Bob J. Zehmer
This was an incomparable rising that later strengthened, thanks to the alliance formed with the newborn AUC 1 in 1997. The paramilitary organization AUC, was established, as of the far right wing militants, with the intention to defend some Colombian territories that were being harassed by rebel gangs devoted to plunder and murder, on the plea to make up for the government inability to guarantee law and order. This was just a foul pretext. In truth, the AUC sheltered the business of some large landowners and gentry, subduing and slaying poor people. It sprang from the union of various paramilitary groups getting to number 20 thousand members – counting even women. Later, we shall see that, although it was supposed to break up in 2006, some factions are still alive and kicking around. Carlos Castaño Gil, one of the commanders, suffered an attempt on his life on April 2004, presumably by his own bodyguards, but rumors are rather inconclusive; some say he died, some affirm he escaped and took to the bush. Shortly after, late May 2004, his right-hand man Carlos Mauricio Garcia alias Doble Cero, was found dead. It’s significant to say that he had put up a valiant resistance to the narcos alliance. The AUC liaison with the Ndrangheta was Salvatore Mancuso Gomez, also known as Triple Cero. He was born in Montería, Colombia, in 1964, by Italian father and Colombian mother. He first studied civil engineering at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, then agricultural economics at Escuela de Formación Técnica Agricola in Bogotá, and finally English at Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania. Mancuso is being hosted by the US Department of Justice in a safe prison after extradition in 2008 for international drug trafficking. He has confessed his 1 Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia).
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