Carlos Castaño Gil

Carlos Castaño Gil was the youngest son of the family Castaño Gil, a rich landowner who would have been close to the Alianza Americana Anticomunista. Like his brothers, he experienced firsthand the murder of his father. Led by FARC Guerrilla, at 16 years old, he was determined to take up arms against FARC In revenge of his father's murder. He became a member of a self-defense group, which were among the first of their kind.

He was introduced to the Medellin Cartel kingpin Pablo Escobar by his brother Fidel, but he was against drugs. Castaño received combat training from his brother, from army officers and members of the paramilitary group as well as from the Israeli mercenary Yair Klein. Of this training came out the order for the extermination against the UP between the 1985-96

The Castaño's paramilitary groups were financed by drug kingpin

One month after Escobar's death, Fidel Castaño was killed in a battle against EPL guerrillas. However, it is believed that Carlos may have had a role in Fidel's death in retaliation for the alleged rape and murder (or possible suicide) of a woman alleged to have been a lover of both brothers. After Fidel's death, Carlos Castaño assumed leadership of AUC, a paramilitary federation.

AUC leader

In a 1996 interview with writer Robin Kirk, later published in More Terrible Than Death: Massacres, Drugs and America's War in Colombia (PublicAffairs: New York, 2003), Castaño acknowledged that the men under his command committed "excesses", but defended them as necessary in Colombia's conflict. "Look, the guerrillas hide themselves within the civilian population, they manipulate the population". In a September 1997 interview in El Tiempo newspaper, Castaño admitted responsibility for the Mapiripán massacre.^[1]

In 1997, Castaño later founded an

Castaño was convicted in absentia of the murder of journalist Jaime Garzón, and sentenced to 38 years in prison.

In a biographical work published in 2001, he admitted to having friendly relations with the high Catholic clergy and political leaders. He added that "the Americans tolerated" the paramilitary groups and had the support of the Colombian national army.^[2]

Accusations of narcotrafficking

On 24 September 2002, the United States Department of Justice unsealed an indictment against Castaño which accused him of trafficking over 17 tons of cocaine into the United States. Castaño announced that he would give himself up for trial in the United States and would accept his participation in numerous crimes, though he resented his being personally linked to the drug trade.

Castaño had become isolated from the organisation according to some observers, as he seemed to become relatively critical of the AUC's increasing association with narcotraffickers in recent years and was more willing to compromise with the Colombian Government. Allegedly this caused some AUC commanders to turn their backs on him.

Castaño stated on Colombian television in 2000 that 70 percent of AUC funds came from narcotrafficking.^[3]

Disappearance and death

Castaño was killed on 16 April 2004. Acting AUC commanders claimed initially that there was an accidental exchange of gunfire between his bodyguards and a separate group of paramilitary fighters.

Other sources within the group and among its dissident factions claimed that he and his men were captured and tortured before being killed and then buried by order of other AUC top leaders (perhaps his own brother

The possible death of the AUC co-founder remained in the air and was the subject of wild and rampant speculation. One of the rumours, dating from June 1, 2004, stated that unidentified diplomatic sources told the AFP agency that Castaño may have been spirited away to either Syria or Egypt, via Panama, allegedly with U.S. assistance. No specific reasoning or details regarding this claim were produced and the parties allegedly involved separately denied their participation.

Sources from the AUC and other local militant factions continued to dispute the exact whereabouts of Carlos Castaño. His personal and financial connections between narcotraffickers and other sectors of society could have allowed for their possible collaboration in his conspicuous disappearance or murder. Despite these claims, the truth regarding Castaño's exact condition remained unknown.

On 23 August 2006, Colombia's Attorney General publicly ordered the capture of his brother Vicente Castaño and seven other individuals, accusing them of being involved in Carlos Castaño's apparent death. Alleged witnesses to the crime stated that Castaño's body was apparently dismembered and incinerated.^[4][5]

Castaño's skeleton was recovered from a shallow grave on 1 September 2006, and identified through

• Castaño is portrayed by the actor
  El Cartel, Mejía also portrays Castaño in the Netflix original television series Narcos
  .

• Paramilitarism in Colombia
• Colombian conflict

References

Further reading

Journal articles

• McDermott, Jeremy "Colombian paramilitary leader murdered", Janes Intelligence Review; June 2004, Vol. 16 Issue 6, pp. 8–9