ABSTRACT
Material for this chapter was gathered during a six-month investigation into Fidel Castaño’s disappearance, which was published by the Washington Post Magazine in November 2002. During that time I spoke to several fellow paramilitary leaders, including Carlos Castaño and some who worked closely with Fidel. I also leafed through much paramilitary testimony. Carlos’s attempts to hand over drug traffickers to U.S. authorities were well documented at the time, in particular by Gerardo Reyes of El Nuevo Herald, the Spanish-language edition of the Miami Herald. Additional information about the attempted handover came from David Adam’s accounts in the St. Petersburg Times, which appeared in early May 2003. And Mark Bowden’s indispensable Killing Pablo helped deconstruct the role of the PEPES in the dirty war against Pablo Escobar.
