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AUC

The United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) was a right-wing and counterrevolutionary paramilitary and drug trafficking group which waged war on the ELN and FARC guerrillas from 1981 to 2008. The group originated with anti-narco militias during the 1980s, and the group sought to protect local social, economic, and political interests by fighting left-wing revolutionaries across Colombia. Carlos Castano Gil led the group until his 2004 murder, and he funded the group through the cocaine trade, raising an army of 20,000 men. Castano and his brother Fidel Castano Gil were sons of Jesus Castano, a prominent landholder who had been murdered by FARC in 1981, and the Castanos formed a violent group which fought the guerrillas in the jungles for years, burning down and massacring villages associated with the communists. The group would also be involved in the creation of Los Pepes, a group opposed to the M-19 movement's ally, Pablo Escobar. The AUC had backing from the CIA in its wars with Escobar and the communists, but it lost their support after 1993. By 2006, the majority of the AUC's blocs were demobilized, and most of the leaders were dead or in prison by 2008.

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