Colombian "paras" threaten to break peace talks
Source: Reuters
By Hugh Bronstein BOGOTA, Colombia, Dec 7 (Reuters) - Colombia's former right-wing paramilitary leaders said on Thursday they would end peace talks after being thrown into jail last week while they await trial for crimes such as massacre and drug smuggling. The threat by the once-feared 59 top commanders of the defunct United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, or AUC, appeared to be a test of their clout as they try to avoid extradition to the United States on drug charges. More than 30,000 AUC members have turned in their guns over the last three years under a deal promising reduced jail terms, part of Colombia's effort at ending 42 years of guerrilla war. Paramilitary spokesman Ivan Roberto Duque, alias Ernesto Baez, told local radio Friday's decision by the government to transfer him and other militia chiefs from a work farm to a high-security prison was a betrayal of confidence. But he said they will abide by accords already signed with the government, adding that they are ready to point their fingers at public officials who have collaborated with their illegal fight against Marxist guerrillas. "The country needs to know the whole truth," he said. The paramilitaries, some of whom are accused of continuing lives of extortion and murder even after turning themselves in, were formed in the 1980s by landowners trying to protect their property from left-wing rebels. Peace talks with the rebels, who like the paramilitaries fund their operations with Colombia's multibillion-dollar cocaine trade, remain elusive. "The fact is the peace negotiations had already ended with the demobilizations," said Pablo Casas, an analyst with Bogota think tank Security and Democracy. "Now comes the justice part and that's the part the paramilitaries do not like. They still want to bargain on the terms of their punishment," Casas said. President Alvaro Uribe, a conservative U.S.-ally whose father was killed by the rebels over 20 years ago, is threatening to extradite paramilitary honchos who refuse to dismantle their criminal networks. Uribe is facing a political crisis in which three members of his congressional coalition were arrested last month for being involved with the paramilitaries and more lawmakers from Uribe-friendly parties are under investigation.
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