Extradition Vote Draws Criticism

ANALYSTS SEE COLOMBIAN LAW AS SIGN OF JAILED DRUG LORDS' POWER

By JOHN OTIS Special to the Chronicle

BOGOTA, Colombia The approval of a watereddown extradition bill that
protects the imprisoned leaders of the Cali cocaine cartel angered
Washington and was an ominous indication of the power that jailed drug
kingpins wield in Colombia, analysts said Wednesday.

Colombia's House of Representatives lifted a 6yearold constitutional ban
on extradition late Tuesday that will allow the government to send criminal
suspects abroad to face trial.

But amid accusations of drug cartel payoffs and threats, legislators
overwhelmingly rejected a retroactive version of the bill that would have
covered past crimes as well as drug lords serving light sentences in
Colombia's loosely regulated jails.

Ingrid Betancourt, a legislator with the ruling Liberal Party, claimed that
at least 15 of her colleagues received direct payments from cartel members
in exchange for their votes and that 80 were promised lucrative campaign
donations for the March 1998 congressional elections.

"A good number (of legislators) are slaves to the criminal organizations,"
said Adolfo Salamanca, a former assistant attorney general who has
investigated drug traffickers. "It is easy to understand that they would
not vote against their sponsors."

In the weeks leading up to the vote, business groups, police commanders and
government ministers lobbied for retroactive extradition.

On Wednesday, many blamed President Ernesto Samper for failing to sway
ruling Liberal Party legislators. But Samper insisted that limited
extradition is a step forward.

Still, the outcome was criticized by the Clinton administration, which
wants to extradite Gilberto and Miguel Rodriguez Orejeula, the jailed
leaders of the Cali cartel that at one time supplied 80 percent of the
cocaine reaching the United States.

State Department spokesman James Foley noted that Colombia could be branded
an untrustworthy ally in the war on drugs for a third straight year in 1998
and face possible economic sanctions.

Dispatching drug lords to the United States, where they often face life
sentences and Spartan jail conditions compared to those here, is one of the
most controversial issues in Colombia. For years, a druglord truism was:
"Better a tomb in Colombia than a jail cell in the United States."

Colombia signed an extradition treaty with the United States in 1979, and
24 drug traffickers were sent north over the next decade. But after a wave
of assassinations and bombings coordinated by the late Medellin cartel
leader Pablo Escobar, extradition was outlawed through constitutional
reform in 1991.

Switching tacks, Colombian courts began handing down lenient sentences to
traffickers, especially those who turned themselves in and provided
evidence against other dealers. But such measures had little impact on the
flow of drugs.

Escobar, for example, surrendered to police but later escaped from his
luxurious prison compound. He was gunned down by police in 1993. Other
detained cartel leaders continued to do business behind bars.

"These jails are political headquarters and private clubs. ... Let's not
fool ourselves," Betancourt said.

Last year, a U.S. request to extradite the Rodriguez Orejeula brothers,
serving 10 and nineyear sentences respectively in Colombia, was rejected
by the Samper government.

During Tuesday's 12hour debate in the House, opponents of retroactive
extradition often couched their views in anti U.S. terms and blamed
American addicts for the drug crisis.

"What the United States is screaming for with a dagger hidden under the
poncho is that we send them the Rodriguez Orejeulas. But Colombia must
not waste its time on this terrible order," said Guillermo Martinez, a
congressman with the small ARENA Party.

Betancourt said the new extradition law lets Samper show Washington he is
taking action against drug trafficking. Yet the law also reassures the
jailed Cali cartel leaders who allegedly contributed $6.1 million to
Samper's 1994 campaign that they won't be sent to U.S. jails.

What's more, it is unlikely that Colombia will send any drug lords to the
United States before Samper's term ends in eight months, since it will take
nearly that long for the law to take effect.