Carlos Castaño Gil (Amalfi, Antioch, May 15, 1965) was a Colombian paramilitary chief, top leader of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), a federation of paramilitary groups throughout the country, calling themselves peasant self-defense, and fighting Colombian communist guerrillas such as the EPL, ELN, and the FARC- EP,23 all armed actors involved in drug trafficking.