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 said on Friday.
The outlaw Castano, who was political chief of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (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, in his underwear," his friend said, saying he had spoken to witnesses.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Military intelligence and state prosecution service officials who have spoken to the friend and colleague of Castano said they believed his report but still had no definitive evidence.
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe was cautious.
"What can I say about a Reuters news report? One has to respect all of them ... The government, faced with this, must be respectful. But I cannot comment," he told reporters.
Proof that Castano was killed could be a fatal blow to year-old negotiations the government hoped would lead to the disarmament of 20,000 paramilitary gunmen waging an illegal war against Marxist rebels and trafficking in cocaine.
Government officials fear the loss of Castano would fracture the AUC and make talks impossible.
Castano aides said rival AUC members heavily involved in cocaine trafficking had attacked him because he was planning to give information about their activities to US authorities.
But other senior commanders from the group said Castano's guards had mistakenly opened fire on their own comrades and he ran away in the confusion.
If he is dead, it was a violent end to a violent life for a man who personally admitted to dozens of killings and forged links between his militia and Colombia's armed forces in a bloody war of revenge against Marxist rebels.
The negotiations, central to Uribe's hopes of pacifying a country locked in a 40-year guerrilla war, had already run into trouble due to the paramilitaries' refusal to serve jail sentences or be extradited for their crimes.
Castano's friend, as well as intelligence and prosecution officials, blamed his killing on AUC political commander Salvatore Mancuso and another AUC chief, Diego Murillo, also known as "Don Berna."
US officials say Murillo is one of Colombia's biggest cocaine traffickers, and also accuse Mancuso of smuggling.
On Thursday, Mancuso denied he was a drug trafficker on local TV. He said he did not know where Castano was and wanted peace talks to continue.
Castano's friend said Don Berna sent the warlord's own brother, Vicente, and a paramilitary known as "18" to kill him.
"That damned 18 strangled him with his own hands," he said.
Castano's aides said that he was hoping to bargain reduced jail time with the US -- which wanted him for cocaine smuggling -- in return for information.
NO EXCUSES: Marcos said his administration was acting on voters’ demands, but an academic said the move was emotionally motivated after a poor midterm showing Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday sought the resignation of all his Cabinet secretaries, in a move seen as an attempt to reset the political agenda and assert his authority over the second half of his single six-year term. The order came after the president’s allies failed to win a majority of Senate seats contested in the 12 polls on Monday last week, leaving Marcos facing a divided political and legislative landscape that could thwart his attempts to have an ally succeed him in 2028. “He’s talking to the people, trying to salvage whatever political capital he has left. I think it’s
Polish presidential candidates offered different visions of Poland and its relations with Ukraine in a televised debate ahead of next week’s run-off, which remains on a knife-edge. During a head-to-head debate lasting two hours, centrist Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, from Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s governing pro-European coalition, faced the Eurosceptic historian Karol Nawrocki, backed by the right-wing populist Law and Justice party (PiS). The two candidates, who qualified for the second round after coming in the top two places in the first vote on Sunday last week, clashed over Poland’s relations with Ukraine, EU policy and the track records of their
UNSCHEDULED VISIT: ‘It’s a very bulky new neighbor, but it will soon go away,’ said Johan Helberg of the 135m container ship that run aground near his house A man in Norway awoke early on Thursday to discover a huge container ship had run aground a stone’s throw from his fjord-side house — and he had slept through the commotion. For an as-yet unknown reason, the 135m NCL Salten sailed up onto shore just meters from Johan Helberg’s house in a fjord near Trondheim in central Norway. Helberg only discovered the unexpected visitor when a panicked neighbor who had rung his doorbell repeatedly to no avail gave up and called him on the phone. “The doorbell rang at a time of day when I don’t like to open,” Helberg told television
‘A THREAT’: Guyanese President Irfan Ali called on Venezuela to follow international court rulings over the region, whose border Guyana says was ratified back in 1899 Misael Zapara said he would vote in Venezuela’s first elections yesterday for the territory of Essequibo, despite living more than 100km away from the oil-rich Guyana-administered region. Both countries lay claim to Essequibo, which makes up two-thirds of Guyana’s territory and is home to 125,000 of its 800,000 citizens. Guyana has administered the region for decades. The centuries-old dispute has intensified since ExxonMobil discovered massive offshore oil deposits a decade ago, giving Guyana the largest crude oil reserves per capita in the world. Venezuela would elect a governor, eight National Assembly deputies and regional councilors in a newly created constituency for the 160,000