Colombia Extradites Leftist Guerrilla Leader to U.S.

Colombia extradited a top leftist rebel to the United States on Friday to face drug and kidnapping charges after his group refused to free dozens of hostages, including three U.S. citizens and a German.

Ricardo Palmera, wearing handcuffs and a bulletproof vest, became the first leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, to be sent for trial in a U.S. federal court.

A phalanx of Colombian army commandos and American officials escorted Palmera, a former FARC peace negotiator also known as Simon Trinidad, to a U.S. government plane at a military airfield on the edge of Bogota.

Palmera later arrived at the federal courthouse in Washington inside one of three black SUVs with emergency lights flashing and sirens blaring. Two armed U.S. marshals, wearing body armor and carrying assault rifles, flanked the back entrance as authorities took him inside.

“They were going to keep the court open ... special for him,” FBI spokeswoman Judy Orihuela said.

About 50 minutes later, a two-vehicle convoy left the courthouse with Palmera. Their destination was not announced.

President Alvaro Uribe issued an ultimatum in December, giving the FARC until Thursday to free dozens of hostages or see Palmera extradited. The list included politicians, government troops, three U.S. Defense Department contractors and a German businessman.

The FARC never responded, but in the past it has denounced the threat of extradition as “blackmail” and vowed not to give in. The group insists it will free the hostages only in exchange for 500 jailed rebels, a move Uribe has all but ruled out.

Four helicopters earlier carried Palmera from his maximum-security prison in Combita, north of the capital, to Bogota. A paramedic accompanied him on the flight with syringes containing sedatives in case he struggled or attempted suicide, prison officials said.

Uribe has consistently used the threat of extradition to pressure Colombia’s insurgent groups, and his decision to transfer Palmera hours after the deadline expired underscored his resolve. Although he has sent more than 150 suspected drug traffickers to the United States for trial, Uribe had never extradited a Marxist rebel.

The hostages’ families and the Roman Catholic Church, both of which opposed Palmera’s extradition, warned that the move could complicate future peace talks and scuttle efforts to negotiate a prisoner swap, endangering the hostages’ lives.

“It throws a new stumbling block in our efforts to reach a [hostage-freeing] humanitarian accord, which is imperative to put an end to the suffering of so many Colombians,” said the Rev. Dario Echeverri, secretary-general of the church-led National Reconciliation Commission.

Palmera is accused by a U.S. federal court of drug trafficking, kidnapping and supporting terrorists. After his arrest early last year in Ecuador, Colombian courts convicted him of aggravated kidnapping and sentenced him to 35 years in prison.