Peasant Self-Defenders of Córdoba and Urabá

Common card · No. 347199

Autodefensas Campesinas de Córdoba y Urabá (ACCU), Spanish for Field Workers Self-Defenders of Córdoba and Urabá, was a paramilitary group formed in northwestern Colombia, operating mainly in the Antioquia Department and Córdoba Department. It was founded by Fidel Castaño, Carlos Castaño and Vicente Castaño to retaliate against the assassination of their father Jesús Castaño by FARC-EP guerrillas. The Colombian military had been supporting farmers' efforts by training some of them in military doctrine, which also had military veterans or retirees in their lines. The Army was authorized to do this following the Colombian constitutional article that supported civilian arming as self-defense against a threat to their rights, and the Castaño brothers as well as other farmers in the region had armed themselves and hired bodyguards following this principle. The military officially cut its links with these groups after finding out some of its members had ties to drug dealers. By 1994, several...

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