On June 10, 2024, a judge from the Southern District of Florida, United States, found the multinational Chiquita Brands International guilty of financing the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) between 1997 and 2004, for which it will have to pay compensation of more than 38 million dollars to plaintiffs and relatives of the victims.
At the same time, In Colombia everything would be ready to hand down a sentence against Humberto Ágredo, accused by the authorities of being the “biggest arms trafficker” in the history of the country, since he would have managed to deliver at least 12,000 weapons to the AUC.
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In accordance with Caracol NewsÁgredo managed to bring this weaponry from Bulgaria in 1999 so that the paramilitary group could perpetrate multiple tragedies and massacres, which is why he began to be called “The Lord of War.”
Raúl Hasbún, an important leader of the paramilitary organization, is one of the witnesses in the case, and assured that Ágredo’s help caused his bloc’s arsenal to increase considerably.
“I’ll give you an example: before that I always operated, more or less, with 70, 80 rifles. From there I went to 270 and so was everyone. The potentialization of the self-defense groups was total,” Hasbún indicated in the audience.
With the completion of the delivery of weapons, Ágredo became an important figure for the self-defense groups, becoming one of the figures most mentioned by paramilitary leaders.
“Humberto is well spoken, he expresses himself well, he made correct political analyses, he interpreted the situation in the country and was able to express it with the interlocutors he had. He gave guidelines, parameters that had to do with the political issue and the growth of the AUC, specifically in military operations.. Not only because of his closeness with Carlos Castaño. In fact, in meetings with the General Staff, when issues of AUC expansion were discussed, Humberto participated,” Salvatore Mancuso indicated at the time.
Similarly, Diego Vecino, a member of the Northern Block of the AUC, pointed out that the businessman was an “advisor on security and international issues” to Carlos Castaño.
With the help of a heavy machinery company, Ágredo managed to have a credible facade with which he brought in the weapons; In the same way, it was a fair that took place in Corferias, another scenario that made the authorities not suspect the criminal actions of Humberto Ágredo, since the arrival documents indicated that the shipment had spare parts and equipment that would be exhibited in Bogotá.
Another crucial point in the criminal network was the presence of Ágredo’s son, Hans Ágredo, who at that time was married to the daughter of the owner of the largest arms producer in Bulgaria.
In his testimony, Hasbún stated that the arrival of the weapons to Urabá was possible because the banana companies in the region were used to camouflage the objects and hid the evidence of this fact, specifically mentioning a recording that was recorded in the Banadex security cameras.
“The only ones that had infrastructure to go down were Chiquita and Banadex. Now I don’t remember what that’s called. Yes, the Banadex company coordinated all the urea landing logistics. They didn’t know until that moment what I’m telling you. There came some weapons. A bundle of those, when a black He put it over his shoulder, the rifle trumpets began to break. That same night we militarized the pier and went and took out the urea without waiting for Dian, not all of it. We stole the bags that came with the rifles inside from the Banadex pier,” Hasbún stressed.
After the demobilization of the AUC, Mancuso pointed out Ágredo’s responsibility in the rise of the paramilitary organization, in addition to this, It was known that part of the weapons delivered during the Justice and Peace processes were those received by the paramilitaries during that operation recorded in 1999, but the attention of the authorities was diverted from Ágredo in different ways.
With the statement in 2016 of the former captain of the National Army Jorge Rojas, who accepted charges and confessed to having been associated with Ágredo, an investigation was once again opened against the businessman, which has advanced, despite the fact that he has been a fugitive since then. of justice.
