The extradited

Truth

Those claiming to represent the victims say that, with the decision to extradite the paramilitary chiefs, the crucial issues of the judicial proceedings against them, specifically the truth, the justice, and the redress, will not be fulfilled. They mantain that the extradited are taking the truth to the United States and that they will not redress the victims. Nevertheless, the biggest concern lies in the location of the common graves, which is an essential part of the truth.

Certainly, the militia bosses’ cooperation with the justice has been called into question and it will be the decision of each of them if they cooperate or not by confessing their crimes. This turns to be specially critic as for the location of the victims, but it is important to point out that most of the graves have been found thanks to the information provided by middle ranks and combatants who have demobilized.

No one can imagine Jorge 40, Don Berna or Hernán Giraldo murdering their victims, pick them up and taking them to the grave by themselves, nor it is logical to think that these paramilitary leaders would dig their victims’ tombs… those were the tasks of their subordinates, all of them still in Colombia, therefore it is up to all those who still have recourse to the Justice and Peace law to let all those painful truths to be known.

Reparation

One of the most controversial issues is reparation. The alleged defenders of the victims mantain that the extradition of the paramilitary bosses hinders the reparation, because they will not be able to deliver their assets and rat their front men out. But it happens that with them, here or there the result is the same if we are going to depend on the leaders’ confessions, because the Justice and Peace law is very soft on the paramilitaries’ front men and there is no legal motivation for them to hand their assets over.

The work for the judges will be more harder when it comes to detect the networks of assets and front men of the militia bosses. But that complexity had already been detected (it has been learnt that many of the accused did not hand most of their assets over nor informed about their front men rings) and the National Police, in collaboration with the DIAN (the tax administration) and other State institutions have been doing an intricate work to detect the narco-paramilitarism properties and assets, as it happened after the extradition of Macaco. Anyway, with or without them in Colombia, the location of the assets which will repair the victims will depend on the investigative actions by the authorities, not on the few things they are willing to tell.

Justice

But the most difficult issue is the justice: is there justice for the victims if the leaders are extradited and judged in the United States? Many victims want them to pay for their crimes here, to know they are in Colombian prisons serving their sentences and feeling the vindication the justice offers anywhere in the world.

But this is an emotional ingredient: the paramilitary bosses will not stay on summer houses (as some government critics described the Itagüí maximum security prison), not will they serve just eight years in prison (one of the things they most criticized of the Justice and Peace law), because the most useful cooperation for the American justice is the tip-off from the bosses, and the truth is that the extradited are the top and not the bottom of the narco-paramilitarism hierarchical pyramid. They can build their hopes, but they will actually have to serve more than 8 years in prison.

Things being so, if they will indeed serve a sentence in maximum security prisons, what is the difference if it is a Colombian or an American prison in favour of the criminals? None. But it is evident that many of the victims see the peace process with the paramilitary as a bitter revenge against their victimizers -something understandable- which does not allow them to see that extradition is not a prize but an even stronger punishment for the criminals. In any case they will not have the privileges or the benefits they could get in Colombia, and that makes the punishment they will get in the United States stronger.

The "parapolitics"

Amidst the parapolitics scandal, and the witch hunt seeking to involve the President with the paramilitaries, the extradition of the AUC bosses happens to be a challenge for his hunters.

They claim that without the paramilitary chiefs confessing and testifying before Colombian judges, there will not be any chance to deep into the paramilitarism’s political and economical rings.

But there are two factors determining exactly the opposite: some of the narco-paramilitary leaders boarded the plane insulting the government, and the arrogant opposition has even pointed out that Uribe betrayed his colleagues with the extradition. Well, then: if that is true, in the United States the ‘paras’ bosses will sing as spring birds and they will obviously, angrily rat those who betrayed them out.

It is also important to remember that many of the parapolitics proceedings are based on the testimony of aka Pitirri, who is comfortably settled down in Canada and has testified before commissions sent by the Attorney General’s Office and the Supreme Court of Justice which have travelled to that country… why would not the same mechanism be used in this case?

Everything fits: the militia bosses’ cooperation would be guaranteed because of their desire of revenge based on the alleged betrayal, and the judicial cooperation mechanisms with the United States are still in force, being ratified several times. Then, the tip-off is also guaranteed and it would be received by the commissions named to represent the Attorney General’s Office and the Supreme Court of Justice, which would guarantee that the government will not interfere in their declarations.

Something to remember

Who gets them! The government proposed many times to assure in the law the no extradition of the paramilitaries who strictly keep the precepts of the Justice and Peace Law.

At the time the opposition hit the ceiling by pointing out that Uribe wanted to give benefits to his "partners" by no extraditing them and they claimed that threat could not be removed from the table.