Cuestiones de América

Money Trail Revealed: Colombian Terrorists Funded from... Miami *

Narco News Commentary: The search for foreign scapegoats in the "war on terrorism," when the money trail is followed, keeps turning back to the United States banks and financial institutions. Yesterday, the daily El Tiempo of Bogotá, Colombia, reported that 20 checks were found at a paramilitary headquarters, and were used to buy arms and uniforms by the right-wing narco-terror group of Carlos Castaño and Salvatore Mancuso. The financial support for the group's massacres of civilians came from... the United States, specifically, through a bank or banks in Miami.

This underscores our point made in a Narco News editorial this week on White Collar Terrorists: We can point the finger abroad, but until United States banks and financial institutions are included in the search for guilty parties, future terrorist acts will continue, and inevitably include U.S. soil. Narco News is investigating which Miami bank or banks were used to fund the AUC, and will report any evidence that we find.

From the daily El Tiempo, October 17, 2001

Translated by The Narco News Bulletin

Various checks found in a rural residence of Calima-Darién, presumably the property of groups of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) that operate in the mid-Valley region, were delivered to the regional Attorney General's office.

General Francisco René Pedraza, commander of the Third Brigade of the armed forces, said that the documents and checks lead to a presumption that the AUC is funded by foreign bank accounts. "In this case, it is a checking account in Miami, from where checks have been drawn, it seems, to be used to buy arms and uniforms," he explained.

The checks, valuing 2 billion pesos were found last Saturday by army officials in an operation that captured six persons said to be paramilitaries who participated in the massacre of 24 people on October 10th in the rural region of Buga. The men arrested are: Eurideses Urango, Donaldo Rivera Muñoz, Edilberto Berrío Torres, Luis Córdoba Palacios, Javier Antonio Contreras and Idelfonso Gutiérrez.

The men were found with rifles, grenades, AUC bracelets and the checks from accounts in U.S. banks.

The attorney general began the investigation of 20 checks paid to different individuals in the Valley through an open account in Miami in 1995. The checks appear to average between $3,000 and $5000 U.S. dollars apiece.

* Narco News 2001, October 17, 2001.

Cuestiones de América Nº 10, Agosto-Septiembre de 2002

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