Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Extradition

Colombia has extradited a paramilitary warlord to the United States of America to stand trial for drug trafficking, money laundering and financing terrorism. CTV is reporting that Carlos Mario Jiminez has been flown to Miami after losing certain protections and benefits that had been arranged in exchange for judicial cooperation. As leader of an extreme right wing paramilitary organization Jiminez is responsible for thousands of deaths and the theft of enormous tracts of land.

Many of the victims of the paramilitary forces are protesting the extradition, fearing that once delivered into American custody they will never learn the whereabouts of their family's remains or be able to secure restitution. They also fear that many of the organization's underlings, not already named, would escape prosecution. Not surprisingly, the Americans have frozen Jiminez' assets in the U.S. which goes to fuel the fear that the victims and their families will never be compensated. Given the enormous sums of money to be made in the cocaine business, Jiminez and his like are almost instantly being replaced by a new crop of violent drug kingpins.

One positive note is that the American government seems willing to prosecute the private paramilitary organizations for their crimes. How long will it be before Blackwater's Erik Prince and his mercenary organization stand trial for the crimes they have committed against the people of Iraq? Crickets anyone.

6 comments:

E in MD said...

I'm going to guess, 50 years after Erik Prince and everyone else dies.

Maybe Obama will investigate. Maybe.

Lindsay Stewart said...

i have the funny feeling that if obama wins, he'll have his hands full trying to quell the dissent from among those that bought the hopes and dreams schpiel. as deeply retarded as l'il george seems to be, he's spending a great deal of effort hamstringing his successors into a permanent clusterfuck overseas. to say nothing of the ridiculous mess he's made of the executive. i don't recall either of the democratic candidates putting forth any sort of plan to extricate themselves from iraq and gawd help them if they try and it goes haywire. and what are the odds of that? dead high, i'd wager. interesting times, as the old curse goes. north and south, intersting times.

Rev.Paperboy said...

How long? phhhht! How long from now is never?
PSA's completely correct, the current administration's scorched earth agenda is all about making the situation so toxic that the next president will be left holding the very large reeking bag and be declared a failure when they fail to unring the bell that is the invasion of Iraq and possibly Iran, thus clearing the way for whichever republican carpetbagger they are grooming for 2012 or 2016, depending on how long it takes the next president to get the country out of economic chaos and depression.
Think of it as the slum landlord/insurance fraud school of governance -- bleed everyone dry for as long as you can then set fire to the place to collect the insurance money and throw up another shitty crackerbox apt building somewhere else, rinse, repeat.

The Seer said...

Guys:

This election is not about the white house.

This election is about the house and the senate, the state capitols and the county seats.

The importance of John McCain is not that he has a chance, but that he put's a reasonably decent face on the top of the ticket, thereby minimizing the damage to the Republican brand

The importance of Barack Obama is that he brings extra contributors, workers and voters into the process.

The success or failure of the next presidency probably depends on whether Democrats do well enough to get a fillibuster-proof senate.

Lindsay Stewart said...

with that filibuster proof senate they still have to enact policy that isn't watery republican rahm emmanuel style twaddle. i am filled with the doubts that harry reid and nancy pelosi have sown.

Purple library guy said...

I have this weird feeling that it's all just a working out in US courts of some internal Colombian drug lord rivalry. One drug lord wanted to nail another drug lord, so he made some calls to some US friends in the CIA or otherwise involved with Plan Colombia and presto! Rival off his hands.