US
Accused
of
Mistreating
Jailed
Colombians
1/9/00
Five Colombian legislators, having just completed a two week tour of U.S. penal institutions which house nearly 5,000 Colombians, announced that the inmates are receiving inadequate medical care and that many are detained for longer periods than those to which they have been sentenced, held in detention centers for up to six months awaiting deportation to Colombia. The group plans to issue a full report on their findings later in January. Rep. Benjamin Higuita, spokesman for the group, said that 95% of the Colombian inmates were sentenced for drug offenses. More than half of all Colombians incarcerated abroad are in the U.S. The announcement comes at a time when Colombian President Andres Pastrana is under political pressure at home for his acquiescence to American demands to re-institute the practice of extraditing Colombian nationals wanted by the United States. Extradition is highly unpopular among Colombians, as it evokes a time of intense violence in that nation's history. Under pressure from the U.S. government, Colombian authorities attempted from 1989 through parto extradite a group of high-level drug traffickers -- self-dubbed "Los Extraditables," to the U.S. The traffickers responded by launching a wave of assassinations, murdering several hundred politicians, judges and bystanders. The Constitutional Assembly in 1991 prohibited extradition, but various measures have subsequently brought it back, according to Coletta Youngers, Senior Associate at the Washington Office on Latin America. "The issue of extradition has already been controversial in Bogota," Youngers told the Week Online. "Public opinion has traditionally been opposed to extradition, and the visit reflects the intense feelings that Colombians have on this issue." Youngers doubts, however, that the visit will change the Pastrana administration's policies, which reflect continuing U.S. pressure.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
