Víctor Carranza

Víctor Carranza Niño (8 October 1935 – 4 April 2013), often referred to as Don Víctor was a Colombian emerald dealer and the owner of emerald mines in the Boyacá mountains (a forested area not far from Bogotá), widely known as Colombia's "emerald czar." The economy of the area around the mines is dependent on the trade. Carranza faced several legal challenges and investigations throughout his life. In 1998, he was arrested and imprisoned on charges of forming paramilitary groups. In 2012, he was again investigated for alleged links to paramilitary activities and crimes such as homicide, forced displacement, and conspiracy.

Early life Víctor Carranza was born in the small town of Guateque, Boyacá, in a very poor family of farmers and pig growers. He had dropped school already at 2nd grade, and by age 8 he was already involved in emerald business, by scratching the soil for the gemstones, and then a few years later as a mine worker in Chivor. He started making money after moving to Gachalá, in 1947, where he found three large sources. He found his first emerald mine in 1960, Peñas Blancas, and from then on his influence and power kept increasing, expanding his business by associating with others, buying share rights from new mines in Muzo and Quípama, and selling emeralds in Europe, thanks particularly to his business with lawyer Juan Beetar Down, who took Carranza to many countries and opened to him the doors of political influence and taught him in the art of diplomacy, leading to even meet often with presidents.

Associates One of his most powerful associates was Gilberto Molina Moreno, the "emerald czar" of the time, and together they were the main beneficiaries of the requests for bids of the emerald mines by the governments of Misael Pastrana and Alfonso López, which essentially eliminated governmental control of the mines, and allowed Carranza and Molina to legalize their riches and to take control of the security of the regions. A new green war was unleashed in the 1980s, and this one also involved violent drug lord Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha, who had been an old associate of both Carranza and Molina. Carranza was always linked to Rodríguez Gacha, but Carranza always denied such links and stated he always opposed the introduction of drug cartels in his region. Rodríguez Gacha had wanted to consolidate his power in the region, and also received financial support from Molina to train the first paramilitary troops. When the drug lord allegedly asked them to participate as a partner in the mines, Molina and Carranza refused which led to violent retaliation by the drug lord, who murdered Molina, and later detonated a bomb in the offices of Tecminas in Bogotá, which were property of Carranza, and whose nephew's murder he also ordered. These violent actions led Carranza to a self-imposed internment to protect himself. Reportedly, Carranza was instrumental in providing intelligence reports about Rodríguez Gacha that led to his demise.

The Emerald Czar The death of Rodríguez Gacha and that of other emerald traders meant he obtained even more power, and in 1990 he signed a peace agreement with his rivals in the business, particularly Luis Murcia, (aka el Pequinés) mediated by the Catholic church. He also spread his connection to politicians, and military, which joined to his entrepreneurial proficiency led him to become the new emerald czar, one that ruled with an iron fist. As such he enjoyed some peace, and although he was completely involved in the green wars and the thousands of deaths they produced, he was never accused for that reason. He also bought many lands in the Llanos Orientales region, to such an extent that at his peak he managed to own about 10,000 acres,

Arrests He was accused, however, of participating in a massacre of 40 farmers in the Meta department and arrested, but he was absolved two months later. Some years later he would be part of a new conflict, this time involving Leonidas Vargas, an old worker of Rodríguez Gacha who accused him of the disappearance of his daughter. His support of the Convivir watch groups which were at the root of many paramilitary organizations led him to jail once again in 1998,

Green Wars Once out of jail his war with Leonidas Vargas continued, until the latter was killed by hitmen in Spain in 2009. He also found himself in another war, this time against Yesid Nieto, a young emerald trader who had made a fortune in drug trafficking and had started making a name in the emerald field after being introduced to it by another rival of Carranza, Pedro Nel Rincón, (aka Pedro Orejas). Nieto appointed himself as the new emerald czar and associated with the paramilitary forces at the service of Freddy Rendón (aka el Alemán) to fight Carranza. Nieto was killed in Guatemala in 2007. The conflict with Rincón continued, despite some attempts at negotiation, as Rincón involved himself with a number of drug lords and paramilitary leaders, particularly Pedro Oliveiro Guerrero (a.k.a. Cuchillo) and Daniel Barrera Barrera. After being hospitalized for a week in Fundación Santa Fe de Bogotá he finally died of lung cancer on April 4, 2013.