COLOMBIAN GOVERNMENT BLOCKS THE RELEASE OF 2 JAILED DRUG LORDS

A Judge Had Ruled That The Brothers Who Headed The Cali Cartel Could Leave
Prison Early.

BOGOTA, Colombia -- The Colombian government blocked the release from
prison of two former bosses of the Cali cocaine cartel a day after a judge
infuriated President Alvaro Uribe by ruling that the two powerful drug
lords could go free with less than half their sentences served.

"The government has ordered that the prisoners not be released while many
doubts exist," Uribe said Saturday.

Uribe took office as president in August on pledges to crack down on
illegal armed groups and the drug trade that is fueling the nation's
38-year-old civil war.

In a surprise move, Judge Pedro Jose Suarez on Friday ordered the release
of brothers Miguel and Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela, who were sentenced to
17 years and 15 years in prison, respectively, after their 1995 arrests by
elite Colombian police and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

The Rodriguez Orejuela brothers controlled up to 80% of the world's cocaine
after the 1993 killing of drug lord Pablo Escobar, who led the rival
Medellin cartel. The DEA estimated that the Cali cartel hauled in $7
billion in profits annually in its heyday, and a top Colombian anti-drug
official has said the Cali cartel is still alive.

Allowing the Rodriguez Orejuela brothers to walk out of prison would be an
international embarrassment for Uribe and would likely damage Colombia's
relations with the United States, which has spent $1.5 billion in mostly
military aid to help Bogota fight a drug industry that exports about 580
tons of cocaine a year.

The United States has long sought their extradition.

The Colombian government accused the Rodriguez Orejuela brothers of using
their "gigantic power" to buy justice, and it immediately pledged to halt
their release from a maximum-security prison near Bogota, the capital.

The judge said he had ordered their release because they had maintained
"correct social behavior in prison."

Speaking from the Colombian island of San Andres, Uribe said: "These are
issues of profound national and international sensitivity. Their dealings
involve the dignity of a nation, the people's credibility in their
institutions, the prestige of justice and international respectability."

Uribe, a former mayor of Medellin -- the city that saw the rise and fall of
Escobar's multibillion-dollar cocaine empire -- insists that fighting
Colombia's drug trade is key to ending a war that claims the lives of
thousands every year. He wants more U.S. cooperation in the war on drugs.

Anti-drug officials have said that leftist rebels and right-wing
paramilitary outlaws now control Colombia's drug industry.