There are other levers too: several AUC leaders could still be extradited to the United States on drugs charges if they fail to toe the line.The United States has given Colombia some $3.5 billion in military aid since 2000.
But there are signs that the government might be prepared to agree not to extradite AUC leaders in return for a peace deal.The United States, which provides Colombia with some $500m a year in military aid, has other ideas.
But neither the United States government nor the Colombian government is fooled, says one American counter-narcotics official: "These are drug traffickers, who are trying everything they can to find the open window".The newest AUC converts appear to be taking advantage of the safe haven in Santa Fe de Ralito, a village in north-western Colombia.
Mr Castaño had been pushing hard for a deal: he was said to be prepared to plea-bargain with the United States, and to accept that AUC leaders would have to serve some jail time.
The shop's former manager, DJ Eclipse, told Complex that he already stood out from the crowd: "Now we had a lot of the usual suspects in the place that day such as Ill Bill, Arsonists, Lord Finesse, Adagio, Breeze Brewin, AL Skills, Percee P, J-Live, Mr Live, Chino XL, Al Tariq, Black Attack, Xzibit, Shabaam Sahdeeq, Rawcotiks, Ak Skills, Rob Swift, Roc Raida, DJ Spinna and many, many more.
Mr Uribe has taken the offensive against FARC and that has persuaded the AUC to declare a (much-violated) ceasefire.
Since 2003, the AUC has been talking peace with President Álvaro Uribe's government.
That does not often happen in Caldas, a coffee-growing department where Mr Báez heads the local paramilitary army.The mayor's plight underlines just how powerful the United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC), as the paramilitaries call themselves, have become as both a military and political force.
Embarrassingly for the European Union, the atrocity came just as it had refused (at the insistence of Sweden and France) to place the FARC alongside the AUC on its official list of terrorist groups.
The country has three illegal armies: the left-wing FARC, with perhaps 17,000 troops; the ELN, a much smaller guerrilla group; and the paramilitaries of the (not so) United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC), with perhaps 20,000 fighters.
He insists that AUC chiefs will not be able to get away with intentional omissions in their statements because the government "has made visible those involved in atrocities".
