Paramilitary Leader Killed?

Army Moves In

Embarrassed by a report in the Bogotá daily El Tiempo about Orozco’s December 22 inauguration of an amusement park that he had financed in Barrancabermeja’s marginal Villarelys neighborhood, the army allegedly moved in on the paramilitary leader on December 24 as he prepared to distribute two truckloads of food, clothes and toys as Christmas gifts to poor children. The amusement park was named after paramilitary leader Fidel Castaño, who disappeared around 1995 and whom the AUC claims was killed. Fidel’s brother Carlos Castaño, political leader of the paramilitary umbrella group United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), visited the site of the amusement park while it was under construction, Orozco said during the inauguration.

Orozco Led Drive on Barrancabermeja

Orozco reportedly led the AUC’s drive over the past year to control Barrancabermeja, through a campaign of terror involving nearly 400 selective murders of people the AUC accused of sympathizing with the leftist rebel National Liberation Army (ELN). As of January 4, no one had claimed Orozco’s body from the Barrancabermeja municipal morgue. (El Nuevo Herald (Miami) 12/25/01, 1/5/02) From the Weekly News Update on the Americas (ISSN 1084-922X), published by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York, 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012, 212-674-9499, wnu@igc.org.