Colombian Unravels Government-Paramilitary Ties

"This guy is probably the most endangered guy in all of Colombia, so we're worried about it," said Terry Collingsworth, an attorney representing Drummond workers.

García was head of information services at the Administrative Security Department, or DAS, as the intelligence agency is known by its Spanish initials. He had access to files on drug traffickers, information about investigations of paramilitary groups and other important documents. In 2005, investigators discovered that Noguera and other DAS officials were providing the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, the loose coalition of paramilitary groups known as the AUC, with secret information while illegally destroying case files on the organization's drug trafficking and other crimes.

The AUC, declared a terrorist organization by the United States, had for years massacred peasants and leftist activists while funding its war against Marxist rebels with cocaine trafficking. García, a university-educated carpenter's son, became a member of the Northern Bloc of the AUC, a powerful militia run by Rodrigo Tovar.

In 2002, García was among those who helped orchestrate what he calls a "massive electoral fraud" that enabled paramilitary groups to put handpicked candidates into Congress. Those congressmen, close allies of the Uribe administration, helped approve a law that the United Nations criticized as overly generous to paramilitary commanders who took part in a three-year disarmament of the group. Last May, the country's Constitutional Court struck down several articles of the law, ending some concessions shielding the warlords.

Uribe has steadfastly defended his administration, saying he has moved aggressively to dismantle the paramilitary groups. He has also vigorously attacked opposition politicians who have raised questions about his government's ties to paramilitary groups, calling some of them "terrorists in business suits" who ignored the inroads Marxist guerrillas made into Colombian society.

García's credibility has remained largely unscathed. He believes it is because of his privileged position in the DAS and his AUC membership. "I was part of his government," he said, referring to the Uribe administration. "I was, am and will always be of the right. They can't discredit me like they do all the others."

García said he still believes in the paramilitary groups' professed mission: to wipe Colombia free of Marxist guerrillas. But he also now believes that the paramilitary groups, by sacking public hospitals, extorting money and assassinating opponents, have done the country harm.

"I could have said just one thing and gotten benefits," García said, referring to his cooperation with authorities. "Why did I say so much? Because the region we hurt so much needs another chance."

He said he also wants to leave a different legacy. He recalls that his father, Adaulfo García, who died of a heart attack last year, had been a humble, honest man.

"My father worked hard to instill working-class values and for some reason, I didn't carry those same values," he said. "So I do this in honor of his memory and to give my son another legacy."