The Minister of the Interior, Alfonso Prada, said this Friday from Washington that the Colombian government “is not in the vein” of requesting the lifting of arrest warrants against people who have been required in extradition by United States and that they will be respectful of those requests once they are submitted.
(Read here: What awaits Álvaro Córdoba after his extradition to the United States)
Prada made the remarks after a meeting with the White House National Security Advisor for the Western Hemisphere, Juan Gonzalezwith whom he clarified this point as well as other issues on the agenda of the call Total Peace and the fight against drug trafficking.
(See also: Petro will meet with Barbosa to “avoid discord in the path of peace”)
This as a result of the controversy that arose this week when the attorney general of the Nation, Francisco Barbosaquestion the request for suspension of the arrest warrants against 16 members of the Clan del Golfo who seek to be part of the negotiations with the government for a possible submission to justice within the framework of the Total Peace strategy.
In particular, there was controversy over the case of alias ‘Chiquito Malo’, since he has a process pending before the justice of USA.
Prada began by saying that the government was unaware of the existence of this process and that in the Ministry of Justice no extradition request has been received from USA in this case.
“The government is not in the vein of requesting requests for the suspension of the capture of extraditables to the extent that it has sufficient information not to do so,” Prada said.
The government is not in the vein of requesting requests for the suspension of the capture of extraditables to the extent that it has sufficient information not to do so
The minister hinted that, in the future, the procedure applied for these cases will depend on the rules for submission that are approved for submission. According to Prada, the draft of the bill to define the legal framework that will be used for the subjugation of criminal gangs and negotiations with other armed groups will be presented to the legislature in February or March.
Prado also highlighted the conversations that have been held in recent hours to clarify the situation and the meeting agreed for next January 30 between the Prosecutor and the president Gustavo Petro to iron out differences.
“What has become clear is that together with the prosecutor we are going to walk the path so that this type of thing does not happen and that is that we share enough information so that we have full clarity that those who are already in extradition processes are going to respect many of those processes that are the responsibility of justice and hopefully we will not have this type of disturbances,” said Prada.
Prosecutor Barbosa, among other things, has a trip next week to Washington to meet with members of the administration of Joe Biden and where it is expected to air his objections to the total peace strategy of the new government.
During his visit, Prada also met with officials from the State Department and the Pentagon, as well as the Head of the Migration Unit of the Inter-American Development Bank, Felipe Muñoz.
SERGIO GOMEZ MASERI
EL TIEMPO correspondent
Washington
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