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'Granddaddy' of Colombia paramilitaries surrenders

The "granddaddy" of Colombia's right-wing militias, who picked up a shotgun to protect his farm from Marxist rebels 29 years ago and now stands accused of drug smuggling, turned himself in to the government Tuesday.

The demobilization of Ramon Isaza and his 990-member fighting force brings to about 22,290 the number of paramilitary fighters who have surrendered their arms countrywide in a government peace accord.

Paramilitaries guilty of crimes such as massacre, torture and kidnapping face jail terms limited to eight years in exchange for laying down their arms -- a deal criticized by human rights groups.

"I remember when the guerrillas were all over this area, and the state did not come. Nobody came to help," the weather-beaten warlord told reporters before his demobilization ceremony in Puerto Triunfo, a town in Antioquia province.

In 1977, Isaza says he recruited eight fellow farmers armed with shotguns to ambush rebels who had been stealing their chickens and pigs and were threatening to kill him.

Authorities say that from these humble beginnings Isaza developed a criminal network fueled by profits from Colombia's lucrative cocaine trade, an accusation he denies.

"Isaza is like the granddaddy of the paramilitary movement, so his demobilization is symbolically important," said German Espejo of Bogota think tank Seguridad & Democracia.

The paramilitaries are guilty of some of the worst atrocities of the Colombian conflict in which thousands are killed and tens of thousands are forced from their homes every year.

The militias often cooperated with members of the armed forces to combat their common rebel foe, although the government says soldiers helping paramilitaries are criminals.

Admitting that "we are not the biggest angels", Isaza recently told El Tiempo newspaper that his men often killed peasants suspected of being guerrillas.

Wearing camouflaged uniforms and trademark red bandannas around their necks, the men and women of Isaza's Peasant Self Defense Forces of the Magdalena Medio turned in a total of 754 weapons, the government said.

President Alvaro Uribe, whose father was killed by the guerrillas in the early 1980s, has yet to open formal peace talks with the rebels, who are fighting a four-decades-old war against the state. The guerrillas and some opposition politicians accuse Uribe of being allied with the paramilitaries, which he denies.

The president, popular for reducing crime as part of his crackdown on the rebels, is expected to win re-election in May.

The United States, which has given about $4 billion in aid to Colombia since 2000, says it supports the peace talks with the paramilitaries, even though Washington classifies them as a terrorists and human rights groups say they are getting off too easy under the peace deal.

New York-based Human Rights Watch says the militias are not being forced to dismantle their drug-smuggling and other criminal networks and are gaining a veneer of political legitimacy.

Left-leaning politicians say the militias are using violence and death threats to influence the outcome of March legislative elections.

The United States says it would still like the extradition of those with U.S. arrest warrants, although that is unlikely to happen if the paramilitary chiefs keep to peace pledges.

By Rikito on Feb 8, 2006, 13:51 in Politics & the war.

jack smith 2 says on Feb 8, 2006, 17:53:

What happened to Carlos Castano? Anybody ever find the body, dead or alive, of Carlos Castano? AUC leader?

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Wastelandlive says on Feb 8, 2006, 18:04:

Don't think so. Word is his "pal" Mancuso and his younger brother had him strung up like a pig because he wanted to sell out some of his partners in order to negotiate a peace with Bogota'.

I thought he had slipped off to Israel - and that could be, I suppose.

But his wife has applied for assylum in the US, so I doubt it.

Wasteland

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