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Plan Colombia Backfires at Colombians
05/07/05 - - "Prensa Latina" - - The incident with five US soldiers allowed to go home when caught in possession of 16 kg of cocaine heated up the long-standing questioning of the immunity enjoyed by US citizens under a bilateral agreement with Washington.
Sen. Jairo Clopatofsky, member of the Foreign Affairs Commission, said he will promote in Congress a motion to modify the accord signed in 1974 and confirmed September 2004 that is also the will of numerous Colombians.
It grants immunity to all US personnel involved in official cooperation programs in Colombian territory. That includes everyone working in the Plan Colombia, all US diplomats, 800 soldiers and 600 civilian contractors.
Defense Minister Jorge Alberto Uribe explained that the soldiers were training their Colombian counterparts in anti-drug techniques and were discovered with the drug in Colombian territory but inside a US military aircraft, a technicality that impairs their arrest here.
Even the US Embassy in Bogota hurried to remind via a press release of the immunity enjoyed by its citizens under the agreement. Washington even approved a law two years back that froze economic assistance to every nation refusing to grant immunity at them International Criminal Court.
Those are the details at the heart of Sen. Clopatofsky’s drive in Congress. He said the US soldiers should be tried at the seat of the crime scene, adding that he will press for their extradition.
In his view they should be indicted on the principle of co-responsibility as foundation of the struggle against terrorism and drug trafficking, adding that the later is an international crime hence they deserve to be indicted.
The Senator also termed as unfair the fact that Colombian citizens can be extradited and judged in US territory while they are impaired to do likewise.
President Alvaro Uribe promised Radio Caracol in Beijing, China, where he is paying an official visit, that he will study the legislators’ request.
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