COLOMBIA extradited 14 former paramilitary leaders to the United States yesterday to face drug-trafficking charges after authorities said the warlords violated terms of a peace deal with the government.
The mass extradition came as President Alvaro Uribe, a key Washington ally, faced pressure over a scandal linking some of his political allies to the outlawed militias.
Violence has lessened under Mr Uribe, who has used billions of dollars of US
military aid to push back Marxist guerrillas engaged in Latin America's oldest insurgency. But rebels and renegade paramilitaries are still fighting in remote areas, fuelled by the massive cocaine trade.
Wearing body armour and handcuffs, the 14 men were escorted aboard a plane under heavy guard. Among them were some of the most feared warlords, accused of massacres in the bloodiest days of the four-decade conflict.
"Most of the top bosses are there," justice minister Carlos Holguin said before the plane left a military base in Bogota. "In some cases they were still committing crimes and reorganising criminal structures."
The paramilitaries, set up by landowners to provide defence against the rebels, soon controlled huge areas. They massacred civilians, drove peasants from their land and smuggled cocaine in the name of counter-insurgency.
Militia bosses began surrendering under a 2003 deal with Mr Uribe that gave them short jail terms in exchange for confessions and compensation.
But rights activists and officials said the paramilitary leaders violated the accord by keeping their gangs active or by failing to co-operate with authorities in handing over illicit gains to victims.
Families of the paramilitaries' victims, who were often hacked up and dumped in shallow graves merely on suspicion of guerrilla ties, worried that the mass extradition meant the warlords would never see real justice in Colombia.
"This extradition means there will be no historic truth or political truth here," said Luis Emil Sanabria, a victims' group representative.
Mr Uribe vaunts the paramilitary surrender for helping to curb violence.
But he is under fire over a scandal that has ensnared more than 60 legislators over links to paramilitaries.
