Colombia extradition bid is "trick" exminister

By Karl Penhaul BOGOTA, May 12 (Reuter) A former justice minister said
on Monday that Colombia's moves to lift a sixyear extradition ban were a
smokescreen designed to appease the United States while protecting the
country's drug barons.

"This government has no real desire to push extradition through but it wants
to give the impression that it does ... We must not underestimate (President
Ernesto) Samper's bad faith and capacity for trickery," former justice
minister Enrique Parejo told Reuters.

Samper reiterated on Monday his commitment to seeing an end to the
constitutional ban on sending Colombians to stand trial abroad, saying "it
forms part of our policies in the international struggle against drugs".

But Parejo believes Samper is merely paying lip service to the idea of
extradition to placate the United States, which blacklisted Colombia for a
second consecutive year for its perceived failure to crack down on drug
trafficking.

A Senate committee is due to reopen a government sponsored debate on
extradition on Tuesday following a confusing session last week, which ended
in a hung vote and left legislators and ministers arguing over congressional
rules.

Even if one of three extradition proposals due for debate clears all
congressional hurdles and makes it onto the statute books, Parejo believes it
would be so complex as to be unworkable.

The alternatives range from the simple abrogation of Article 35 from the
constitution the one banning extradition of Colombian nationals to one
that includes widespread restrictions on when extradition could be applied.

"This is all part of a maneuver by the government. Even if some form of
extradition is passed then it will really amount to nothing because there
will be so many regulations that these would frustrate the whole process,"
Parejo said.

Extradition was banned in 1991 after Pablo Escobar, the late head of the
notorious Medellin drug cartel, launched a spate of bombings and kidnappings
against the state.

When Samper took office in August 1994, amid allegations that he financed his
election campaign with donations from the Cali drug mob, he said restoration
of extradition was not on his political agenda.

Samper and his top ministers have reversed that position in the face of
increasing pressure from the United States, which has consistently pressed
for extradition of the jailed Rodriguez Orejuela brothers, former chiefs of
the notorious Cali cartel.

But Parejo believes Samper is now giving verbal backing to the restoration of
extradition safe in the knowledge that Colombian law makes it virtually
impossible to apply new legislation retroactively.