[It's remarkable how bald this guy Castano is. We've always sided with brutal paramilitaries in our Latin American interventions, but we usually pretend that they are uncontrollable freelancers. And we always deny that they profit from drugs. This guy admits everything he's ever been accused of on TV and still demands to be treated as our legitimate ally. And of course, we already treat him that way, although we'd rather he were more quiet about it. When the FARC attacked his mountain fastness last year, the only thing that saved him was the Colombian army riding to his rescue like the calvary, guided by a hi-tech American spy plan. It was the first time the Colombia army had been effective in years. The plane crashed a short time later, killing 5 Americans aboard. All these facts were in the US papers. But the spin was Look! What a remarkable military turnaround! All these years the army has been losing, and here they win two impressive victories in a row! Let's give them another billion dollars.]
Financial Times ; 08-Sep-2000
WORLD NEWS: LATIN AMERICA & CARIBBEAN: Paramilitary boss tries to widen appeal
By REUTERS: AGENCY MATERIAL and JAMES WILSON
The leader of Colombia's outlawed rightwing paramilitaries has made a fresh bid to raise his political profile before any peace settlement, saying powerful economic interests are financing his movement's anti-guerrilla campaign.
Carlos Castano this week portrayed himself as the defender of Colombia's legitimate business sectors against leftwing rebels.
"Why shouldn't we get support from national and international companies which see their investments constrained by terrorism and barbarism from guerrillas who only respect the criminal economy and class hatred?" wrote Mr Castano in a letter to a parliamentary commission.
Mr Castano's comments are the latest in a series of attempts to gain more legitimacy for his United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC).
The AUC has expanded its territorial control rapidly through brutal massacres of civilians suspected of guerrilla ties, increasing the levels of violence in Colombia's long-running armed conflict.
The AUC has been strongest in the cattle-ranching lands of northern Colombia, where landowners have sought to see off guerrilla threats by paying for protection. It is also expanding into areas of drug production and Mr Castano has previously admitted his movement receives 70 per cent of its funds from drug trafficking.
Ernesto Borda, a political analyst at the Javeriana university in Bogota, said: "Paramilitaries' growth is a danger to the peace process. It is understandable, but a perverse reaction, that people who feel they are guerrilla targets should seek protection from these groups. However, the remedy is worse than the illness. It is generating a situation where law is imposed by force and that will increase violence. People have to strengthen the power of the state instead."
The previously secretive Mr Castano has taken part in two lengthy and candid television interviews in recent months, raising his appeal to many Colombians in spite of his group's brutal tactics. Mr Borda said: "He is accruing political capital for a possible future settlement, to get better terms in negotiations."
President Andres Pas-trana's government has said the paramilitaries have no political agenda. It is only prepared to negotiate demobilisation terms, in which Mr Castano would expect to be granted an amnesty.
This week Luis Fernando Ramirez, defence minister, called for more investigation of those who financed the paramilitaries.
Sabas Pretelt de la Vega, president of the national retailers' association, said in a television interview that he knew of no businessmen who paid the paramilitaries. However, he said, "The government should protect businessmen so they do not have to resort to these measures."
* A Russian-designed submarine, being built to smuggle drugs out of Colombia, was confiscated yesterday on the outskirts of Bogota, authorities said, Reuters reports from Bogota.
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