(Bogota) Colombian President Gustavo Petro proposed on Wednesday that drug traffickers who submit to justice avoid extradition to the United States and that they be granted “legal benefits”.
Posted at 6:35 p.m.
“Drug traffickers who negotiate with the Colombian state […] will not be extradited,” President Petro said during a press conference.
Conversely, “drug traffickers who do not negotiate with the state will be extradited; those who negotiate with the state but reoffend will be extradited without any form of negotiation to the United States,” warned Petro, who was elected in June and took office on August 7.
He indicated that he would discuss this new policy with Washington.
The first left-wing president in the country’s history, who spoke alongside Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, on tour in Latin America, also offered “legal benefits” to members of the Clan del Golfo, the most powerful criminal gang in the country, in exchange for their surrender.
He did not specify the nature of these “benefits”, in particular whether they were alternative sentences to prison, such as those agreed with the Marxist guerrillas of the FARC which signed a peace agreement in 2016.
But he said he had received “messages” from the Clan del Golfo and other armed groups “asking for peace” as well as “another way out” of the conflict.
“So far, we have received messages, they (the drug traffickers) must take action; if they want peace, they must stop killing,” he stressed.
As part of his “total peace” policy, the new head of state denounced the “failure” of the fight against drugs and proposed a new approach based on discouraging consumption in developed countries.
After four decades of fighting drug trafficking with American support, Colombia remains the world’s largest producer of cocaine, with the United States as its main export market.
In addition to ongoing negotiations with drug traffickers, Mr. Petro is about to resume peace talks with the National Liberation Army (ELN, Guevarist), the last recognized guerrilla in Colombia, which is also financed through drug trafficking. drug.