2023-08-23 19:58:34
MIAMI (AP) — Florida Senator Marco Rubio has called on the U.S. government to reject Colombia’s request to extradite a former guerrilla fighter who has been named the South American country’s peace envoy, a move that could save him more time in prison for abuses against human rights.
Salvatore Mancuso, a former paramilitary commander, served a 12-year prison sentence for cocaine trafficking in 2020. He has been in US custody ever since, after Colombia revoked a US order that would have sent him to Italy at the last minute. , where he also has citizenship, and instead reached an agreement for him to be returned to his country to face justice.
This month, Colombian President Gustavo Petro named Mancuso peace envoy to promote the disarmament of other illegal armed groups that emerged after Mancuso’s United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) laid down its arms two decades ago. To facilitate the peacekeeping role, Petro said he would seek to suspend the prison sentences that the courts have already imposed on Mancuso for his involvement in more than 1,500 acts of murder and enforced disappearances.
Rubio, the top Republican on the US Senate subcommittee dealing with Latin America, urged Attorney General Merrick Garland to reject Colombia’s extradition request until Petro revokes his offer to Mancuso or there are credible guarantees that he will serve the sentences. .
“Allowing Mancuso to not only walk free in Colombia, but to represent the Colombian government in negotiations with drug traffickers currently working to flood our community with narcotics, would be an insult to the thousands of Colombians who are victims of Mancuso’s crimes,” he wrote. in a letter sent Wednesday to Garland.
Rubio’s Senate office provided a copy of the letter to The Associated Press.
Mancuso is seeking asylum in the United States, saying he could be killed if transferred to Colombia, a country struggling to recover from decades of bloody, drug-fuelled conflict. In May, an immigration judge rejected that argument, but Mancuso has appealed and the case is ongoing, his attorneys and the prosecution said in a joint filing Tuesday in federal court in Washington.
Manuel Renteria, Mancuso’s attorney, declined to comment.
Formed as self-defense forces by wealthy cattle ranchers in the 1980s to counter extortion and kidnappings by leftist rebels, far-right militias seized control of much of Colombia’s Caribbean coast in the late 1980s. 1990, killing thousands of people and stealing millions of acres of land, while seizing control of the lucrative drug routes. In 2001, the United States designated the AUC a foreign terrorist organization.
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