COLOMBIAN INMATES TO GET HOLIDAYS

Senate Law, Stricter Than House's, Also Gives Traffickers Weekends Off

BOGOTA, Colombia The Colombian Senate has passed a law that would allow
the most notorious drug traffickers in the nation's prisons to go home on
weekends and holidays and to take 15day annual vacations.

The law represents a compromise on a bill President Ernesto Samper's
administration slipped through Congress two weeks ago that would have
granted early pardons to all criminals, including the Cali drug chiefs who
have been accused of involvement in a presidential campaignfinance
scandal, and the former justice minister and 14 lawmakers also implicated
in the election scandal.

The law would allow drug traffickers to spend up to 60 days a year out of
jail. A prisoner would only become eligible for the benefit after 80
percent of his sentence had been served.

The Senate version, passed late on Tuesday night, still must be reconciled
with a more generous House version already passed. Critics of the
president, who has been accused of accepting $6 million from major drug
traffickers to finance his election, said the law was part of an
endofyear settling of accounts to reward those who helped him stay in
office.

Samper signed a law restoring extradition to the United States. That law,
however, is not retroactive and so does not affect those already
incarcerated here.

The president also showered government favors on civic groups that had
supported him and gave himself the sole power to promote a general to the
highest military rank. He rewarded his vice president by naming him to the
presidency for 15 days, making him eligible for the same pension benefits
as the president.

He presented the sentence reductions as a way to reduce overcrowding in the
prisons. The legislation could mean early release for 14,000 of Colombia's
42,000 inmates.

The law almost assures early release for prisoners in work study programs
who have served 60 percent of their sentences.

After wide criticism, the administration reversed its initial stand, ruling
out early pardons for inmates convicted of drug trafficking and related
offenses as well as murder, rape and kidnapping.

The U.S. State Department said it was "concerned" about the idea of weekend
passes but pleased that drug traffickers had been excluded from the
earlyrelease package.

Congresswoman Ingrid Betancourt said the bill was pushed through in
secrecy. It was never published in the Official Gazette, as required, and
its text was never shown to members of Congress who voted on it, she said.
The bill led to riots by inmates and occupations of prisons by their
families in an attempt to influence the Senate vote. Further violence has
been threatened.

"It's part of the favors that the president's been paying off," Betancourt
said. "The last 15 days in Congress has been a series of Christmas gifts
the president has given to all the drug dealers and the members of Congress
who stayed loyal by keeping quiet" about the electionfinancing scandal,
she said.

As it is, drug dealers and others in prison for drugrelated offenses can
get steep sentence reductions. Under the existing rules, for example,
Miguel Rodriguez, sentenced to 21 years, could leave prison in 15 years.
Under the bill as initially proposed by the president, he could have left
jail in eight years, legal experts said.

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