Héctor Germán Buitrago
Héctor Germán Buitrago Parada (January 23, 1968 in Monterrey, Casanare), also known as Martín Llanos, and also as Patezorro or Marroco, is a Colombian right-wing paramilitary leader and drug lord. At the time of his arrest by authorities he was considered the last one of the big paramilitary leaders, as he had been successful in evading capture for years. Biography Early life By the end of the 1970s his father, Héctor José Buitrago Rodríguez (also known as "El Viejo" or "Tripas"), had assembled a group of cattle-raiser families in the municipalities of Monterrey, in the Casanare department, in the region of Colombia's eastern plains, and provided them with weapons so as to fight against extortion and kidnapping by the FARC guerrillas. As this early group, known as "Los Buitragueños," grew up in power and influence it became the basis of the ''Autodefensas Campesinas de Casanare'' (ACC), one of the most powerful paramilitary organizations in Colombia. The growth of the orga ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Casanare Department
Casanare Department (, es, Departamento de Casanare) is a department in the central eastern region of Colombia. Its capital is Yopal, which is also the episcopal seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Yopal. It contains oil fields and an 800 km pipeline leading to the coastal port of Coveñas owned by BP. Rivers and dams The Upía River (Río Upía) is in Casanare. History A former subregion of Boyacá, Casanare became separate department in 1973. Municipalities # Aguazul # Chámeza # Hato Corozal # La Salina # Maní # Monterrey # Nunchía # Orocué # Paz de Ariporo # Pore # Recetor # Sabanalarga # Sácama # San Luis de Palenque # Támara # Tauramena # Trinidad # Villanueva # Yopal, capital See also * Apostolic Vicariate of Casanare * Casanare Province Casanare Province was one of the provinces of Gran Colombia. History It belonged to the Boyacá Department, which was created in 1824. The capital was Moreno, now called Paz de Ariporo. ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Paramilitarism In Colombia
Right-wing paramilitary groups in Colombia ( es, paramilitares de derecha) are paramilitary groups acting in opposition to revolutionary Marxist–Leninist guerrilla forces and their allies among the civilian population. These right-wing paramilitary groups control a large majority of the illegal drug trade of cocaine and other substances. The Colombian National Centre for Historical Memory has estimated that between 1981 and 2012 paramilitary groups have caused 38.4% of the civilian deaths, while the Guerillas are responsible for 16.8%, 10.1% by the Colombian Security Forces and 27.7% by non-identified armed groups, although the chief prosecutor of the ICC would contradict these numbers. The first paramilitary groups were organized by the Colombian military following recommendations made by U.S. military counterinsurgency advisers who were sent to Colombia during the Cold War to combat leftist political activists and armed guerrilla groups. The development of more modern ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Drug Lord
A drug lord, drug baron, kingpin or narcotrafficker is a high-ranking crime boss who controls a sizable network of people involved in the illegal drug trade. Such figures are often difficult to bring to justice, as they are normally not directly in possession of something illegal but are insulated from the actual trade in drugs by several layers of staff. The prosecution of drug lords is therefore usually the result of carefully planned infiltration into their networks, often using informants from within the organizations. Organisational role Since the 1970s, research on organized crime leadership (and, by extension, drug lords) has evolved. Where once studies emphasised the importance of the leader's human capital (e.g. individual traits), it has now developed to focus upon the leader's social capital (e.g. information and resource brokers, social status, access to information). List of well-known drug lords Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo Known as "El Padrino" (The Godfat ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Revolutionary Armed Forces Of Colombia
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People's Army ( es, link=no, Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de ColombiaEjército del Pueblo, FARC–EP or FARC) is a Marxist–Leninist guerrilla group involved in the continuing Colombian conflict starting in 1964. The FARC-EP was officially founded in 1966 from peasant self-defense groups formed from 1948 during the "Violencia" as a peasant force promoting a political line of agrarianism and anti-imperialism. They are known to employ a variety of military tactics, in addition to more unconventional methods, including terrorism. The operations of the FARC–EP were funded by kidnap and ransom, illegal mining, extortion, and taxation of various forms of economic activity, and the production and distribution of illegal drugs. They are only one actor in a complex conflict where atrocities have been committed by the state, right-wing paramilitaries, and left-wing guerrillas not limited to FARC, such as ELN, M-19, and others. Colomb ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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José Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha
José Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha (14 May 1947 – 15 December 1989), also known by the nicknames 'Don Sombrero' and ''El Mexicano'' ( en, The Mexican), was a Colombian drug lord who was one of the leaders of the notorious Medellín Cartel along with the Ochoa Brothers and Pablo Escobar. At the height of his criminal career, Rodríguez was acknowledged as one of the world's most successful drug dealers. In 1988, ''Forbes'' magazine included him in their annual list of the world's billionaires. Early years José Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha was born in May 1947 in the small town of Veraguas, near Pacho in the department of Cundinamarca. He came from a poor family of modest pig farmers, and it is said that his formal education did not extend beyond grade school. He left school in the early 1970s and moved to Muzo, Boyacá, the center of the emerald exploitation in Colombia. There he began to work under Gilberto Molina Moreno, who at the time was called the "star" of emeralds in Boya ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Víctor Carranza
Víctor Carranza Niño (8 October 1935 – 4 April 2013), often referred to as ''Don Víctor'' was a Colombian emerald dealer and the owner of emerald mines in the Boyacá mountains (a forested area not far from Bogotá), widely known as Colombia's "emerald czar." The economy of the area around the mines is dependent on the trade. Early life Víctor Carranza was born in the small town of Guateque, Boyacá, in a very poor family of farmers and pig growers. He had dropped school already at 2nd grade, and by age 8 he was already involved in emerald business, by scratching the soil for the gemstones, and then a few years later as a mine worker in Chivor. He started making money after moving to Gachalá, in 1947, where he found three large sources. He found his first emerald mine in 1960, Peñas Blancas, and from then on his influence and power kept increasing, expanding his business by associating with others, buying share rights from new mines in Muzo and Quípama, and selli ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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United Self-Defense Forces Of Colombia
The United Self-Defences of Colombia (''Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia'', or AUC, in Spanish) was a Colombian far-right paramilitary and drug trafficking group which was an active belligerent in the Colombian armed conflict during the period from 1997 to 2006. The AUC was responsible for retaliations against the FARC and ELN communist organization as well as numerous attacks against civilians beginning in 1997 with the Mapiripán massacre. The militia had its roots in the 1980s when militias were established by drug lords to combat rebel kidnappings and extortion by communist guerrillas. BBCQuick Guide, The Colombian conflict. In April 1997 the AUC was formed through a merger, orchestrated by the ACCU, of local right-wing militias, each intending to protect different local economic, social and political interests by fighting left-wing insurgents in their areas. The National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, Terrorist Organization Profile:Un ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Miguel Arroyave
José Miguel Arroyave Ruiz aka "Arcángel" or also "the Chemist" (August 10, 1954 in Amalfi, Antioquia – September 19, 2004 near Puerto Lleras) was one of the top paramilitary leaders and commander of the Centaurs bloc ("Bloque Centauros") of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), a 5,000-strong private militia active in the sparsely populated grasslands of eastern Colombia. He was also a powerful figure within the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), an umbrella organization bringing together right-wing paramilitary groups from all over the country. He was well known for being a ruthless fighter against guerrilla groups, and for being able to evict these rebel groups and take control of their territories. The Centaurs bloc was one of the largest and most powerful groups within the AUC, and was very well organized, to the point that they even had a running web page that is no longer in service (www.bloquecentauros.org). Arroyave was a member of the AUC's te ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Pedro Oliverio Guerrero
Pedro Oliveiro Guerrero Castillo (February 28, 1970 in San Martín, Meta, – December 24, 2010 in Mapiripán, Meta), also known as Cuchillo (The Knife), and as Didier, was a Colombian drug lord and the former leader of the Colombian Popular Revolutionary Anti-communist Army (Spanish: ''Ejército Revolucionario Anticomunista de Colombia'' – ERPAC), a drug trafficking, right wing paramilitary organization. His nickname came from the favoured weapon he used on his victims. Member of a family already involved in crime, Guerrero and his siblings were known as Los Cuchillos (the Knives) due to their habit of sporting those weapons. He joined the underground crime world during his teenage years as a member of the private militia of drug lord Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha, ''aka'' El Mexicano. Following the death of El Mexicano, Guerrero escaped to the department of Guaviare where he joined the paramilitary groups that were active in the region. These paramilitary groups grew in number an ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Tomás Medina Caracas
Tomás Medina Caracas also known as Tomás Molina Caracas and ''Negro Acacio'' (15 March 1965 – 1 September 2007) was a Colombian guerrilla member of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) considered by Colombian authorities the man in charge of the illegal drug trade business and the head of the Eastern Bloc's 16th Front of this rebel group. He gained notoriety during the FARC-Government peace process (1999-2002) acting as a negotiator. He was also known for being the associate of Brazilian drug dealer Fernandinho Beiramar and for participating in an illegal arms deal of 10,000 AK-47s for the FARC through the Peruvian government official Vladimiro Montesinos, an adviser of former president of Peru, Alberto Fujimori. Medina Caracas was killed on 1 September 2007 in a Colombian Army military operation in eastern Colombia within the municipality of Cumaribo near the border with Venezuela. [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Álvaro Uribe
Álvaro Uribe Vélez (born 4 July 1952) is a Colombian politician who served as the 31st President of Colombia from 7 August 2002 to 7 August 2010. Uribe started his political career in his home department of Antioquia. He held offices in the Public Enterprises of Medellín and in the Ministry of Labor and was the director of the Special Administrative Unit of Civil Aeronautics (1980–1982). He became the Mayor of Medellín in October 1982. He was a senator between 1986 and 1994 and finally the Governor of Antioquia between 1995 and 1997 before being elected President of Colombia in 2002. Following his 2002 election, Uribe led an all-out military offensive against leftist guerrilla groups such as the FARC and the ELN with funding and backing from the Clinton and Bush administrations in the form of a 2.8 billion dollars direct foreign aid package called " Plan Colombia", as well as leading a controversial effort to demobilize the right-wing paramilitary group known as the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Carlos Castaño Gil
Carlos Castaño Gil (16 May 1965 – 16 April 2004) was a Colombian paramilitary leader. who was a founder of the Peasant Self-Defenders of Córdoba and Urabá (ACCU), a far-right paramilitary organisation in Colombia and a former member of the Medellin Cartel. Castaño and his brothers Fidel and Vicente founded the ACCU (and its previous incarnations) after their father was kidnapped and killed by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), in association with other enemies or victims of the guerrillas. The ACCU later became one of the founding members of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC). First years Carlos Castaño Gil was the youngest son of the family Castaño Gil, a rich landowner who would have been close to the Alianza Americana Anticomunista. Like his brothers, he experienced firsthand the murder of his father. Led by FARC Guerrilla, at 16 years old, he was determined to take up arms against FARC In revenge of his father's murder. He became a membe ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |