Cablegate: "Boomerang Against Extradition:" El Tiempo's

This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

UNCLAS BOGOTA 007687

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KMDR KPAO OPRC PREL SNAR PGOV CO
SUBJECT: "BOOMERANG AGAINST EXTRADITION:" EL TIEMPO'S
EDITORIAL

1. Leading national daily El Tiempo's August 12 editorial is
highly critical of an extradition bill under consideration
by the U.S. Congress.

BEGIN TRANSLATION OF THE EDITORIAL:

Boomerang Against Extradition

"There are times when laws, instead of helping to achieve
what they intend to do, make things more difficult. A good
example is the bill recently approved by the U.S. Congress
to impose a new and arrogant stipulation to countries that
receive economic assistance from Washington; that of
freezing this assistance if they prevent the extradition of
their citizens to the U.S., even though the sentences that
may be imposed there may include a life sentence.

Passing this law is not good news for the fight against
transnational crime, one in which our country has paid a
high price in sacrifice and whose strong commitment (to
fight crime) is recognized internationally.

For a very simple reason: according to the Constitution, the
Colombian Government can only extradite citizens on the
condition that they not be given a sentence which is not
part of Colombian legislation, as is the case with the death
penalty or a life sentence. The Supreme Court has been very
clear about this, and if the new US regulation goes into
effect, the [Colombian] National Government would be legally
bound to stop extraditions to that country.

Nothing could be more contrary to the efforts to combat
terrorism and drug trafficking through extradition, in which
the current Colombian Government has broken all records.
One just has to take a look at the unprecedented number of
200 Colombians extradited to the United States during
Uribe's three-year administration.

Because there is no extradition treaty between the two
countries (in 1986 the Supreme Court voided the treaty of
1979), the Colombian Government orders all extraditions
through a Presidential Order with the endorsement of the
Supreme Court, and in each case, it sends U.S. authorities a
Diplomatic Note warning them of the sentences they may not
impose. This has not avoided an impasse such as the one
caused by a U.S. judge in 2002, when she sentenced Alex
Restrepo to life for the murder of a former New York
policeman.

For this reason, ideally, a new treaty should be signed,
establishing very clear rules on the subject. Meanwhile,
one can only hope that President George W. Bush will not
sign into law a bill which, in addition to reflecting
arrogant unilateralism, would become a real boomerang
against extradition."

END TRANSLATION

WOOD

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