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December 29, 1998
Web posted at: 3:50 p.m. EST (2050 GMT)
BOGOTA, Colombia (Reuters) --
Colombia's most-feared death
squad leader Carlos Castano is
believed to have died when Marxist
rebels overran his mountain
stronghold in the north of the
country, sources on both sides said
on Tuesday.
One politician predicted bloody reprisals by paramilitary
forces against the
Marxists if Castano's death is confirmed.
In a call to local media, Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia (FARC)
guerrillas said they had killed their arch-enemy Castano,
who had led a
10-year "dirty war" against the rebels and suspected
civilian sympathizers, in
fighting that began Sunday.
Regional politician Max Alberto Morales, a self-styled
spokesman for the
ultra-right death squads, said Castano's headquarters near
the remote village
of Nudo de Paramillo, in Cordoba province, had been razed
and that the
paramilitary chieftain was missing.
"There has been no communication within the organization
with Castano
since 9 a.m. (local time) Monday. The camp and the village
has been totally
destroyed. The attack was very fierce," Morales said.
Morales warned that "this will not be good for peace or
for the country" if
Castano's death was confirmed-- raising fears of a
paramilitary backlash
against rebel support bases.
Castano, whose fighters have been blamed for burning their
victims or
beheading them with chain-saws in a wave of brutal
massacres, was the
undisputed leader of a nationwide death squad alliance
known as the United
Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC).
International human rights groups have accused government
security forces
of openly backing the outlawed gangs. Some political
analysts and the
guerrillas themselves say the paramilitary units are part
of an official,
undercover counter-insurgency strategy.
The attack on the heavily-guarded fortress of Nudo de
Paramillo shattered
an 18-day ceasefire which the AUC had declared over the
Christmas period
and was due to last until Jan. 6.
A regional army commander, who did not wish to be named,
said he had
sent troops into the area late Monday and that at least 15
were missing after
clashes with the FARC. He was unable to confirm, however,
whether
Castano had died.
The fighting came just 10 days before the FARC are due to
launch formal
talks with the government in a bid to end Colombia's
long-running civil
conflict that has left more than 35,000 dead in the last
decade.
Castano, thought to be in his 30s, had also been pressing
the government to
recognize the AUC as a legitimate political force and had
offered to take
part in peace talks.
Colombia's paramilitary groups, drawing on training and
advice provided by
U.S. officials, were legally set up by the armed forces in
the late 1960s as
part of an official anti- guerrilla strategy. But they
were outlawed in the late
1980s as they threatened to spin out of government
control.
Castano and his brother Fidel started out as guides for
army
counterinsurgency units but later set up their own gang,
known as the
Peasant Self-Defence Forces of Cordoba and Uraba (ACCU),
when the
government ordered the official paramilitary groups to
disband.
That group, like most of the country's other paramilitary
gangs, was financed
with contributions from large landowners and
cattle-ranchers. The Castano
brothers are also said to have been heavily involved in
drug trafficking and
arms smuggling.
Fidel Castano is thought to have died in fighting with the
FARC four years
ago, leaving Carlos to head the ACCU.
Due to his strong military leadership, Castano succeeded
in bringing some
5,000 paramilitary fighters from across the country
together to form the
AUC in April 1997.
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