Colombian warlord violates deal, faces extradition

By Patrick Markey

BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia offered to extradite a jailed paramilitary chief to the United States on Friday after kicking him out of a peace accord with the government on charges he organized drug trafficking from his prison cell.

Carlos Mario Jimenez is the first militia warlord to lose benefits offered by President Alvaro Uribe in exchange for giving up crime and surrendering arms after years of atrocities committed in the name of fighting left-wing guerrillas.

The move came as Uribe, an ally to Washington, faces a scandal tying some of his congressional supporters to the paramilitaries and as U.S. Democrats debating an aid package for Colombia question whether he has curbed militia influence.

"Those who continue to commit crimes will face the same fate," Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos told local radio. "Those who are fulfilling their commitment and are not involved in crime have nothing to fear."

The U.S. Justice Department told Reuters it would not comment on whether it would seek the extradition of Jimenez.

Authorities transferred Jimenez to Combita jail, from where extraditions are often carried out. Another warlord, Diego "Don Berna" Fernando Murillo, was taken there for security during a probe of possible violations of his peace deal.

"It was a decision the government had to take," said Mauricio Romero, an author on paramilitaries and member of the semi-autonomous National Commission for Reparation and Reconciliation, which monitors the disarmament process.

"It could bring consequences in delaying the re-integration of demobilized militias. Middle-rank commanders are going to have to make a decision about whether they finally join the legal process or keep being illegal."

One of the remaining warlords held in Itagui prison near Medellin, Francisco Zuluaga, said the commanders remained committed to the peace agreement.

TOUGH MESSAGE

Violence from the country's four-decade-old war has eased with the paramilitary disarmament and the government has sent troops to push back the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, the largest rebel group still fighting Latin America's oldest insurgency.

Organized in the 1980s, the paramilitaries are accused of some of the worst massacres in the conflict as they drove back guerrillas, snatched land and killed in the name of counter-insurgency, often in collusion with state forces.

Under the peace deal, the paramilitary commanders gave up the gun in exchange for short jail terms, provided they were not involved in crime, gave full confessions and paid reparation to victims. Colombia also suspended U.S. extradition on drug trafficking charges for some.

But rights groups say the commanders have kept criminal gangs intact and complain too little pressure has been put on the warlords to hold up their end of the peace deal and bring justice to thousands of their victims.

Authorities acknowledge some demobilized fighters have rearmed and joined forces with emerging criminal gangs and drug traffickers, posing an increasing threat in some regions.