NousDefionsDoc
03-09-2005, 19:25
Woman rebel extradited to US on drugs charges
From David Adams in Miami
COLOMBIA extradited last night a female guerrilla leader known as “Comandante Sonia” to the United States on drug-trafficking charges.
The 37-year-old rebel, whose real name is Nayibe Rojas, is accused of being a pivotal figure in the drugs trade in southern Colombia, where she headed narcotics operations for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc). She was put on a US Drug Enforcement Administration aircraft at an airport in Barranquilla.
American and Colombian officials say she handled Farc contacts between local coca growers, laboratories where the leaves are processed into semi-refined paste, and wholesale cocaine distributors.
She is the second most important Farc leader to be extradited in recent months after Juvenal Palmera, better known by his nom de guerre, Simón Trinidad, a former banker who was arrested last year in Ecuador. Señor Trinidad was flown to the US on December 31, where he faces charges of drug trafficking, hostage taking and aiding terrorist activities.
Comandante Sonia was arrested in February last year in a rural hamlet in southern Caqueta province, a Farc stronghold and leading drug production region. Colombian and American officials described her capture as a significant blow to the financial operations of the country’s largest guerrilla insurgency.
One recent report estimated that about 30 per cent of Farc’s finances are derived from the drugs trade, with kidnapping and extortion making up most of the remainder. Her capture provided some of the strongest evidence so far of Farc’s deep involvement in the drug trade, from cultivation of crops to the processing of the drug and its sale. Previously the guerrillas had claimed to only impose rural taxes on the drug trade and had denied any direct involvement in drug production and distribution.
Commandante Sonia was captured in a pre-dawn raid by Colombian special forces, who descended on her jungle camp by helicopter. The raid was executed with such precision that she and 16 rebel guards were captured without a shot being fired.
Military sources say that computers were also seized, containing valuable information on Farc’s drug operations.
Yesterday Colombian officials were holding Sonia at a maximum-security jail in the north of the country. At one point she was moved to a ship at sea because they feared that Farc wanted to kill her to ensure that she did not reveal financial details of the group. Farc has denied planning to kill her.
President Uribe of Colombia is a staunch ally of the United States and has increased extraditions during the past two years as part of a tough anti- terrorism policy.
His security policies have reduced violence from the country’s 40-year-old guerrilla war involving left-wing rebels and far-right paramilitaries, both of which are linked to the cocaine business.
The Colombian Supreme Court has approved the extradition of 12 other alleged drug-traffickers, including Miguel Rodríguez Orejuela, the former head of the powerful Cali cartel. Señor Rodríguez Orejuela’s brother, Gilberto, was extradited last year.
From David Adams in Miami
COLOMBIA extradited last night a female guerrilla leader known as “Comandante Sonia” to the United States on drug-trafficking charges.
The 37-year-old rebel, whose real name is Nayibe Rojas, is accused of being a pivotal figure in the drugs trade in southern Colombia, where she headed narcotics operations for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc). She was put on a US Drug Enforcement Administration aircraft at an airport in Barranquilla.
American and Colombian officials say she handled Farc contacts between local coca growers, laboratories where the leaves are processed into semi-refined paste, and wholesale cocaine distributors.
She is the second most important Farc leader to be extradited in recent months after Juvenal Palmera, better known by his nom de guerre, Simón Trinidad, a former banker who was arrested last year in Ecuador. Señor Trinidad was flown to the US on December 31, where he faces charges of drug trafficking, hostage taking and aiding terrorist activities.
Comandante Sonia was arrested in February last year in a rural hamlet in southern Caqueta province, a Farc stronghold and leading drug production region. Colombian and American officials described her capture as a significant blow to the financial operations of the country’s largest guerrilla insurgency.
One recent report estimated that about 30 per cent of Farc’s finances are derived from the drugs trade, with kidnapping and extortion making up most of the remainder. Her capture provided some of the strongest evidence so far of Farc’s deep involvement in the drug trade, from cultivation of crops to the processing of the drug and its sale. Previously the guerrillas had claimed to only impose rural taxes on the drug trade and had denied any direct involvement in drug production and distribution.
Commandante Sonia was captured in a pre-dawn raid by Colombian special forces, who descended on her jungle camp by helicopter. The raid was executed with such precision that she and 16 rebel guards were captured without a shot being fired.
Military sources say that computers were also seized, containing valuable information on Farc’s drug operations.
Yesterday Colombian officials were holding Sonia at a maximum-security jail in the north of the country. At one point she was moved to a ship at sea because they feared that Farc wanted to kill her to ensure that she did not reveal financial details of the group. Farc has denied planning to kill her.
President Uribe of Colombia is a staunch ally of the United States and has increased extraditions during the past two years as part of a tough anti- terrorism policy.
His security policies have reduced violence from the country’s 40-year-old guerrilla war involving left-wing rebels and far-right paramilitaries, both of which are linked to the cocaine business.
The Colombian Supreme Court has approved the extradition of 12 other alleged drug-traffickers, including Miguel Rodríguez Orejuela, the former head of the powerful Cali cartel. Señor Rodríguez Orejuela’s brother, Gilberto, was extradited last year.