Word: colombianizing
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...contrast to all the bloodletting and legal gymnastics that surrounded extradition in the 1980s and '90s, sending Colombian criminal suspects north has of late become an almost everyday ritual. In December, drug lord Diego Montoya - a.k.a. Don Diego, or the Boss of Bosses in Colombia's underworld - was extradited to the U.S., where he had been on the FBI's most-wanted list along with Osama bin Laden. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has dispatched nearly 800 thugs to the U.S. - about two per week - since he was first elected in 2002. That is 10 times more than his predecessor, Andres...
...doing hard time in an American penitentiary was about the only thing that made Pablo Escobar's blood run cold. Living by the motto "Better a tomb in Colombia than a prison cell in the United States," Escobar unleashed a wave of car bombings and assassinations that forced the Colombian government to water down extradition laws. Cowed officials even built Escobar a five-star jailhouse, with a Jacuzzi, discotheque and fake waterfall, for a brief stint behind bars before the drug lord was gunned down by police...
...bring down major drug traffickers such as the notorious Pablo Escobar. Many of the paramilitary leaders later confessed they had funded their own activities by dealing drugs, but claimed they virtually stopped anti-social crime in areas under their control. Gustavo Duncan, who authored a book on the Colombian paramilitaries, says similar organizations could emerge in Mexico amid the breakdown in state authority. "While Mexico may not ever get as bad as Colombia, some of the factors are very similar," Duncan notes. "When the state cannot keep control in certain areas, it leaves a vacuum for these type of organizations...
Some journalists and high-level Colombian politicians who are close to the FARC say the group is moving toward ending kidnappings. But even as the number of abductions drops, authorities say the FARC is turning to extortion as an easier way to raise cash. An explosion that killed two people and damaged a Blockbuster outlet in north Bogota last month was one of several recent bombings that security officials have linked to the FARC. Meanwhile, the rebels continue to traffic cocaine, a lucrative business that provides the guerrillas some 70% of their income. In addition, the guerrillas still hold...
...Bogota political analyst. The United Nations and every other international organization deem the kidnapping of civilians, even political leaders, as a crime against humanity. The practice seemed to complete the rebels' gradual makeover from peasant warriors fighting for a Marxist utopia to ruthless narco-terrorists. When Betancourt, a French-Colombian citizen and a cause celebre in Europe, was whisked to freedom during last July's commando raid, much of the world lost interest in the FARC. Most analysts said the group, whose membership has been halved from as many as 20,000 members a decade ago, was a spent force...