What does the extradition of the 14 paramilitary bosses mean?

In an unexpected move, President Álvaro Uribe Vélez’s administration decided to extradite 14 United Self-defence Forces of Colombia paramilitary bosses to the United States. This happens amidst an ongoing scandal, where more than 30 Congresspeople, most of them from the ruling parties, have been arrested (including Mario Uribe Escobar, president Uribe’s cousin and closest political ally) and other 30 or some are being investigated by the Supreme Court, on alleged links with paramilitary militias, and when former congresswoman Yidis Medina is also being investigated for an alleged bribe, when the presidential re-election bid passed thanks to her and congressman Teodolindo Avendaño’s votes.

It also occurs two days before INTERPOL releases its report on the documents found on the three Toshiba laptops found after Colombian authorities killed FARC commander Luis Édgar Devia, aka Raúl Reyes, on 1 March in a camp located in Ecuadorian soil. The findings, some of them recently published by The Wall Street Journal and Spain’s El País, incriminate Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez and Ecuador’s Rafael Correa with the Colombian Marxist narcoguerrillas. It is expected that the laptops reveal links between FARC guerrillas and prominent Colombian and foreign politicians and personalities, which would be known as the "FARC-politics" scandal.

But what does all this mean? In this special feature, we introduce two articles, written by two well known Colombian bloggers who also happen to be journalists, which, from different perspectives, will provide our readers a complete overview on what is really happening in Colombia right now, so you can make your own opinion.

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