Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro proposed the government of US President Joe Biden to radically reform policies on the extradition of alleged drug traffickers.
The Petro administration proposed to Rahul Gupta, the director of the US Office of National Drug Control Policy, to condition the extradition of Colombian drug trafficking suspects, while meeting in Bogota.
Petro’s proposed conditions
According to the president, “we proposed that drug traffickers who do not negotiate with the State will be extradited {and that] drug traffickers who negotiate and reoffend will be extradited without any type of negotiation.”
Petro wants that a “drug trafficker who negotiates judicial benefits with the Colombian state and permanently ceases to be a drug trafficker won’t be extradited,” the president told press.
Gupta did not rule out a new bilateral agreement on extradition, but stressed that “we need to talk about this” first.
It is important to make sure that the Department of Justice and other entities are included in this decision making. Part of this partnership is working with mutual respect and understanding the concerns of both parties.
US drug czar Rahul Gupta
US assistant State Secretary also said that “we will continue talking and debating” about the issue, stressing that extradition “is one option we have in our toolbox.”
Why extradition is being negotiated
The extradition of drug trafficking suspects to the US has become increasingly controversial because of its interference in investigations into war crimes and illegal armed groups in Colombia.
Earlier this year, conflict victims tried to block the extradition of former paramilitary leader Dario Antonio Usaga, a.k.a. “Otoniel,” to prevent the frustration of investigations into crimes against humanity.
The Colombian Commission of Jurists said in February that the extradition of alleged and convicted war criminals on drug-related has become “an impunity mechanism.”
According to human rights advocates, hundreds of thousands of victims of crimes committed in Colombia were denied justice because the alleged perpetrators of these crimes were extradited.
The extradition of Otoniel abruptly ended the former AGC commander’s cooperation with war crimes tribunal JEP in regards to the paramilitaries’ ties to the security forces, politicians and businessmen.
The peace process that followed a 2016 deal between former President Juan Manuel Santos and the now-defunct guerrilla group FARC was severely damaged in 2018 when the US Government falsely accused late guerrilla leader “Jesus Santrich” of drug trafficking and requested his extradition.
According to the Truth Commission, the accusation was the result of a DEA hoax and helped spur the formation of multiple FARC dissident groups.
Until now, the US Government has consistently refused to renegotiate the two countries’ extradition agreement.
