Colombia Militia Threatens to End Talks

Leaders of the nation’s main far-right paramilitary group threatened Sunday to pull out of peace talks with the government if Congress approved a law that could jail their leaders for mass murder, torture and other crimes.

“The days of these talks are numbered,” thundered Ernesto Baez, spokesman for the outlawed United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, or AUC.

“Congress will determine when we break them off,” he said, wearing dark glasses and combat fatigues at a news conference with other heavily armed militiamen in Santa Fe de Ralito, a town in rural northern Colombia where peace talks have gone on for two years.

Failure of the talks with the 20,000-strong umbrella group could ruin President Alvaro Uribe’s hopes of reducing violence in Colombia as he prepares to run for reelection next year.

AUC spokesmen did not say exactly what they opposed in the government-sponsored law expected to be approved this week.

The “justice and peace” bill is meant to provide a legal framework for a peace deal with the AUC and provides for jail terms of up to eight years for militia members found guilty of crimes.

The AUC has killed thousands of people in a war against Marxist rebels and funds itself through drug trafficking.

Lawmakers rejected the threat. One legislator said the AUC was trying to pressure Congress to include a promise not to extradite militiamen to the U.S. “I’d guess that this little tantrum is about extradition,” Congresswoman Gina Parodi said.