Colombian daily El Espectador’s website featuring special coverage on the story

On Tuesday early morning, the Colombian government sent to the United States 14 demobilized United Self-defence Forces of Colombia (AUC) leaders, who were jailed in three prisons in Bogotá, Barranquilla, and Itagüí (Antioquia department, northwest), on extradition. President Álvaro Uribe administration, facing an ongoing scandal for alleged links between lawmakers (some 30 of them already in jail, including Uribe’s cousin) and top politicians who supported him with the paramilitary militias, made the decision on the grounds of them "still committing crimes and reorganizing criminal structures", as Interior Minister Carlos Holguín Sardi told local media on Tuesday morning.

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Former Senator Mario Uribe Escobar, 58, cousin of Colombian President Álvaro Uribe Vélez, has been arrested Tuesday night by agents of the Attorney General’s office Technical Investigation Corps (CTI) as he left the Costa Rican embassy in Bogotá, among protests of relatives and representatives of victims of paramilitary militias Uribe Escobar has been linked to.

Mr Uribe Escobar was seeking asylum in Costa Rica after the General Attorney’s office issued an arrest warrant early Tuesday, his lawyer José del Carmen Ortega told local media. Uribe Escobar quitted from Senate in October 2007 after the Supreme Court started an official investigation on his alleged links with the United Self-defences of Colombia (AUC) paramilitary militias. He had been subpoenaed in September.

Two hours before, at 18:30 COT (23:30 UTC) Tuesday Costa Rican authorities had denied Uribe Escobar’s request for political asylum, according to a Foreign Relations Ministry communiqué published on its website. The Ministry considered the request "inadmissible" and says it has taken into account a "communication sent by the Colombia’s General Attorney’s office" reporting an arrest warrant against Mr Uribe Escobar and the "concern for Mr Uribe not to evade Colombian justice’s summons".

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Two days after the killing of FARC’s number two commander Luis Édgar Devia aka Raúl Reyes, who was in a camp inside Ecuador, Colombian government said Monday morning in a statement that "it will not make troop movements to the borders" with Ecuador and Venezuela because "Colombia does not have a warmonger tradition and its only interest is to recover its internal public safety".

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Luis Édgar Devia Silva, aka Raúl Reyes, the number 2 commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), has been killed by security forces, Colombian Defence Minister Juan Manuel Santos said Saturday morning.

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Rodrigo Tovar Pupo, aka Jorge 40, one of the former chiefs of the United Self-defence Forces of Colombia (AUC), revealed Wednesday in a public audience in Barranquilla that former AUC leader Carlos Castaño put murder quotas as goals to their men. Tovar Pupo stated that "at the time, we had to make the enemy have casualties, either in combat, in militia structure or support networks… we had to cause 1,000 casualties on the enemy in less than 15 days", Noticias Caracol quoted him as saying.

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At the end of a press conference with Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Maxime Bernier in Bogotá, Colombia’s Foreign Minister Fernando Araújo Perdomo stated his country is respectful of Cuban leader / dictator’s decision to step down from power in Cuba, announced on Tuesday morning.

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Judge Edmundo López declared 15 soldiers, including lieutenant colonel Byron Carvajal, guilty of the so-called Jamundí massacre, when 10 elite US-trained anti-narcotics policemen and one civilian were murdered in the town of the same name on 22 May 2006.

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Speaking to Bogotá’s Radio Santa Fe on Sunday, Colombia Vice President Francisco Santos Calderón defended the proposal by ruling party of the U supporting President Álvaro Uribe’s second re-election in 2010:

"It’s something that Colombia as a nation, as a state, should not close its doors to. It’s something modern, mature democracies should discuss openly and peacefully", Santos said to the station, whose words were rebroadcast Sunday night by Noticias Uno TV newscast.

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Colombia’s Justice Vice Minister Guillermo Reyes told Caracol Radio most of the COP$11 million (€4,000, US$5,800) found in Itagüí maximum security prison, along with weapons, drugs, and alcohol, belong to former United Self-defence Forces of Colombia (AUC) chief Iván Roberto Duque, best known as Ernesto Báez.

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Quoting Russian news portal newsru.co.il, Spanish news agency EFE reports that Israeli mercenary Yair Klein will be extradited to Colombia by the Russian General Attorney’s office, which made the decision on Thursday.

Klein, 64, a former colonel in the Israeli army, was sentenced in 2001 to 10 years and 8 months in jail for his involvement in the training and doctrine of illegal paramilitary groups, which would become part of the United Self-Defences of Colombia (AUC in Spanish). Klein had remained at large until, after appearing early 2007 in a interview broadcast by Colombia’s Caracol TV and recorded in Israel, Interpol issued an international arrest warrant in April 2007. Klein was captured on 28 August in Moscow.

Even though Colombia has not signed any extradition treaty with Russia, both countries have a judicial cooperation agreement, EFE report says. Klein’s lawyer Dmitri Yampolsky will appeal the decision.