Colombia’s Supreme Court approved the extradition of ‘César’, one of
the FARC guerrillas that was arrested in ‘Operation Jaque’, the
military release of Ingrid Betancourt, three U.S. military contractors
and eleven others.
However, César may not be extradited to the U.S. for kidnapping, because that crime was committed on Colombian territory and should be dealt with by the Colombian justice system. Earlier, ‘Gafas, the other guerrilla that was arrested in ‘Operation Jaque’ was not allowed to be extradited for the same reasons.
The refusal to extradite ‘Gafas’ led to friction with the U.S., who wants to prosecute the guerrillas for holding three American citizens captive.
The court will allow César to be extradited for drug trafficking, a crime the court does consider a U.S. matter.
‘César’ was one of the guards in charge of holding at least 40 FARC hostages.
