Bogota, Colombia ? The chief of Colombia’s brutal paramilitary groups, Carlos Castano, said that if the United States seeks his extradition for drug trafficking, he will surrender to prove his innocence, according to an interview published Sunday.

The right-wing militias agreed to re-create their national umbrella organization, with Castano leading it again, during a clandestine meeting in the mountains of northern Colombia, according to a letter posted on the group’s Web site.

A group of hostages freed by the National Liberation Army (ELN) arrives at the Rionegro airport near Medellin, Colombia. The ELN, the country's second largest leftist rebel group, on Sunday released nine of the 27 tourists who were kidnapped Aug. 19 from a beach in Ensenada de Utria, a national park on the Pacific Coast, 250 miles northeast of Bogota.

The organization, known as the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, or AUC, splintered in July after Castano said some of the militias were engaged in drug trafficking and kidnapping, instead of focusing on their primary task of fighting leftist rebels.

The AUC, considered a terrorist organization by Washington, is made up of militias that are accused of the majority of the massacres in Colombia’s bloody civil war. Some 3,500 people die every year in the 38-year conflict.

The AUC said in the letter on its Web site that the organization was forming again because the Colombian government couldn’t protect many regions of the country from the leftist rebels.

“We hold the guerrillas exclusively responsible for Colombia’s war and for its consequence, that Colombians have been forced to take up arms as the only way to live,” said the letter, signed by Castano, Salvatore Mancuso, the group’s military chief, Castano’s brother, Vicente, and 15 local militia leaders.

The letter was addressed to U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, U.S. ambassador to Colombia Anne Patterson, Colombia’s peace commissioner and the president of the Colombian Episcopal Conference.

U.S. officials have declined to comment this week on reports that they were considering asking for Castano’s extradition on drug trafficking charges.

“If the (rumor) about extradition is true, tomorrow I will turn myself in to the United States,” Castano told Colombia’s largest newspaper, El Tiempo. “That is the best way to defend myself. I prefer to clarify there, rather than respond here, for things I haven’t done.”

In its letter, the AUC rejected drug trafficking by its members, promised to respect international humanitarian rights and said that it wanted to be included in future peace negotiations.

“Any member of the AUC that becomes involved in drug trafficking at the level of processing, shipment or exportation will be publicly exposed by us,” the letter said, apparently leaving open the possibility that militia members can continue taxing coca growers. The paramilitaries and the rebels have both financed their fight through drug trafficking.

Senator Rafael Pardo, a former defense minister and negotiator in peace talks with the now-defunct M19 rebel group, called Castano’s offer to turn himself in a “publicity stunt.”

“Why doesn’t he turn himself in to Colombian authorities who do have warrants for him?” Pardo said.

Two militias were left out of the reorganized AUC. One, from Bolivar state, is allegedly heavily involved in drug trafficking. The other, based in Meta state, was blamed for the kidnapping of a prominent Venezuelan businessman who was released in July. Castano dissolved the AUC shortly after he exposed the Meta militia’s involvement in the kidnapping.

The right-wing militias originally sprung up in Colombia to protect landowners from kidnapping by leftist rebels. Colombia has the highest kidnapping rate in the world, with more than 3,000 people taken hostage last year.

Rebels of the National Liberation Army, or ELN, released nine people Sunday taken hostage from a popular beach resort three weeks ago, government officials said. Eighteen others kidnapped the same day were still being held.