Colombia Drug Lords Seek ‘Mechanism’ to Surrender

The Extraditables drug group called on Colombian President Virgilio Barco Vargas in a statement published today to draw up an “adequate mechanism” that would allow the group’s members to surrender in Colombia.

The group, widely identified with the chieftains of the Medellin cocaine cartel, said in a statement published in El Tiempo newspaper that it was also willing to draw up a complete international list of property used in drug trafficking.

The statement said the Extraditables had proven their willingness for peace by suspending a violent anti-government campaign Jan. 17.

“We hoped that the government through one or more persons or an adequate mechanism would implement the process of our surrender,” said the statement, addressed to a group of influential figures including three former presidents, a Roman Catholic cardinal and the head of Colombia’s biggest leftist party.

The statement said the group’s aim was “nothing else than to contribute to peace and to eliminate, in good portion, the traffic of cocaine from Colombia to other countries.”

The statement did not specify what it meant by “an adequate mechanism.”

Barco’s government has vowed not to negotiate with the drug lords and has said any response to their proposals must be constitutional.

The Extraditables, so dubbed because they are wanted for trial in the United States, last Aug. 24 declared war on the government to counter Barco’s anti-narcotics crackdown launched six days earlier. Barco’s effort reinstituted extradition.

The anti-government campaign has included more than 200 bombings, including one blamed on the drug lords that blew up a Colombian airliner Nov. 27, killing all 107 people aboard.