Colombia court rules against Castaņo family
Colombia court rules against Castaño family
posted by Oliver Griffin
Sep 6, 2013
A court in Colombia has ruled against the Castaño family, the founding members of the AUC, and asserted that they are to return stolen lands to appropriate families, reported local media Thursday.
Leaders of paramilitary group AUC, brothers Carlos and Vicente Castaño managed to take swathes of land while operating in the north west Cordoba department, despite having numerous warrants for their arrests. They were able to attain farm land after bribing and threatening peasants who lived in the area.
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The two brothers and their associates were responsible for a wave of violence that intimidated and threatened the lives of peasants and farmers in the local area. Bodies of four peasants massacred in 1989 were exhumed from the farms in April 1990 alongside twenty other human remains.
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Although the AUC formally demobilized in 2006, its dissolution marked the emergence of successor groups formed by mid-level commanders of the paramilitary organization who were exempted from justice or never took part in the demobilization process. These neo-paramilitary groups function in much the same way as the AUC once did.
http://colombiareports.co/court-rules-auc-founding-family/
= new reply since forum marked as read
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Carlos Castaño Gil [/center]
‘AUC founders were given state seized property’
posted by Edward Fox
Apr 7, 2011
members of the paramilitary organization the AUC, brothers Vicente and Carlos Castaño, were trustees of Colombia’s drug enforcement agency the DNE for over 15 years, El Tiempo reported Wednesday.
Despite having numerous arrest warrants against them, the Castaños appear to have been granted the estate of the DNE seized property of “Las Tangas” in the northern department of Cordoba. This farm later became emblematic of the conflict, being used as a site for AUC massacres.
Carlos Castaño allegedly utilized the Peace Foundation of Cordoba (Funpazcor) to front the ownership of the farm, even selling parts of it to fellow paramilitaries “Don Berna,” and “Monoleche.”
As late as 2007, the farm was still apparently occupied by the Castaño’s half-sister, until it was finally seized by the Prosecutor General’s Office. Only last year was the 12,355 acre property divided up and given as compensation to victims of the paramilitaries.
The current head of the DNE, Juan Carlos Restrepo, told El Tiempo that the file regarding the full history of Las Tangas will be handed over to the Prosecutor General’s Office to try and determine how the drug agency allowed the AUC to continue its presence there.
More:
http://colombiareports.co/auc-founders-were-given-state-seized-property/
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Colombia: paramilitary patriarch killed on brother's orders
Submitted by WW4 Report on Fri, 09/08/2006 - 02:45 Andean Theater
Carlos Castaño, patriarch of Colombia's far-right paramilitary movement, is confirmed dead at the age of 39. Mario Iguaran, Colombia's chief prosecutor, said a skeleton unearthed from a shallow grave was that of Castaño, the long-missing leader of the feared Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC). The government "has the full identification that this is Castaño," Iguaran said, pointing to a 99.99% match between Castaño's DNA and that of the skeleton.
The remains were found Sept. 1 on farmland in the corregimiento (hamlet) of Guasimal, near the village of Valencia in the Alto Sinú region of Cordoba department. Authorities were led to the grave by a demobilized paramilitary, Jesús Ignacio Roldán, alias "Monoleche." He had confessed to killing Castaño in April 2004. (AP, Sept. 6; El Tiempo, Bogota, Sept. 5)
Witnesses have come forward to confirm that on April 14, 2004, "Monoleche" ("Whitey"
led a hit squad of 20 gunmen from the AUC's Bananero Bloc in eight trucks to assassinate the warlord on the orders of Castaño's own brother, José Vicente Castaño. "I saw 'Whitey' shoot him (Castaño) twice," one witness told RCN radio, adding that Roldán later carried Carlos' body to José Vicente.
"The two trucks in front started firing," the witness, who was a bodyguard for José Vicente Castaño, told RCN. "Then the two in back... 'Whitey' then came to the front and yelled, 'Mr. Carlos Castaño, turn yourself in. Your guards have already done so.'" The witness said Castaño fought off his attackers until he had no more ammunition left.
More:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=post&forum=1108&pid=21968
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Assassin "Monoleche" and Vicente Castaño
José Vicente Castaño
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Oh, no! Another one?
Fidel Castaño[/center]
Wikipedia: Fidel Castaño
Fidel Castaño Gil was a right-wing Colombian drug lord and paramilitary who was among the founders of Los Pepes and the Peasant Self-Defense Forces of Cordoba and Uraba, a paramilitary group which ultimately became a member of the larger United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia.
Los Pepes[edit source]
In the early 1990s, the Cali Cartel waged a bloody war against the Medellín Cartel. At the same time, the Search Bloc was hunting down Medellín Cartel leader Pablo Escobar. A vigilante organization known as "People Persecuted by Pablo Escobar," or Los Pepes, began assassinating Escobar's associates and destroying his property. It also assisted the Search Bloc in their hunt for Escobar. Castaño was one of the founders of Los Pepes and worked with the Cali Cartel against Escobar. While Escobar genuinely persecuted many Colombians, Los Pepes were mostly cocaine traffickers and manufacturers looking to benefit from Escobar's fall.
Peasant Self-Defense Forces of Cordoba and Uraba[edit source]
After Pablo Escobar was killed, Castaño turned his attention to the left-wing guerrillas in Colombia. Castaño's father had been killed by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), and Castaño formed the paramilitary organization known as the Peasant Self-Defense Forces of Cordoba and Uraba or ACCU. The group killed members of the FARC, the National Liberation Army, and the Popular Liberation Army. It also killed a great many innocent civilians. In April 1997 the Colombian paramilitary organizations coalesced to form the umbrella organization known as the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia
Disappearance[edit source]
Castaño has not been seen since about 1994, and is widely presumed to be dead. His brother, Carlos, claimed that Fidel was killed by the FARC in 1994 and was secretly buried. While it is possible that Carlos was telling the truth, many believe that Fidel simply retired from the drug trafficking and paramilitarism. Adding to the mystery, Carlos himself later appeared to disappear under mysterious circumstances before his body was found and identified.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fidel_Casta%C3%B1o
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Apparently they glamorized these deviant clowns, made movies!
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