Latin America
Related: About this forumA Senseless Extradition - WSJ Editorial
Political persecution drove former Colombian agriculture minister Andrés Felipe Arias to flee to the U.S. in 2014. The U.S. Embassy in Bogotá helped him escape, and when he arrived in Florida he immediately applied for asylum. But if Mr. Arias thought he was safe, he wasnt taking into account the U.S. Justice Department. For reasons that are hard to figure out, much less understand, Justice officials are working hard to send Mr. Arias back to Colombia.
Mr. Arias was once on track to succeed Álvaro Uribe, his political mentor, as president of Colombia. Thats when trumped up corruption charges emerged in the media. The Colombian Supreme Court, which is notoriously political, convicted the UCLA-trained economist of corruption after he had fled the country. He received a 17-year sentence in exilefrom a country where the narco-terrorists known as the FARC enjoy amnesty these days. Mr. Arias was given no opportunity to appeal.
The Supreme Courta longtime opponent of Mr. Uribe and his political allieshas continued to pursue Mr. Arias in the U.S. and under Colombian law it has the power to do so. In 2016 it asked the U.S. to extradite Mr. Arias, using a treaty that Colombia has never ratified. The Colombian Supreme Court has said it was never ratified; Mr. Uribe and former President Juan Manuel Santos have said there is no valid extradition treaty.
That should be enough for the U.S. to deny extradition and grant Mr. Ariass asylum claim, which is making its way slowly through U.S. court. Meanwhile, Mr. Arias sits in a Florida jail. On Dec. 10 Colombias ambassador to the U.S., Francisco Santos, wrote the Justice Department Criminal Division requesting bail for Mr. Arias. The ambassador said Mr. Arias is not a flight risk and asked for the rapid implementation of the steps necessary to ensure Mr. Arias may be released on bond, so that he can spend time with his wife and young children, especially during the holiday season.
Colombia is the Justice Departments client in this case, yet Justice is fighting the bail request. That makes no sense, but then neither does its determination to help the partisan Colombian judiciary fulfill what on the evidence is an unjust political prosecution.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-senseless-extradition-11545092026 (paid subscription)
Judi Lynn
(160,621 posts)posturing for publicity photos during the time he was in hot water in Colombia for taking the money meant to go to legitimate, needy causes, and handing it off to wealthy, prominent Colombians of the power structure.
Shameless dirtbags. They're just too white to prosecute. How dare the legal system.
From a petition:
Please do NOT grant asylum to Andres Felipe
Arias Leiva
Andres Felipe Arias Leiva is a criminal and fugitive from Colombia. He was Minister of Agriculture in Colombia during Alvaro Uribe Velez's second Presidential period (2005-2009).
Arias was sentenced to 17 years in jail by the Colombian Supreme Court for embezzling approximately $25 million of state subsidies meant to stimulate poor farmers to wealthy elites to seek political support.
Arias' Vice Minister, Juan Camilo Salazar, was sentenced to 10 years and 3 months of prison after pleding guilty on the same charges and stated Arias always had active participation and knowledge of the actions that surrounded the planning and execution of AIS ( "Agro Ingreso Seguro" ) while Minister of Agriculture, acting with total knowledge of the illegality of his conduct.
Please help us prevent The U.S. Department of Homeland Security from commiting a huge mistake by granting asylum to this criminal. It would be unfair to Colombia and its Justice system.
https://www.change.org/p/u-s-department-of-homeland-security-please-do-not-grant-asylum-to-andres-felipe-arias-leiva
Judi Lynn
(160,621 posts)Miami judge orders ex-Colombian minister convicted of corruption sent home
BY KYRA GURNEY
SEPTEMBER 28, 2017 06:45 PM,
UPDATED SEPTEMBER 29, 2017 07:12 AM
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/colombia/article176003146.html
It has always been obvious that the degenerated Latin American oligarchs, always right-wing, have always been slavish worshippers of appearances, but only if they are very Anglo, or at least Western European-looking, as in the human shapes populating their movies and tv and magazines. The fact that a poor farmer's money should go to a Colombian beauty queen, instead, shouldn't even draw a second look from people who've been aware of how their culture operates.
Real justice, however, would see things differently.
question everything
(47,534 posts)And now I read that we are going to send back to Turkey a cleric who has been living here.