Court hammer
Colombia 21 March 2012. A retired Colombian colonel, Hugo Alfredo Castellanos, was charged with providing weapons to a non-existent FARC unit, embezzlement, procedural fraud and arms possession and trafficking. The charges were made by a prosecutor from the National Anti-Corruption Unit.
FARC is the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, FARC), the largest guerrilla group in Colombia. Established in 1964. It fights for a revolutionary state based on Marxist-Leninist principles.
He’s accused of liaising between the military and Colombia’s ex-Peace Commissioner, Luis Carlos Restrepo, in a conspiracy to pay a group of homeless people to train and act like guerrillas before surrendering to authorities.
Colonel Castellanos was an alleged key link in delivering weapons via helicopter from Santa Marta in northern Colombia to Bogota, before travelling overland to the department of Tolima where the fake unit’s surrender took place.
Restrepo is currently overseas, having fled the country before he could be arrested.
