did not reach the total amount due of 50 million pesos, his father was not released. In 1981 the FARC informed him that his father had been murdered by them. Thereupon the Castaño family became enemies with the FARC and indicated that they would go to war against the guerrilla groups. Fidel, his brother, was believed to have died in an ambush by an EPL faction and Carlos became the head of the family.

The role of the Castaño family in paramilitarism

Also in the 1980s, Fidel and Carlos began working in the Segovia (Antioquia) region as informants and leaders of the local military units. According to Carlos Castaño, in 1983, at the age of 18, he was sent to Israel on a one-year military course where he was trained in counterinsurgency techniques with Latin American, Spanish and French participants. In the late 1980s, the two brothers played a key role in the spread of paramilitary groups in Colombia. In 1988 Fidel was one of the people behind the bloody massacre in the left-wing miners' town of Segovia, where more than 40 people were randomly shot on the street. Around the same time, the Castaños began to work in the northern Colombian banana-growing region of Urabá, where hundreds of trade unionists and smallholders were killed in the years that followed - often tortured to death. The Castaño family justified these actions by saying that they wanted to hunt down anyone involved in the kidnapping of the father. In fact, however, they directed the actions of the paramilitaries less against the guerrilla fighters than against all political and social movements that challenged the status quo.

In 1994, shortly after the mysterious disappearance of Fidel Castaño, Carlos founded the Autodefensas Campesinas de Córdoba y Urabá (ACCU), which “cleansed” the northern part of Colombia in close cooperation with the army. After Carlos disappeared in 2004, his then little-known older brother José Vicente Castaño took on a leading role in the paramilitary group. German authorities had already issued an arrest warrant for drug trafficking against José Vicente in 1989. The family is also said to have appropriated millions of acres of land during the 1980s and 1990s. Against this background, there is some evidence that the Castaños were "violent entrepreneurs" who combined drug trafficking and war business.

The AUC

Under the leadership of Carlos Castaño, the superordinate organization of the paramilitaries in Colombia, the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC) , came into being in 1997 . As a rule, the organization hardly fought against the guerrillas, but took on undercover actions: selective murders of political leaders of the left, expulsion of the civilian population from guerrilla areas, torture and massacres to intimidate the population.

The AUC has committed itself to participate in the drug trade. According to Castaño himself, 70% of the AUC's revenue came from this source. The former military leader of the AUC, the Italian-born Salvatore Mancuso, is being investigated in Italy for allegedly organizing large deliveries of cocaine with the Calabrian mafia 'Ndrangheta . Former AUC Inspector General Diego Murillo Bejarano was a security guard for the Medellín cartel in the 1980s.

The AUC is listed as a terrorist organization by the US Department of State, but actually benefited from US military aid under Plan Colombia.

War crimes

On September 24, 2002, the US Department of Justice brought charges against Castaño for trafficking in over 17 tons of cocaine . Castaño announced that he was standing for trial in the United States but resented being personally linked to the drug trade. He had continued to isolate himself from the AUC up to this point and was allegedly even critical of its connection with the drug trade.

Carlos Castaño was sentenced to 37 years in prison in absentia. He is said to have ordered the murder of journalist Jaime Garzón in August 1999 . He is also charged with numerous civilian murders and has up to 35 independent charges against him. In 2002, the AUC began negotiations with the newly elected Colombian government to disarm the paramilitary groups. Castaño belonged to the AUC wing that advocated disarmament. In 2003 Carlos Castaño disappeared.

Controversy over his death

At first there was a wide variety of speculations about his whereabouts. Castaño was allegedly the victim of an attack on April 16, 2004, apparently initiated by his own bodyguards or a rival paramilitary group. AUC commanders, however, expressed the assumption that Castaño was still alive and was in hiding.

Other sources within the AUC alleged that he and his men were tortured and murdered by AUC members. It could even be his brother Vicente Castaño and / or another commanding officer named Diego Murillo alias Comandante Adolfo Paz alias " Don Berna ". Both are accused of having close relationships with drug trafficking. Agence France-Presse claims to have learned from unidentified diplomatic sources (June 1, 2004) that Castaño is said to have fled to Israel via Panama with US assistance . However, this was denied by both the United States and Colombia and Israel.

On August 23, 2006, the Colombian weekly newspaper Semana reported Castaño's death. He was murdered in April 2004 on behalf of a group around his brother Vicente. At the end of August 2006, an ex-paramilitary confessed to the murder and was able to lead the authorities to the remains of Castaño. These were compared with his relatives by means of DNA analyzes and the clarity determined.

literature

• Mauricio Aranguren: Wed Confesión. Carlos Castaño revela sus secretos. 2001, ISBN 958-06-1000-2

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Mauricio Aranguren: Confesión. Carlos Castaño revela sus secretos. 2001, ISBN 958-06-1000-2 , pp. 108 f .
2. ↑ Confirmado: Carlos Castaño está muerto, Semana of August 23, 2006, [1]  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
3. ↑ Entregan restos óseos de Carlos Castaño, confirmó el fiscal interino Guillermo Mendoza Archive link ( Memento of the original from January 6, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.