Colombia Cocaine Cartel Declares End to Violence : Terrorism: Drug traffickers say the offer follows efforts at peace and the end of the Barco administration.

Drug traffickers Friday declared an end to their campaign of bombings and assassinations in Colombia, according to a communique bearing the letterhead of the Extraditables, as the Medellin cocaine cartel calls itself.

The cartel said its offer follows recent movements toward peace in Colombia and the end of President Virgilio Barco Vargas’ administration.

“We decree a unilateral, indefinite cease-fire, and we suspend attacks against police, bombings in all Colombian cities and the executions of politicians, journalists, judges and other functionaries,” the statement said.

The communique was faxed to news outlets throughout Colombia. Its authenticity could not be confirmed.

Barco leaves office Aug. 7.

His successor, Cesar Gaviria, has vowed to continue Barco’s hard-line anti-drug policies. Gaviria has said he will keep extraditing drug-trafficking suspects wanted in the United States, the fate that cocaine smugglers fear most.

Friday’s statement said official claims that the government is winning the drug war are false.

It said police desertions and the killing of police by drug dealers indicate the government is not victorious.

It listed as victories by drug traffickers: “215 policemen dead and 256 wounded, more than 400 desertions by policemen, 10 police headquarters bombed and 20 police posts destroyed.”

Authorities say drug traffickers began a campaign this year to assassinate police officers in Medellin, the cartel’s headquarters. Judicial police say the cartel has been paying $4,300 to each young assassin who kills a law officer.

Since August, 1989, when Barco began his drug crackdown, traffickers have been blamed for killing more than 450 Colombians in terrorist attacks.

The Extraditables suspended their attacks last January but resumed them shortly after, saying the government rejected their peace overtures.

The statement Friday reiterated cocaine traffickers’ claims that the government was torturing and murdering drug suspects. It also accused the government of killing leftist political leaders and placing bombs in public buildings.

It said its cease-fire comes because “almost all of the people want peace.”

This year, peace negotiations have been initiated between the government and several leftist guerrilla groups. Talks are also under way between authorities and right-wing paramilitary groups.

Feuding emerald miners have signed a peace accord.

But so far this year, 10,956 people have been murdered in Colombia, according to a judicial police report published in a Bogota newspaper Thursday.