Drug Lords Offer a ‘Deal’ : Would ‘Lay Down Arms’ for Amnesty

A message purporting to be from Colombia’s drug lords today declared the government the winner in the war on drugs and offered to halt illegal activities in exchange for an amnesty.

The communique was given to Patricia Echavarria, who was set free today after being kidnaped with her daughter Dec. 16. Echavarria is the wife of a prominent doctor in the drug capital of Medellin.

“We accept the triumph of the state,” said the communique from The Extraditables, the armed wing of the nation’s powerful drug lords. “Thus we will lay down our arms and abandon our objectives for the benefit of the highest interests of the fatherland.”

President Bush brushed off the offer by the drug lords. “They’ve got a credibility problem with me,” he said in Washington.

The communique came in response to a call Monday by the Roman Catholic Church and political leaders for drug cartels to release their hostages and end drug trafficking.

“We submit to the existing legal establishment in the hope of obtaining from the government and from society respect for our rights and our return to our families and communities,” it said.

“We have decided to suspend the shipment of drugs and surrender the weapons, explosives, laboratories, hostages, the clandestine landing strips and other effects related to our activities at such a time as we are granted constitutional and legal guarantees,” the communique continued.

The statement appeared to demand an amnesty that would guarantee the drug barons would not face criminal charges.

The Extraditables have previously demanded a full amnesty and an end to extraditions of drug suspects to the United States.

While President Virgilio Barco Vargas said Tuesday that he would not rule out talks with drug traffickers, Interior Minister Carlos Lemos Simmonds said Colombian law does not allow an amnesty for common criminals.

Barco began his crackdown on the cocaine cartels after the assassination in August of a leading presidential candidate. As part of the crackdown, he revived an extradition treaty with the United States, which drew up a list of the 12 most-wanted drug traffickers.

The Extraditables take their name from the list.

The communique said Echavarria and her daughter, Dina, had been freed as proof of the cartels’ desire to make peace.

The two were released in a neighborhood built by Medellin cartel leader Pablo Escobar Gaviria for the poor people of Medellin.

In the 11-point message, The Extraditables said: “We undertake that there will be no explosive bombings in any part of the national territory and have ordered the suspension of all type of executions of political figures, government and labor officials, members of the judiciary, newsmen, policemen and the military.”

They also offered to act as mediators in efforts to end activities by other groups operating outside the law, “for the sole purpose of ending the violence which harms and shatters our Colombian fatherland.”

So far, Colombia has sent 11 drug suspects to the United States to face charges but none are on the most-wanted list.