U.S. Embassy Dependents to Depart Colombia : Curfew Imposed on Medellin; Capital’s Judges Prepare Symbolic Resignations

In new signs of concern Wednesday over violence by ruthless drug traffickers, the U.S. Embassy ordered American dependents of its employees to leave Colombia, and 48 American exchange students departed for home.

In Medellin, where a series of bomb explosions have been blamed on drug traffickers, the mayor imposed a curfew from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.

And Bogota’s judges, fearing new assassination attempts by traffickers, prepared Wednesday to resign symbolically in protest over insufficient security measures.

A spokesman for the American Embassy said: “U.S. Embassy dependents have been ordered to leave Colombia in the next few days.”

The order applies to adult dependents, the spokesman said, adding that he was ordered not to provide such details as when the dependents will depart and how many are involved. However, it is understood that 40 to 50 dependents will be leaving.

American officials here have been barred from bringing dependents under age 18 to Colombia for at least two years because of violence related to guerrilla activity, common crime and drug trafficking.

In Washington, the State Department also urged that all other Americans in Colombia consider leaving. Last week the department had issued a travel advisory suggesting that Americans not visit the country unless absolutely necessary.

“Colombia’s security situation is unsettled and likely to remain so in the indefinite future,” the department said in a revised advisory. “The government of Colombia’s aggressive actions against narcotic traffickers have resulted in increased violence in some areas. American citizens, even if not specifically targeted, could find themselves victims of violence.”

As many as 40,000 American citizens lived in Colombia in the early 1980s, but that number has dwindled as violence has increased.

Wednesday’s order for embassy personnel came five hours after a U.S. Embassy official criticized American reporters for exaggerating the atmosphere of crisis here.

“The situation is an awful lot calmer and more normal than portrayed in the U.S.,” he told reporters. “That violence is rampant in Colombia is not correct.”

A student exchange program in Bogota said it sent 48 American university students back to the United States on Wednesday, mainly because of fears generated by news of increased drug-trafficking violence.

“There is really a great deal of commotion among parents and academic boards in the United States relating to the security of the students,” said a spokesman for the Colombo-American University Studies Center.

One young student, an unidentified woman, told Colombian reporters before leaving: “I can’t believe it--really, I can’t--because I feel very safe in Colombia. . . . I don’t understand why we have to go.”

Curfew Decreed

The sense of crisis was heightened when Mayor Juan Gomez Martinez of Medellin announced Wednesday that he was decreeing a curfew in the city, prohibiting the movement of pedestrians and vehicles between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. Violators will be arrested, he said.

“We hope that with this, tranquillity will return to the city,” the mayor said. Suburban cities in the Medellin metropolitan area, which has a total population of 2 million, also imposed curfews.

Gomez said the national government will send 100 police reinforcements to Medellin this week and 100 more late in September. He had asked for thousands of reinforcements.

Orlando Vasquez, the minister of government, pledged that national authorities will give Medellin more special assistance to combat violence.

“We are going to give them full attention, as we have been recently, but now more so because we understand that Medellin is the center of a series of disturbing actions,” Vasquez said.

Seventeen bombs, blamed on drug traffickers, have exploded within the last week in the city, killing two people and damaging political party offices, bank branches and state liquor stores. Police found several short-range rockets Tuesday night that they said unknown terrorists had been planning to use in an attack on Medellin’s state liquor factory, which is the main source of revenue for the departmental government.

In retaliation for a government blitz against them, drug traffickers have declared “total and absolute war” on government officials, business leaders, journalists and judges.

Nowhere is the threat regarded as more deadly than in Colombian courts. Eight judges have been assassinated so far this year and more than 50 since the late 1970s, according to the National Assn. of Judicial Officials and Employees.

Antonio Suarez, president of the association, said the 300 permanent judges of Bogota and the surrounding department of Cundinamarca have signed a mass resignation that will be submitted this week.

Suarez emphasized that the judges do not want to quit their jobs and will stay on as long as they are not replaced. But he said they hope the protest resignations will stir political support for their cause.

“It is a resignation to create a political situation in Colombia, so that the country will realize we are alone, that we are under threat,” Suarez said in an interview.

Since the latest assassination of a judge, which occurred Aug. 16, more than 100 judges have submitted protest resignations, but they have been rejected by the Supreme Court.

Colombian judges earn an average of $350 a month and generally ride public buses to work, Suarez said. Judges who have received personal threats often get no more protection than a ride to work and back in a car with bodyguards. Courts have less security protection than airports.

However, a team of security experts hired by the U.S. Justice Department is due here within the next week to begin a training course for judges. The program, part of a $65-million American aid package, will teach the judges how to fire weapons, drive evasively and take other lifesaving actions.

The training program has been used for most senior American diplomats stationed in hazardous posts as well for national leaders in Central America. However, American officials said that not all of Colombia’s judges will be given the training because of a lack of funds.

In Cali, the headquarters of one major drug cartel, judges received letters threatening the assassination of 10 judges for every Colombian drug trafficker extradited to the United States. The letters came in response to an Aug. 18 emergency decree by President Virgilio Barco Vargas permitting the extradition of Colombians wanted by U.S. authorities on drug-trafficking charges.

Also on Aug. 18, assassins killed Sen. Luis Carlos Galan, a leading presidential candidate, and the Medellin commander of the national police. Since then, government security forces have seized hundreds of farms and urban homes, detaining more than 10,000 people. About 3,000 are still being held, an intelligence official said Wednesday. The United States is seeking the extradition of several of them.

The first candidate for extradition, Eduardo Martinez Romero, was notified Tuesday that he would be sent to the United States for trial under an Atlanta federal grand jury indictment for drug-related activities.

Martinez, reputedly the “finance minister” for the Medellin drug cartel, has until Monday to appeal to a special Cabinet committee, according to Colombian Justice Ministry officials. Diogenes Plata, the ministry’s secretary general, said the committee would act within 24 hours of the appeal.

The Martinez extradition request is considered a key test of Colombia’s commitment in fighting the drug cartel, although many experts think the country’s Supreme Court ultimately will rule the decree unconstitutional. In June, 1987, the high court found a U.S.-Colombian extradition treaty flawed on a technicality.

However, Justice Ministry officials said no ruling is expected for several weeks and would not be retroactive in any case.

Meanwhile, Justice and State Department officials have formed two working groups to determine what training and technical assistance can be provided to the Colombians and what kind of material can be sent to bolster their efforts against the drug cartels, sources involved in the process said.

Times staff writers Norman Kempster and Ronald J. Ostrow, in Washington, contributed to this story.