Bogota - Agents of the US Drug Enforcement Agency, (DEA) have offered to subsidise Colombia's far-right paramilitaries, in return for paramilitary support to combat narco-trafficking, according to reports here last week, writes Ana Carrigan.
Colombia's most powerful death squad leader, paramilitary commander Carlos Castano, said on Wednesday that US anti-narcotics agents had sought to enlist his help to combat Colombian narco-traffickers. no, who is accused of multiple assassinations and massacres by Colombian officials, told RCN Television, "I received a call saying the DEA (US Drug Enforcement Agency) was opening the doors so that Colombian drug traffickers could surrender to U.S. justice and ....it (the DEA) needed a significant force in Colombia that would induce these people to take that decision."
Mr Castano, who is accused of multiple massacres by Colombian officials, said he did not know whether the request for his help reflected US policy, or if it came from agents acting on their own initiative.
In Washington, the DEA refused comment. The State Department issued a statement that it was against US policy for government officials to have contact with the paramilitaries or their representatives.