[NYTr] Colombia "may extradite" a paramilitary leader to the US

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

[The situation of Colombia's rebel guerrilla armies and the rightwing
paramilitary armies, and the mercenaries, and the US troops, and the
drug cartels, and the enormous toxin-spraying program, is extremely
complicated.  If this serves as an interesting introduction to the
topic, readers might want to go on to NarcoNews, and Venezuelanalysis
for material on Hugo Chavez's attempts to help mediate, and Cuban news
sources for material on the years-long war, negotiations, etc. There
are many good sources of alternative news. The US intelligence
agencies, Drug Enforcement Administration, drug traffickers in league
with the "Colombian drug cartels," and the US torture instructors at
the School of the Assassins, have all been heavily involved on all
sides of the conflict for many years at an enormous human and financial
cost. This article is mostly superficial nonsense and disinformation,
beginning with the first paragraph. If any of the rightwing
paramilitaries get extradited to the US, they will probably be offered
jobs by the CIA, unless they have made the  mistake of going into
business for themselves. -NY Transfer]


sent by rick kissell

Los Angeles Times - Aug 25, 2007
Colombia offers an extradition

A paramilitary leader accused of violating a peace deal 
risks being deported, maybe to the U.S.

By Chris Kraul

BOGOTA, COLOMBIA --- Smarting from criticism that it gives demobilized 
militia leaders kid-glove treatment, the Colombian government announced 
Friday that it would make a major paramilitary figure available for 
extradition, possibly to the United States.

The government said that Carlos Mario Jimenez, alias "Macaco," had 
become the first paramilitary leader to be excluded from the peace 
process because he continued to direct drug-trafficking operations from 
his cell in Itagui prison near Medellin. "As the government has always 
said, these gentlemen are being watched," said Interior Minister Carlos 
Holguin at a news conference in Bogota, the capital. "They have promised 
not to return to crime, and the government is vigilant that they keep 
their word."

Jimenez led the largest and most powerful right-wing paramilitary 
militia, the so-called Central Bolivar Bloc, before he and his 5,000 
troops laid down their arms under a 2003 demobilization agreement with 
the government.

Although he does not now face a U.S. extradition request, prosecutors in 
Colombia suspect Jimenez of mass murder, extortion and running a 
drug-trafficking operation stretching from Panama to the Putumayo jungle 
along the Ecuadorean border.

Like dozens of other paramilitary leaders, Jimenez surrendered to law 
enforcement and voluntarily entered custody after demobilizing, possibly 
as a hedge against stiff criminal charges and extradition in the future, 
analysts said. Unlike some others, Jimenez has still not been formally 
charged with paramilitary crimes by Colombian prosecutors.

In interviews, Jimenez stresses that he has not been charged with any 
atrocities and that he has a valid U.S. tourist visa and has visited 
many times. The U.S. Department of Justice told reporters Friday that 
there were no plans to seek his extradition.

Paramilitary armies were formed in the 1980s by farmers and businessmen 
to defend against left-wing guerrilla groups. But they morphed into 
criminal organizations that in some areas became more powerful than the 
Colombian state.

In a process strongly backed by President Alvaro Uribe, about 31,000 
right-wing militia members demobilized. Thousands of them are being 
"reinserted" into society with jobs and other assistance programs, while 
others allegedly have returned to criminal life by joining new 
paramilitary armies.

Jimenez and other paramilitary leaders were promised relatively light 
jail sentences in exchange for their surrender, full confession of their 
crimes and abandonment of illegal activity.

But criticism has mounted steadily over the government's tolerance of 
militia bosses' criminal endeavors. Wiretaps leaked to reporters in May 
revealed that paramilitary leaders, including Jimenez, continued to use 
cellphones, the Internet and a steady stream of visitors to order 
killings and bribes and to direct drug- and arms-trafficking rings.

The Uribe government's action Friday comes as the U.S. Congress is to 
begin consideration of the next fiscal year's Plan Colombia aid package, 
which in past years has averaged $700 million. Critics of the aid, 
including many on Capitol Hill and human rights activists, have demanded 
that it be conditioned on a crackdown on paramilitary leaders and 
stricter observance of human and labor rights.

"He is under intense pressure and this may be a response," said Adam 
Isacson, researcher at the Center for International Policy in Washington.

Mauricio Romero, a political scientist at Bogota's University of the 
Rosary, said another motive of Uribe's could be to "create an 
atmosphere" more conducive to an agreement with leftist rebels to 
release dozens of kidnapped hostages, including three U.S. defense 
contractor employees and presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt. Uribe 
has come under increasing pressure to strike a humanitarian accord with 
guerrillas to effect the hostages' release. "Uribe is very strategic in 
how he approaches these things," Romero said.

Jimenez was transferred early Friday to maximum-security Combita prison 
closer to the capital. The government said it would "process" any 
extradition order that it might receive, presumably from the United States.

Uribe also announced that his government was transferring another
former paramilitary leader, Diego Fernando Murillo, alias "Don Berna,"
to Combita as a security precaution. In contrast with Jimenez, Murillo
is wanted on drug-trafficking charges in the U.S., which has requested
his extradition.