JAILED COLOMBIAN DRUG LORDS, POLITICIANS MAY SOON GET FREEDOM

PrisonOvercrowding Legislation On The Path To Winning Approval

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) Jailed Cali cartel drug lords and the corrupt
politicians who took their money are among those who could get an early
release from prison under a widely supported bill intended to ease prison
overcrowding.

The measure won near unanimous endorsement in the lower house of Congress
late Tuesday and headed to the Senate, where the chamber president said it
was likely to be approved quickly.

Lawmakers aligned with President Ernesto Samper, whose 1994 campaign was
backed by $6 million in cartel contributions, unexpectedly introduced the
proposal Tuesday.

The legislation would grant early release to prisoners with good conduct
who have served threefifths of their sentences. It also would allow
inmates to cut 60 days from their prison time for every 100 days they
dedicate to work or study. Only convicted kidnappers, terrorists and
murderers deemed highly dangerous would be exempt.

Critics of Samper accused him Wednesday of unabashedly seeking to aid
corrupt politicians and drug bosses who helped him get elected.

"This is yet another example of the marriage between politics and drug
trafficking," Noemi Sanin, a former foreign minister who is campaigning for
May's presidential vote, complained in a radio interview.

Senate President Amilkar Acosta said he expected the chamber to approve the
bill in a matter of days or weeks. Later, after the outcry of critics,
Acosta said he agreed to a request by Samper to postpone debate on the
measure from Wednesday to next week.

During debate Tuesday, Justice Minister Almabeatriz Rengifo defended the
bill, noting that Colombia has 42,000 inmates in prisons designed to hold
28,000. There have been more than 30 prison riots in Colombia this year,
mostly to protest overcrowding, unsanitary conditions and poor nutrition.

The chief prosecutor's office opposed the measure, arguing instead for the
construction of more prisons.

Rengifo dismissed critics' assertions that the bill was designed to favor
drug traffickers and corrupt politicians. To exempt such convicts "would
violate the principle of equality before the law," she said.

Rep. Ingrid Betancourt, one of just four lawmakers who voted against the
bill, remained unconvinced.

"The government is looking to ingratiate itself with the criminals who got
President Samper elected. All the lawmakers in prison, with just one
exception, were provincial leaders of Samper's campaign," she told the AP.

Nearly all of the more than 10 former senators and congressmen convicted of
receiving drug money would be eligible, at the discretion of judges, for
immediate release under the measure, judicial sources said Wednesday.

The measure also would allow Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela, a top Cali cartel
boss captured in 1995 and serving a nine year sentence, to obtain early
release within two years.

Samper denies he solicited the cartel drug contributions and Congress
cleared him of the corruption charges in June 1996.

Passage of the early release bill follows final legislative approval last
week of a constitutional amendment that restores extradition but is not
retroactive, as the U.S. government had wanted.

Under the watereddown extradition, brothers Gilberto and Miguel Rodriguez
and two other Cali cartel bosses whose extradition was formally requested
by Washington last year are unlikely to ever appear in a U.S. court, where
they would face possible life terms.