Miguel Arroyave

Who was Miguel Arroyave?

Jose Miguel Arroyave Ruiz aka "Arcángel" was one of the top paramilitary leaders and commander of the centaurs bloc "Bloque Centauros", a 5,000- strong private militia active in the sparsely populated grasslands of eastern Colombia, he was also a powerful figure in the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia AUC, an umbrella organization bringing together right-wing paramilitaries from all over the country. Arroyave apparently acquired the leadership of the centaur bloc by paying a fee of $6 million, and he was well known for being a ruthless fighter against guerrilla groups and for being able to evict this other type of rebel groups and take control of their territories. The centaurs block was one of the largest and powerful group of the AUC, and were very organized to the point that they even had a running web page that is no longer in service

Arroyave was one of the AUC's team of negotiators when talks began with the government on demobilizing the paramilitary organizations which have proliferated over the past two decades.