Colombia rejects U.S. extradition request

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Los Angeles Times

Colombia rejects U.S. extradition request
Daniel Rendon Herrera, an ex-paramilitary leader and suspected drug trafficker, has been indicted by the U.S. The Colombian high court bars his extradition, citing his cooperation in domestic cases.

By Chris Kraul
March 19, 2010
Reporting from Bogota, Colombia

Colombia's Supreme Court has blocked the extradition to the United States of a notorious former paramilitary leader and alleged drug trafficker arrested last year, citing the importance of his testimony in bringing justice to victims of decades of violence in the South American country.

Daniel Rendon Herrera, known as Don Mario, has been indicted in the Southern District of New York federal court on charges of smuggling 100 tons of cocaine. But Rendon, 44, is cooperating with authorities in Colombia investigating mass killings and forced displacements of thousands of poor farmers, a factor cited by the court Wednesday in barring extradition.

Until recently, the court had raised little objection to hundreds of extraditions of drug and terrorism suspects authorized by President Alvaro Uribe since he took office in 2002.

But combined with its refusal in February to authorize the extradition of ex-paramilitary capo Edwar Cobos Tellez, the court's ruling is a reversal of policy, said Colombian human rights advocate Ivan Cepeda.

Though the extraditions, a cornerstone of Uribe's war on terrorism and drugs, have helped bring convictions in U.S. courts, they weakened many investigations of thousands of slayings in Colombia. In many cases, they also deprived victims' families of information on the whereabouts of the bodies of loved ones, Cepeda and others say.

Captured last April after a nine-month manhunt, Rendon was a feared paramilitary leader who declined to participate in Uribe's 2003 demobilization offer to militia leaders and 31,000 fighters. Instead, he continued to traffic in cocaine, forming his own band called the Urabenos, officials said.

In the months before his capture, scores of paid assassins under Rendon's control killed an estimated 3,000 people in a bloody struggle for power focused on the drug trafficking routes in Colombia's northwest, the National Police commander, Gen. Oscar Naranjo, told reporters.

Read more: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/la-fg-colombia-extradite19-2010mar19,0,6295097.story

[rpannier]

1. I side with Colombia on this

smuggling 100 tons of cocaine vs assassins under Rendon's control killed an estimated 3,000 people in a bloody struggle for power focused on the drug trafficking routes

[troubledamerican]

3. Satire? Those (low-ball estimate) 3,000 were political domestic terror killings

Uribe was the MAYOR OF MEDELLIN during the rise of the cartels. Uribe ORGANIZES those cocaine shipments.

[eridani]

2. Let's hope that Lambchop keeps biting Ms. Shari on the nose n/t