This is the U.S. and Colombian governments covering up their western hemisphere drug operation!
"Commanders' US extraditions concern Colombia; Paramilitary probe feared in disarray" by Juan Forero, Washington Post | August 24, 2008
MEDELLIN, Colombia - In a small courtroom here, Ever Veloza has over the past year confessed to nearly 1,000 slayings in Colombia's conflict and recounted how the death squads he helped run were supported by army officers and prominent politicians.
Veloza, 41, has been among two dozen top commanders to have participated in what is known here as the "Justice and Peace" process, special judicial proceedings designed to unravel the origins of Colombia's paramilitary movement. His testimony has helped authorities uncover crimes and open investigations to ferret out collaborators.
Now, Veloza may be extradited to the United States - not for the war crimes to which he has confessed but to face cocaine-trafficking charges in New York federal court. Perhaps more than anyone else, he knows what that would mean for investigators who have been working for years to understand the intricacies of a coalition of paramilitary groups known as the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia.
Fifteen other top paramilitary commanders have been extradited to the United States, raising major concerns among Colombian investigators, victims' rights groups, and organizations such as Human Rights Watch, all of whom say complex investigations into paramilitary crimes are being thrown into disarray.
With nearly all of the top commanders in US jails, the groups say, Colombian detectives and prosecutors have lost their most knowledgeable sources of information about paramilitary groups.
The paramilitary groups for years smuggled cocaine in massive quantities to fund their war against Marxist rebels. But critics of the extraditions say such trafficking was far less pernicious than the war crimes that terrorized Colombia for a generation.
President Álvaro Uribe said those who have been extradited so far to the United States were sent only after they failed to cooperate with Colombian investigators. The Bush administration has touted the extraditions as a bold move by Uribe, Washington's closest ally in Latin America, whose government has already extradited nearly 700 Colombians to the United States - most of them low- and mid-level drug traffickers.
They are COVERING UP the OPERATION!
Critics of the Uribe administration, however, charge that the president shipped the commanders north to squelch testimony that had begun to link military officers and some elite members of society with death squad commanders. In fact, testimony by commanders has helped propel investigations that have put 33 members of Congress, most of them allies of the president, behind bars, while tarnishing the reputations of generals close to the president.
It is an OPEN SECRET for God's sake!
In an interview, Colombian Attorney General Mario Iguarán said the judicial proceedings against the commanders had been producing vital evidence. "There were surely other reasons for the extraditions," Iguarán said, "but it wasn't because Justice and Peace was not providing results."
The extraditions have sparked a heated debate in this country, with pundits and politicians accusing the Bush administration of sidestepping Colombian interests.
American officials have responded by trying to reassure outraged Colombians. Laura Sweeney, a spokeswoman for the Department of Justice, said that commanders extradited to the United States have "been made available to cooperate, if they choose to do so, in Colombian cases, including making statements as defendants or witnesses to Colombian judicial officials."
Still, even within Uribe's government, some officials have expressed concern that US courts will reward commanders for cooperating on drug investigations but do little to spur their assistance in resolving politically motivated crimes in Colombia.
"We are very worried," Vice President Francisco Santos said earlier this month in his office, wondering whether the use of extraditions could become counterproductive for Colombia. "We don't understand how a tool that is supposed to be used to punish could be used in a process of negotiations."
The commanders, now held in jails in Washington, Miami, and New York, are represented by American defense attorneys who said in interviews that they want to negotiate deals with the United States.
Under the deals, their clients would provide Colombian investigators with information, and US courts would take that cooperation into account when they are sentenced.
Colombia would also shield the commanders from charges here once they are released from American jails.--more--"
Isn't it amazing how OUR MASS-MURDERING KILLERS and CRIMINALS always get to CUT DEALS?
