Peace Effort, Justice at Odds in Colombia

President Alvaro Uribe has extradited more than 350 drug trafficking and terrorism suspects to the United States, but not the one U.S. authorities want most: paramilitary leader Diego Fernando Murillo, alias “Don Berna.”

The tug of war over Murillo, once a top enforcer for the late drug lord Pablo Escobar and more recently thought to be this nation’s most powerful trafficker and militia leader, illustrates the complexities of the peace process in this war-torn country.

Uribe’s supporters say the interests of peace sometimes must trump those of justice. They contend that extraditing the suspected drug lord would mean the end of the demobilization of Colombia’s paramilitary forces because other militia leaders, fearing the same fate, would stop surrendering weapons, or even resume fighting.

But critics, including several U.S. human rights groups, say the conservative president’s reluctance to extradite Murillo reinforces the perception that he is playing favorites in the peace process. They note that Uribe extradited two top leftist guerrilla leaders this year but has yet to hand over any top leaders of the right-wing paramilitary groups.

The amount of cocaine the guerrilla leaders are alleged to have shipped to the United States “is minuscule compared to the amounts shipped by the [paramilitary] leadership, including Don Berna,” said Cynthia Arnson, who soon will take over as director of the Latin American program of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington.

Even officials at the U.S. Embassy here, who by and large are staunch Uribe supporters, say the critics may have a point. “To see Don Berna extradited would be an important step to show everyone is being treated equally,” said one official who asked not to be named.

Murillo has been in custody here since May, when he was arrested after a nationwide manhunt in the wake of the killing of a congressman. Colombian prosecutors believe that Murillo ordered the hit. U.S. prosecutors formally requested Don Berna’s extradition in June.

Murillo previously had been indicted in the U.S. federal court’s Southern District of New York on charges of drug trafficking and money laundering. In court documents, he is described as being responsible for shipments of “multi-ton quantities of cocaine” to the United States, using a fleet of high-speed boats to make deliveries across the open seas.

Uribe has approved Murillo’s extradition but has indefinitely suspended its implementation while the demobilization process is underway. What the president would do with Murillo when all paramilitary groups have disarmed is a mystery.

“The government isn’t saying it won’t extradite, only that extraditions are suspended as long as the paras cooperate. It is the main card that Uribe has to play in this process,” said Mauricio Romero, a political scientist at the University of Rosario in Bogota, the Colombian capital.

The right-wing militias began forming in the mid-1980s in response to the rising power of Colombia’s various leftist guerrilla armies. In the beginning, they acted as hired guns for cattlemen, farmers and businessmen facing a wave of guerrilla kidnappings, killings and extortion. In recent years, however, as the Colombian conflict became as much economic as ideological, they have gotten heavily involved in drug trafficking.

The paramilitary and guerrilla armies both have been classified as terrorist groups by the U.S. State Department.

Profits from the drug trade have reputedly enabled Murillo to raise one of this nation’s largest paramilitary forces, a unit of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia.

Murillo is alleged to be a coldblooded killer who has ordered his paramilitary forces to carry out massacres of suspected guerrilla sympathizers.

In an interview in Washington this fall, a high-ranking U.S. law enforcement official described Murillo as the Colombian trafficker he wanted most to see in a U.S. courtroom. “We are very concerned with what will take place with this individual,” the official said, referring to the status of the extradition request.

Uribe generally has been very responsive to such petitions. Since taking office in August 2002, he has approved more extraditions than all previous Colombian presidents combined. So far this year, he has sent 143 suspects to the U.S.

But Murillo will almost certainly escape extradition, Colombian officials acknowledged this month. As a paramilitary leader, he qualifies for exemption from extradition as long as he abides by the terms of the paramilitary demobilization process, an accord signed by the Colombian government and militia leaders in July 2003.

Those terms call for 20,000 militia members to lay down their arms and for their leaders to be tried on suspicion of atrocities and drug trafficking. But terms also shield leaders from being sent to the United States to face charges as long as they fully confess to crimes, give back illegally obtained assets and promise to give up drug trafficking.

Murillo has apparently been cooperating with the Colombian government and was temporarily released from confinement after his arrest to assist in his militia’s demobilization.

He and other paramilitary leaders suspected of atrocities and drug trafficking are subject to trial once the demobilization process is complete in February, but they face relatively lenient sentences even if found guilty of heinous crimes such as mass murders.

Since the 2003 accord was signed, about two-thirds of the paramilitary fighters, including those financed and commanded by Murillo, have laid down their weapons and agreed to be “reinserted” into society.

This month, the Central Bolivar paramilitary group, thought to be the most economically powerful of Colombia’s militias, broke a two-month deadlock by laying down its arms.

The process had come to a halt in October after Murillo was transferred to a new prison, raising fears among paramilitary leaders that he would soon be extradited. Only after they were reassured that he would not be extradited did the surrenders resume, government officials said recently.

“The demobilization reactivated because the distrust surrounding the possible extradition of Don Berna was cleared up,” said Romero, the political scientist.

Uribe’s government argues that the demobilization process is achieving its goal -- bringing peace to Colombia, Romero said. Since pacification started more than two years ago, murders, massacres and kidnappings are down significantly nationwide, according to statistics compiled by Colombia’s human rights monitoring office.

In view of the decline in violence, combined with the possibility that extraditions would bring a halt to demobilization, University of Miami political science professor and Colombia expert Bruce Bagley said the chances of U.S. authorities getting Murillo were slim.

“For Uribe, extraditing Don Berna would be a deal breaker, and so it will probably never happen,” Bagley said.