One of the AGC’s top commanders was found murdered on Wednesday, spurring rumors about Colombia’s largest paramilitary organization and their alleged commitment to demobilize.

According to the National Police, the body of Wilmer Antonio Giraldo, a.k.a. “Siopas,” was found on a road in Dabeiba, a town in the northwestern Antioquia province, which is largely controlled by the AGC.

The alleged body of one of the members of the AGC’s central command was allegedly thrown out of a moving vehicle three kilometers outside of the urban part of Dabeiba.

Forensic investigators of the Medellin Police Departments said the AGC commander had been shot 12 times shortly before his body was dumped on the road.

The forensic investigators said they were able to identify Siopas because of a copy of the AGC chief’s ID card in one of the pockets of the body that was found in Dabeiba.

Who was Siopas

Siopas was born in Apartado, a town in the northwestern Uraba region, in 1980 and was allegedly recruited by the the 5th Front of the now-defunct  guerrilla group FARC when he was 15.

According to the police commander of Uraba, Colonel Oscar Cortes, Siopas demobilized in 2009 and joined the AGC “twelve years ago,” which would be during a reintegration program for demobilized former combatants.

By 2019, the former guerrilla had reportedly become one of the four member of the AGC’s central command, which was led by extradited warlord Dario Antonio Usuga, a.k.a. “Otoniel,” at the time.

After the arrest of Otoniel in October 2021, the National Police said that Siopas had become the paramilitaries’ top commander.

AGC’s central command

The former AGC boss confirmed under oath that Siopas was a member of the AGC’s central command together with “Javier,” “Willington” and “Rodrigo” in December 2021.

On Wednesday, however, Cortes claimed that the late AGC boss took orders from Jobanis de Jesus Avila, a.k.a. “Chiquito Malo,” who has been accused by US authorities of being one of the AGC’s main drug traffickers.

Unlike Chiquito Malo, Siopas was never wanted by the US government and no priority for the prosecution despite the fact that police considered him one of Colombia’s most powerful paramilitary commanders.

In fact, the Prosecutor General’s Office didn’t even issue an arrest warrant for Siopas until February 10, after the government requested the suspension of AGC commanders’ arrest warrants in order to negotiate their demobilization.

Police spins theories

On Wednesday afternoon, hours after Siopas’ body was found, Uraba’s police chief said that the police were only just investigating why the AGC commander was assassinated.

Without any evidence, Cortes on Thursday told radio station Blu that Chiquito Malo killed Siopas.

Unidentified police intelligence sources told several media on Wednesday that the AGC chief had been missing since “mid-February,” around the time that the prosecution issued its arrest warrant, and was killed hours before he was found.

One of these sources told newspaper El Colombiano that “it is probable that during this time they tortured him to surrender,” among other things, “drug trafficking routes,” ignoring the fact that Siopas was never suspected of drug trafficking.

What is certain is that the police intelligence official in charge of cooperating with foreign counternarcotics agencies, Colonel Ricardo Alberto Duran, was arrested earlier in February for allegedly leaking classified information to illegal armed groups like the AGC.

What is almost certain is that multiple top army officials and Uraba politicians with ties to the AGC will go to prison if the paramilitaries demobilize and expose their associates before a court.

What is a mystery is how Siopas became one of the paramilitaries’ top commanders 10 years after leaving the FARC.