Free Republic

BOGOTA, Colombia - Carlos Castano, chief of the paramilitaries that battled Colombia's rebel armies, has acknowledged his forces massacred civilians, extorted money and dealt drugs, but claimed those acts were "inevitable excesses" in a war to save the nation. As his United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia prepare to disband as part of a peace agreement with the government, Castano sought to justify the tactics the outlawed right-wing militia group used to fight leftist rebels for nearly two decades. In a message dated Sunday and posted on the Web site of the AUC, as the group is known by its initials...

ARAUCA, Colombia - An outlawed Colombian paramilitary group agreed to peace talks and promised to lay down its weapons by 2005, while the president symbolically moved the capital to a war zone to show that his government, not leftist rebels, controls the country. The paramilitary United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, or AUC, promised Tuesday to start demobilizing its 10,000 troops by the end of the year. The official peace negotiations come after a December cease-fire and six months of exploratory talks. The AUC is an umbrella paramilitary group that is accused of some of the worst human rights abuses...

BOGOTÁ, COLOMBIA - The El Nogal social club, the site of last Friday's deadly bomb blast, may have been specifically targeted because of its suspected role in Colombia's fledgling peace process. Since December, left-wing rebels claim, the government has been conducting peace talks at the tony club with the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), a right-wing paramilitary group. The paramilitaries, headed by Carlos Castaño, wanted in the United States on charges of drug trafficking and terrorism, had implemented a unilateral cease-fire. But on a website friendly to the left-wing Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which President Alvaro Uribe...

WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. officials announced charges Wednesday involving alleged plots to sell drugs to finance weapons purchases for Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida organization and a Colombian paramilitary group. The separate cases show the threat to national security from the "toxic combination of drugs and terrorism," Attorney General John Ashcroft said. One set of charges involves a plot by four people, two of them Houston-based, to trade $25 million in cocaine and cash for a huge cache of weapons to be sent to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, or AUC, as the 8,000-member paramilitary group is known by its...

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - Right-wing paramilitary chief Carlos Castano, wanted by the United States for drug trafficking, insisted Wednesday he is innocent but imposed conditions for his surrender to U.S. authorities. Colombian authorities, meanwhile, called on the United States to seek the extradition of leaders of the rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, if Washington is serious about fighting drug trafficking. The appeal came a day after the U.S. government said it wanted to extradite Castano, leader of a paramilitary force which has been battling rebels who also profit from drug trafficking. "If there is coherence in U.S....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The federal government unsealed indictments Tuesday alleging Carlos Castano and two members of his feared right-wing paramilitary group in Colombia brought 17 tons of cocaine into the United States and Europe since 1997. Attorney General John Ashcroft said the government will seek extradition of the men, who are part of the outlawed United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia. However, an aide to Castano said the paramilitary group leader bade farewell to his troops Tuesday and was traveling to the United States. Neither Colombian nor U.S. officials confirmed the report. Ashcroft said the indictments, handed up in U.S....

PANAMA CITY, Panama - These are the only two things known for certain about a wayward shipment of 3,000 AK-47 assault rifles that has created an uproar in at least three countries: (1) The shipment left Nicaragua on Nov. 2 aboard the 200-foot, Panama-flagged tramp steamer Otterloo. (2) It was bound for the Panamanian police. Everything else about the shipment remains a mystery. But the 173-ton arsenal, bought from the Nicaraguan police in a deal that seemed so clean Managua officials had notified the U.S. Embassy, evolved into one of the largest and most daring arms smuggling capers in the...