This week that the attorney general starts, Francisco Barbosawill travel to Washington for a high-level tour in which he has scheduled meetings with his counterpart in the Department of Justice —prosecutor Merrick Garland—, officials from the White House and the State Department, as well as other organs of power in United States.
(You can read: Petro will meet with Barbosa to “avoid discord in the path of peace”)
At any other time, it would be a routine journey to oil strategies with the country’s main partner on issues such as the fight against crime and organized crime. But in the current context, Barbosa’s visit could be much more than explosive.
Already in the corner opposite the new left-wing government of Gustavo Petro -he came out of a shortlist proposed by his predecessor, Iván Duque-, Barbosa sparked a harsh debate with the executive by opposing the request to suspend the arrest warrants against 16 members of the ‘Gulf clan’ seeking to be part of the negotiations with the Government for a possible submission to justice within the framework of his strategy of ‘total peace’.
There was a lot of controversy over the inclusion in that list of aliases Chiquito Malo, who already has a process pending before the US courts for drug trafficking and whose extradition request is pending. A sensitive issue for Washington, where both Democrats and Republicans continue to consider extradition as one of the main tools against drug trafficking, which continues to be the number one issue on their agenda with Colombia.
A Washington, moreover, where the Republicans —who already looked at Petro with some mistrust— have just regained control of the House of Representatives and were already uncomfortable with other decisions, including lowering the goals for the eradication of illicit crops ( from 50,000 to 20,000 in 2023) and to suspend forced eradication in some areas of the country while crop substitution programs gain momentum.
Towards the end of this week, the Government tried to get out of the new controversy by announcing talks with the Prosecutor to iron out differences and a summit between Petro and Barbosa on January 30, where they will discuss both the impasse and the new law on submission to justice that will take place in Congress starting next month and that would include the rules for the dismantling of criminal organizations that negotiate with the Executive.
Interior Minister Alfonso Prada traveled to Washington on Thursday to explain the scope of the “total peace” policies. Something that many saw as an effort to neutralize the impact of the Prosecutor’s trip this week.
(In context: Government will be respectful of US extradition requests: Alfonso Prada)
Prada, from the US capital, said that the Government It was not in the vein of requesting the lifting of arrest warrants against people who have been requested in extradition by the United States and that you would be ‘respectful’ of those requests.
But he also hinted that this could change once the law for submission to justice is approved, which undoubtedly includes guarantees of non-extradition, at least for members of groups such as the ELN and the FARC dissidents. And probably also for members of criminal gangs who would have no incentive to demobilize if their future lies in a US jail.
TIEMPO spoke with various voices in Washington. In principle, everyone agrees that in the long run these are sovereign decisions for Colombia and that if the country does not decide to honor arrest warrants for extradition purposes, Washington will have no choice but to accept them. They emphasize that there is already a concrete precedent when the Santos government refused to execute the extradition requests that existed against negotiating members of the FARC.
And the extradition?
“There was strong support for the agreement, because it offered the possibility of removing a violent political challenge to our Colombian allies, while apparently requiring the cooperation of the FARC to deal with drug trafficking. The FARC were a political insurgency and a major drug trafficking organization. In this context, the US recognized that the Colombian government would not act on extradition requests related to FARC members for crimes committed before the Agreement because the Santos government coherently explained the rationale for this position by underlining the benefits of the pact. ”, affirms the former ambassador in Bogotá, Kevin Whitaker.
Although those extradition requests were never lifted and remain in force, Washington backed the negotiations and never withdrew its support for the country.. In addition, another source maintains, in legal terms there is no discrimination between charges for drug trafficking that a guerrilla leader may have and those of a common criminal.
“The situation is very different with respect to purely criminal organizations, groups that do not have any political agenda, or with members of the former FARC who continue to be involved in drug trafficking and other violations of US law. Offering legal benefits, including exemption from extradition, to merely criminal groups, lacks the logic present with the Farc. That simply won’t work. And it is likely that it will lead to the recurrence of crimes, as Colombia has experienced in other cases”, continues the former ambassador.
Given the importance that Washington places on judicial cooperation, “it is predictable that some stakeholders in the US, including members of Congress, will be deeply dismayed if extradition requests are not pushed by Colombia, especially if they are related to mere delinquents or members of the FARC mafia who have continued committing crimes despite the agreement”, added Whitaker.
And it is there where the visit of the Prosecutor could be key. While it is true that the US would have to agree to a ‘no’ to extradition requests, Congress could well include a clause that conditions the delivery of aid —or part of it— (nearly US$500 million annually) to that Colombia continue to honor extradition requests for drug trafficking. And that could be quite a torpedo for the new government’s ‘total peace’ strategy.
SERGIO GOMEZ MASERI
EL TIEMPO correspondent
Washington
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