What does the extradition of the 14 paramilitary bosses mean?
Featured articlesBy equinoXio
Wednesday 14 May 2008 12:24 COT
From left to right, Salvatore Mancuso, Edwin Mauricio Gómez, Ramiro Vanoy (aka Cuco Vanoy), and Diego Alberto Ruiz Arroyave (Photo credit: DIJIN / Colombian National Police)
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.
From the centre-left:
Marsares, editor of equinoXio:
The extradition, air for the "parapoliticians"
From the centre-right:
Jaime Restrepo, editor of Atrabilioso:
The extradited
Tags: AUC, Álvaro Uribe Vélez, Carlos Holguín Sardi, Chiquita Brands, Colombia, Colombian politics, Colombian Supreme Court, crime and law, DEA, Diego Alberto Ruiz Arroyave, Diego Fernando Murillo Bejarano, Don Berna, drug-trafficking, Eduardo Enrique Vengoechea, Edwin Mauricio Gómez Lara, Francisco Javier Zuluaga Lindo, Germán Navarrete, Gordolindo, Guillermo Pérez Alzate, Hernán Giraldo, Jorge 40, Juan Carlos Sierra, Justice and Peace Law, Manuel Enrique Torregrosa, Martín Peñaranda, Nódier Giraldo, Pablo Sevillano, paramilitarism, parapolitics scandal, Ramiro Vanoy, Rodrigo Tovar Pupo, Salvatore Mancuso, terrorism, United Self-defence Forces of Colombia, United States
saturday 17 may 2008, 23:09 COT
It means that the paramilitar narco-president is in extreme need to show the international opinion that he is not “the chainsaw killer”. This will give the Miami Herald pseudo-journalism and other propaganda outlets the excuse to avoid writing about the bribes paid by Uribe to Yidis Medina and other lawmakers to vote for the constitution amendments that allowed his re-election.
sunday 18 may 2008, 22:36 COT
[…] we did on Wednesday with the extradition of 14 paramilitary chiefs to the United States, equinoXio presents two […]
tuesday 27 may 2008, 22:56 COT
[…] by Colombian authorities. The documents, some of them leaked to domestic and foreign press, involve Venezuelan and Ecuadorian officials. On May 22, the so-called “FARC-politics […]