Free Republic

MEDELLIN, Colombia -- Hundreds of right-wing militia fighters surrendered their guns Tuesday in a ceremony heralded by the government as a step toward peace but denounced by critics as a show that lets killers, kidnappers and drug peddlers off the hook. Gathered inside Medellin's convention center, the 855 members of the Cacique Nutibara bloc sang the national anthem, then laid their rifles, ammunition belts and camouflage shirts in piles on the floor. Government peace commissioner Luis Carlos Restrepo called the disarmament a significant move toward finally ending Colombia's four-decade war. But Wende Gozan of Amnesty International in New York said...

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....

BOGOTA, Colombia (Reuters) - Colombian warlord Carlos Castano, whose disappearance has rocked peace talks between the government and far-right paramilitaries, has been strangled to death by former comrades, one of Castano's friends says. The outlaw Castano, who was political chief of the United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia, or AUC, went missing after a shootout with gunmen commanded by rival AUC chiefs at his hidden ranch in northern Colombia on April 16. "They caught Commander Carlos alive that very day and they killed him two days later, after they kept him for two days with his hands and legs bound,...

BOGOTA, Colombia -- President Alvaro Uribe's announcement that his envoys are meeting with outlawed paramilitary leaders to explore peace talks reflects deep turmoil within the right-wing militias as well as a newfound confidence in the Colombian army, analysts said Tuesday. Blacklisted as terrorists by Washington and with their top commanders facing drug-trafficking charges in the United States, the paramilitaries are mired in crisis and may see negotiations as their best option, these observers said. The meetings with the paramilitaries may also signal that the Colombian government finally trusts its armed forces to battle Marxist guerrillas on their own. For two...