Drug Lords Declare War After Colombia Shootout

Kidnapers on Friday killed the daughter of a former Colombian president when police tried to free her, and Colombia’s drug lords pledged to resume their war against the government.

Officials said that Friday’s raid, and the drug cartel’s angry response, would mean the end of the government’s peace strategy to end the drug wars that have claimed nearly 600 lives in the last 17 months.

The drug cartel, which has been negotiating for the conditional surrender of its leaders, issued a statement declaring a renewed state of war with the government of President Cesar Gaviria.

Diana Turbay, 38, a magazine publisher and daughter of former president Julio Cesar Turbay, was shot three times in the back by her captors when the police attack began. She died several hours later after surgery, a national police spokeswoman said.

Kidnaped television cameraman Richard Becerra was freed unhurt in the operation, a police bulletin said.

Becerra said Turbay, kidnaped Aug. 30, had been on a hunger strike for two months to protest her confinement. About 120 police officers took part in Friday’s raid in the town of Guarne, 10 miles northwest of Medellin, police said.

Three kidnapers were killed in the shootout, Radio Caracol said. At least two police officers were injured.

Jorge Luis Ochoa, the No. 2 drug lord of the Medellin drug cartel, and other top smugglers have surrendered since Gaviria offered in September to reduce jail sentences and end extraditions to the United States for traffickers who give themselves up.

But other drug lords are still at large, including Medellin cartel leader Pablo Escobar.

“This damages the entire peace process the country is now carrying out,” said Guillermo Sepulveda, attorney general for the Medellin region.

The cartel, in its communique signed, “The Extraditables,” declared war on the government in retaliation for police “tortures, murders, disappearances and massacres.” It said it would kill two more hostages, whom it did not name.

The cartel is known to be holding three other journalists, including Francisco Santos, editor of the prestigious newspaper El Tiempo, as well as Marina Montoya, sister of Colombia’s ambassador to Canada.

Gaviria’s strategy was severely criticized last week after a judge freed Gonzalo Mejia, a confessed drug smuggler who had surrendered under Gaviria’s partial amnesty offer, after he had served only 44 days in jail.

Critics said Mejia’s release proved Gaviria’s strategy would not work because Colombian courts weren’t ready to effectively jail and punish drug bosses.

The cartels have used bribery, intimidation and murder to subvert the Colombian justice system. Extradition to the United States has been the only effective way of jailing the drug lords.