Colombia to Keep Heat on Drug Lords

President Virgilio Barco Vargas said Friday that Colombian security forces will maintain pressure on narcotics traffickers who have announced a suspension of their anti-government terrorist campaign.

The traffickers, in a statement Wednesday, acknowledged the supremacy of the government and said they were suspending all executions, bombings and kidnapings. They also promised to end cocaine shipments and to turn over their weapons if given “constitutional and legal guarantees.”

In a written statement Friday, Barco said that an official crackdown on the traffickers has “been successful and will continue to be carried out to finish dismantling the bands of hired killers and the narco-terrorist organizations.”

He added, “The national government and authorities at all levels will continue to fulfill their duty of applying the law and bringing criminals to justice within constitutional and legal procedures and within the alternatives that the existing judicial order offers.”

Neither the traffickers’ nor Barco’s statements mentioned the government policy of extradition to the United States of Colombians wanted there on drug trafficking charges. Some analysts here said that an end to the extraditions appears to be the main goal of the traffickers in their peace initiative.

Two former presidents, a leftist political leader and the Roman Catholic archbishop of Bogota signed an open letter early this week urging the traffickers to quit the cocaine business and release their hostages. They said that by doing so the traffickers would merit “less rigorous treatment.”

On Friday, Barco called the letter “a patriotic gesture that seeks to prevent the suffering and pain of Colombians and that the national government appreciates (in) its full meaning.”

He did not say whether the government is considering less rigorous treatment for traffickers, but he observed that many questions have been raised this week “that only future facts can clarify convincingly.”

“The country longs for the complete end to the crimes, killings and attacks on public officials, journalists, political leaders, men, women and children; the release of all kidnaped persons and the definitive suspension of all narcotics traffic,” Barco said. “The policy of the government and the enormous sacrifices that the whole community has valiantly borne seek, among other things, those goals.

“Now that the triumph of the state and submission to the judicial order of the nation have been recognized, it is a matter of taking the best path to assure the final success of the policy which the government has followed and which has been backed by the Colombian people and supported by the international community.”

It was not clear whether that path might include the suspension of extraditions or the repeal of an Aug. 18 emergency decree that permits extradition without a treaty. In 1987, the Colombian supreme court struck down an extradition treaty with the United States.

Drug lords calling themselves “the Extraditables” declared war on the government after the emergency decree was adopted. Since then, 13 accused traffickers have been extradited to the United States.