A peace agreement is the only way out in the end.

Carlos Castano

We then drove north into the mountains of Antioquia province. At one point we stopped by a roadside telephone and Andres dialled a very long number, which I can only assume was a satellite telephone. He muttered into the handset then beckoned me over.

I immediately recognised the throaty growl of the man I had been waiting months to interview.

"So how are you," said a jovial sounding Carlos Castano. "Is Andres looking after you?"

Hours later we had left behind tarmacked roads and were on rough tracks. The roadside became wooded and we stopped. From the forest stepped a short, powerfully built man dressed in combat uniform and wrap-around shades.

This was Commandante Duncan, in charge of the training camp for this region of the Self Defence Forces. He firmly shook my hand having released his hold on a sheath at his side from which hung two enormous knives which did not appear decorative.

In camp

After a march through the woods we came to the entrance of Duncan's camp where a group of shaven headed young men were picking up leaves, dressed in boiler suits with wooden imitations of AK 47s strapped to their backs. They were the latest cadre of recruits for the Self Defence Forces.

But Carlos Castano was not here. This was just a holding area, a security measure to ensure I was not followed or up to any funny business. I spent the afternoon with Duncan and watched the new recruits learn to strip and assemble Kalashnikov rifles and study basic battle tactics ready to be unleashed against the hated Marxist guerrillas.

Another driver appeared and I was taken yet deeper into the mountains as night fell. It was pitch black when we finally stopped at a tiny hamlet. I was told to wait again and sat chatting with some of the locals drinking the ever-present tinto, or Colombian coffee.

Castano continues to hunt left-wing rebels

There was the sound of horses in the distance. Then a group of riders reminiscent of Yugoslav partisans appeared out of the darkness, rifles strapped to their backs.

Among them was a small figure I recognised. Colombia's most feared man had arrived.

He greeted me like an old friend and bade me sit at a table on one of the verandas.

"You have two hours my friend, and I have to move on," he said. "There are invasions of the Caguan to consider."

The Caguan is a Marxist guerrilla stronghold in the south of the country, the site of the guerrilla safe haven granted for peace talks, the next target of the right wing army it seemed.

Free speech

Normally interviews with leaders of the warring factions require a detailed run through of the topics for discussion. Castano waved his hand nonchalantly and told me we could discuss anything: I hesitantly murmured words like drugs, massacres and human rights abuses.

"Not a problem", he said, "let's start."

For an hour and a half we talked, and I probed. When it appeared I was not going to be strung up from the nearest tree for insolent questions, I went for it.

I never wrong-footed the man who left school at 15 after his father was kidnapped and then murdered by the Marxist guerrillas. Castano swore revenge and has extracted it, admitting to personally killing some 50 people.

He also admitted his men killed unarmed people, but insisted they were positively identified as guerrillas before being executed and that he had more than 800 former guerrillas in his ranks who fingered their former comrades.

Then one of his men came up and said the president was making a national address on television on the state of the peace process, which we all thought was over.

A last minute deal had been reached, thanks to international pressure and mediation. I looked fearfully at the man who had been planning just an hour ago to invade the guerrilla stronghold. He looked positively elated at the news.

"A peace agreement is the only way out in the end," he said, "and maybe this continuation of the peace process will save some Colombian lives."

Did this mean he was going to change his war against the rebels?

"Of course not," he said. It seems until the ink dries on a peace agreement with the guerrillas, this man will lead his feared army and continue to kill his Marxist enemies.

Not a man you want to cross on a dark night.