Colombian Senator Juan Manuel Galan on Tuesday called the United States’ practice of shortening sentences for extradited drug traffickers “ridiculous and insulting.”
The Liberal senator from Bogota is calling for a “profound and serious debate” on the extradition process between Colombia and the U.S.
His statements coincide with the news of the release of Colombian drug lord Juan Carlos Sierra Ramirez alias “El Tuso” from a U.S prison on March 14. Galan declared that the process has been “eroded” and claimed that in Colombia extradition has taken on an “attractive identity.”
MORE: Ex-drug lord El Tuso released from prison
“A cartel of intermediaries has sprung up between drug traffickers and the North American justice system, organizing the surrender of deliveries and of collaboration over [drug trafficking] routes information, so that 15 or 20 year sentences very often become as short as six years, or six months,” declared the Senator, adding that at the end of this process many of these drug traffickers “end up with Visas and all kinds of conditions.”
Galan, who made his speech on Tuesday in a Senate meeting, described the situation as “insulting” to the victims of drug trafficking in Colombia and demanded a government response explaining, “how they see the ‘evolution’ of the extradition of Colombians to the United States.”
Senator Juan Manuel Galan is the son of former presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galan who was assassinated in 1989 by narcos for running on a platform that supported extraditing Colombian drug traffickers to the U.S.
Sources
- Las condenas “ridículas” de narcos en EE.UU. (El Espectador)
- Para los ‘narcos’ la extradición a EE.UU. ahora es “atractiva” (El Espectador)
- Senador Juan Manuel Galan pide replantear la extradicion (Caracol)
