Word: colombia
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With the extradition of Martinez, President Virgilio Barco Vargas proved his resolve in the battle against Colombia's drug traffickers. Barco vowed to drive the dealers out of his country after the Aug. 18 murder of Senator Luis Carlos Galan, one of Colombia's leading presidential candidates. Martinez, 34, a reputed money manager for the Medellin cocaine cartel, was the first victim of Barco's executive order reviving a U.S.-Colombia extradition treaty invalidated by the Colombian Supreme Court...
...Magistrate Joel M. Feldman read a thick list of charges accusing him of laundering millions of dollars for the cartel. If convicted, he could be sentenced to 30 years in prison. In Washington officials were exultant. "I applaud the extraordinary courage of President Virgilio Barco and the government of Colombia in their effort to restore the rule of law," said Attorney General Dick Thornburgh...
...allow him to extradite to the U.S. any of the 80 drug thugs indicted by American prosecutors without getting a judge's signature on the order. That end-runs one of the biggest barriers to punishment of the gangsters: an intimidated Colombian Supreme Court in 1987 declared a U.S.-Colombia extradition treaty invalid on the flimsiest of technicalities. Both Washington and Bogota officials declare that the drug lords fear extradition more than anything else because they cannot terrorize judges and juries in the U.S. as readily as they can those in Colombia. The gangsters agree. Their communiques have been issued...
Though the U.S. has a big stake in the battle in Colombia, it cannot do much besides send materiel and cheer for Barco. Washington's antidrug policy is moving away from interdiction of supply to cutting down demand at home. Bush's program will propose shifting funds to expanded drug-education and -treatment programs, and stiffer penalties for casual users. Such an emphasis on curtailing the U.S. appetite for cocaine and other drugs is fine by the Colombians. As President Barco told TIME, "Every time a North American youngster pays for his vice in the streets of New York, Miami...
After years of nagging Colombia to crack down on its cocaine gangsters, the U.S. is seeing the government literally risk its life to do so. Now the question is how hard America is prepared to fight the drug war in its own streets...