Alias Pinocho Gets One Week to Surrender, and No Deal in Return
COLOMBIA · SECURITY
Key Facts
- —Who he is Fredy Castillo Carrillo, known as Pinocho, a leader of an armed group on Colombia’s Caribbean coast.
- —His record Twenty years across three organisations, extradited to the United States once and returned.
- —What he offered To surrender, if Colombia passed a law guaranteeing him reduced terms.
- —The answer No negotiations, no delays, no demands. Ministers have one week to arrange it.
- —Also revived His extradition to the United States, which the president ordered reactivated.
- —The catch The government cannot make a fugitive appear. It can only prepare the paperwork.
Under the last government he was recognised as a peace negotiator. Under this one he is a man with a week to turn himself in.
In Colombia, men who lead armed groups do not generally get arrested. They negotiate, which is what alias Pinocho expected to do.
A framework law is passed, sentences are reduced in exchange for disclosure and reparation, and the group dissolves on paper. Alias Pinocho asked for exactly that, and was told no.
Who He Is
His name is Fredy Castillo Carrillo, and he is also known as El Ganadero, the cattleman. His career spans two decades and three organisations.
He began under a paramilitary front on the Caribbean coast, then moved to a trafficking group. He ended with the one now called the ACSN.
He was extradited to the United States in 2008 on drug trafficking charges. He returned to Colombia in 2011 and entered a transitional justice programme.
He was captured in Spain in January 2022 and extradited back. He was released in June 2023 and is now a fugitive.
One detail is worth holding on to. He publicly denied belonging to the ACSN for years, then was recognised as its official representative in peace talks in 2025.
The Offer and the Refusal
Alias Pinocho proposed submitting to justice, and asked for a specific law guaranteeing his terms. That is a familiar Colombian transaction.
President Abelardo De la Espriella rejected it outright on 12 September. There are no negotiations, he said, no delays and no demands.
He then instructed his defence and justice ministers to arrange the surrender within one week. He also ordered the request for extradition to the United States reactivated.
The justice ministry replied the following day. Surrender would run through existing channels, with no shortcuts, privileges or agreements outside the constitution and the law.
What Changed in Bogotá
This is the clearest signal yet of how the new government differs from the last one. The contrast is structural rather than rhetorical.
Gustavo Petro’s total peace policy treated groups like the ACSN as counterparties in dialogue. That is precisely why alias Pinocho was recognised as a peace negotiator last year.
The current posture is unconditional surrender, no negotiated benefit, and extradition restored. Those are opposite propositions about the same man.
What has not been established is whether the legal machinery of total peace has been repealed. Declining to use a law is not the same as removing it from the books.
The Group Behind Him
The ACSN, formerly known as Los Pachenca, grew out of structures left when Colombia’s paramilitary umbrella demobilised in the mid-2000s. Many such groups did.
It operates in Magdalena and La Guajira, around the Sierra Nevada. That geography gives it a Caribbean coastline and a land border, which is the combination traffickers want.
Its activities are described as drug trafficking, extortion, selective killings and arms trafficking. It is a criminal enterprise with a paramilitary family tree rather than an insurgency.
The Problem With a Deadline
There is an obvious difficulty in giving ministers a week to deliver a fugitive. The government does not control whether he appears.
What officials can prepare in seven days is a process, not a person. The order reads as a statement about posture rather than an operational plan.
If he stays away, the deadline passes and nothing happens. If he comes in, the question becomes what he is offered, and the answer is nothing.
That is the tension in the policy. A surrender regime with no benefit attached gives a wanted man little reason to use it.
Reviving the extradition sharpens it further. Facing an American courtroom is a strong argument for staying in the Sierra Nevada.
More: Colombia news in English, every day from The Rio Times.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is alias Pinocho?
Fredy Castillo Carrillo, also known as El Ganadero, a leader of the ACSN armed group in Magdalena and La Guajira. He was extradited to the United States in 2008, returned in 2011, recaptured in Spain in 2022 and released in 2023.
What did he ask for?
A specific Colombian law guaranteeing his terms in exchange for surrendering to justice, which is how such surrenders have usually been arranged.
What did the government say?
President De la Espriella rejected negotiation and gave his defence and justice ministers one week to arrange the surrender. The justice ministry said there would be no shortcuts or privileges.
What is the ACSN?
The Conquering Self-Defence Forces of the Sierra Nevada, formerly Los Pachenca, a criminal organisation descended from Colombia’s demobilised paramilitaries and linked to drug trafficking and extortion.
How does this differ from previous policy?
The former government’s total peace framework treated such groups as dialogue partners and recognised Pinocho as a peace negotiator in 2025. The current government offers unconditional surrender and has revived his extradition.
Sources: El País of Cali and Vanguardia of 12 September, Infobae of 13 September, El Espectador and InSight Crime.
This article was produced by The Rio Times’ automated newsroom system. How we use AI · Report an error · Editorial responsibility: Matthias Camenzind, Editor-in-Chief