PARAMILITARY CHIEF'S DISAPPEARANCE SNAGS COLOMBIA PEACE TALKS

BOGOTA, Colombia -- The disappearance and possible death of one of
Colombia's most powerful paramilitary leaders has complicated already
difficult peace negotiations between the government and the outlaw
group and signals the rise of drug traffickers within the right-wing
organization.

Carlos Castano, a once-feared figure who has admitted killing scores
of civilians during a two-decade campaign to wipe out leftist rebels,
disappeared April 16 after a gun battle that killed six of his
bodyguards at a ranch in northwest Colombia.

Salvatore Mancuso, a top paramilitary commander, told a Colombian
newspaper that Castano may have staged the confrontation to slip out
of sight or create a cover to surrender to authorities in the United
States, where he has been indicted on drug trafficking charges.

"Perhaps all this is a strategy by Commander Castano to justify his
flight to the colossus of the north," Mancuso told El Colombiano
newspaper in an interview last week. "Or perhaps it's a smoke screen
to leave the public limelight for a while."

But most experts believe rival paramilitary leaders kidnapped or
killed Castano, 39, fearing he was set to provide information about
the organization's involvement in drug trafficking to U.S. officials
as part of a peace deal with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.

"We think that Carlos has been assassinated, given that for some time
the drug traffickers inside [the paramilitaries] have been
consolidating their power," Rodrigo Franco, a former paramilitary
commander, told the Tribune in an e-mail Tuesday.

Peace Talks Bog Down

Initiated last year and now stalled, the U.S.-backed peace
negotiations seek to demobilize up to 13,000 paramilitary fighters who
allied as the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, or AUC.

The talks are a cornerstone of Uribe's efforts to gain the upper hand
in a decades-long civil war pitting government forces--often allied
with the paramilitaries--against the nation's largest leftist
guerrilla group, the 18,000-member Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia, or FARC, and a second, smaller rebel force.

"The peace talks were in trouble before, but now it's even worse,"
said Rafael Nieto, a former top Colombian official and security
expert. "The decomposition of the AUC leadership is causing violent
attacks within the group."

Uribe and other top government officials have said little about the
Castano incident, while the nation's top peace negotiator, Luis Carlos
Restrepo, has asked the Colombian attorney general to
investigate.

After the attack, Castano's wife and 18-month-old daughter sought
refuge at a military base, and the government reportedly is seeking to
relocate them in another country.

A founder and longtime public face of the paramilitaries, Castano
recently has been shunted aside by more hard-line commanders who have
rejected a government-backed proposal requiring those guilty of
human-rights violations to confess their crimes, serve up to 10 years
in prison and make reparations.

Experts say Castano--exhausted by years of fighting and fearing for
his life and those of his wife and child--seemed more amenable to a
deal, while Mancuso and other paramilitary leaders generally oppose
it.

Mancuso also wants a guarantee from Colombian officials that he and
other paramilitary commanders would not be extradited to the United
States, where they face drug trafficking charges.

Uribe said Tuesday that extradition is not negotiable.

Rafael Pardo, a former defense minister, said the government's
proposal offers paramilitary leaders a fair deal even as some human
rights experts criticize it as being too soft on those who have
committed atrocities.

"For a victim, nothing is just," Pardo said. "But to make peace, they
[paramilitaries] have to receive a benefit."

The raspy-voiced Castano has been at war since the early 1980s, when
his father was executed by leftist guerrillas. Castano and his eldest
brother, Fidel, went on a killing spree as newly formed paramilitary
forces roamed the countryside slaughtering rebels and their suspected
sympathizers.

The campaign has grown over the years as the increasingly large
paramilitary forces have funded their efforts through direct
involvement in the narcotics trade.

But Castano was forced to rethink his strategy 18 months ago after he
was indicted along with Mancuso for trafficking 17 tons of cocaine
into the U.S. Castano denied the charges but later broke ties with
paramilitary groups that remain heavily involved in drug
trafficking.

It was that decision that sparked the current division among
paramilitary forces and led to Castano's increasing isolation from the
top leadership of the paramilitary movement, experts say.

Adding to the suspicion are rumors that Castano and U.S. officials
have discussed a deal in which the leader would cooperate with
American law-enforcement authorities in exchange for lenient treatment.

U.S.: No Contact

U.S. Ambassador William Wood said last week that U.S. officials have
had no recent contact with Castano.

"Other paramilitary leaders think that he's a snitch," explained
Steven Dudley, an American journalist whose recent book, "Walking
Ghosts," lays out the history of Colombia's paramilitary campaign.
"They think it's only a matter of time before he begins cooperating
with the United States."

Dudley, who interviewed Castano in September, said the paramilitary
commander seemed increasingly paranoid and realized that his only
clout within the movement was as a player in the peace talks.

But Castano's fall became complete late last month after he was
excluded from a team designated by paramilitary leaders to negotiate
with the government.

"Once he was excluded from the peace process, my perception is that it
was the beginning of the end for him," Dudley said.