U.S. grants refuge to Colombian drug lord's wife (right-wing paramilitary)

[Judi Lynn]

Oct. 12, 2004, 11:19PM

U.S. grants refuge to Colombian drug lord's wife
Extradition of the paramilitary leader still sought
Associated Press

BOGOTA, COLOMBIA - The United States has granted refuge to the wife of a drug-trafficking suspect wanted in the United States and whose paramilitary group is considered a terrorist organization, a senior U.S. envoy has confirmed.


Kenia Gomez, wife of Carlos Castano, a founder of the feared United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, or AUC, went to U.S. officials for help after her husband disappeared during a gunbattle with paramilitary rivals in northwest Colombia last April.

"A few months ago, the wife of Castano asked for refuge in the United States, terrified by the disappearance of her husband, and we — previously having consulted with the Colombian government — conceded it for humanitarian reasons," U.S. Ambassador to Colombia William Wood said in an interview in the current edition of the Colombian news magazine Semana.

The United States is seeking the arrest and extradition of Castano on criminal charges he smuggled tons of cocaine from Colombia to the United States.
(snip/...)

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/2845165

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cretin Castaño

Castaño Under U.S. Protection?

Carlos Castano, a right-wing militia leader in Colombia, was recently smuggled into Israel, AFP reported Tuesday. But Israeli Foreign Ministry and Interior Ministry officials who checked this story said they found no evidence that Castano had entered Israel. They noted, however, that it is possible that he entered the country under a different name.

04.06.2004 (By Al Giordano, Narcosphere)

The Israeli daily Haaretz reports: The militia leader disappeared from Colombia on February 16 after the country's militias agreed to a government demand to disband. Castano, 39, was first moved to Panama under American guard and then sent to Israel, according to the French news agency's report. The Colombian government refused to confirm or deny this report...

Haaretz continues:

Castano apparently left Colombia because he had become associated with the United States' efforts to combat the country's illicit drug business and his life was threatened. Another militia leader was murdered several days ago after being suspected of similar cooperation with the Americans.

Carlos Castano, founder of the Colombian paramilitary death squad movement known as AUC (United Self-defense Forces of Colombia), is the kingpin behind more massacres, assassinations, drug trafficking, and other crimes than any other Latin American alive today.

The reported possibility that he is in some kind of witness protection program of the United States is primarily disturbing because there is absolutely no possible criminal "above" him that his testimony would be useful in trapping. Castano is the boss, the region's biggest war criminal of the latter 20th and early 21st centuries.
(snip/...)

http://www.anncol.org/side/611

[Judi Lynn]

1. Kick!

[Minstrel Boy]

2. reminds me of what became of Carlos Lehder.

co-founder of the Medellin Cartel boss.

Know what happened to him?



He went from demonized "Most wanted," into the witness protection program, and now, it seems, he's free and employed by the Bush Cartel.

.

For a while, Carlos Lehder Rivas was America's public enemy No. 1. With business skills as strong as his taste for violence, Lehder had turned Colombia's chaotic cocaine trade into the Medellin Cartel, an efficient and murderous operation responsible for 80 percent of the cocaine that came into this country a decade ago.

So when Lehder was finally captured in a Colombian jungle in 1987 after almost four years in hiding, then-U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese hailed it as a major victory in the war on drugs. Lehder would be extradited, officials announced, and become the first foreign drug lord to face the full force of American justice.

Not mentioned in the burst of publicity surrounding the arrest was one curious fact: Lehder had already begun cutting a deal from his remote hideaway, a deal that would eventually land him in the federal witness protection program.
http://www.fear.org/carlos1.html

Asked on June 28th to state whether or not Carlos Lehder is still in prison and/or a member of the Witness Security program or whether he was an employee of the U.S. government, DOJ spokeswoman Susan Dryden stated that she would look into it and have someone call me back as soon as possible. As of press time a week later, no one has called me back.
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ciadrugs/part_1.html

The essence of the drug economic lesson was that by growing opium in Colombia and by smuggling both cocaine and heroin from Colombia to New York City through the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico (a virtual straight line), traditional smuggling routes could be shortened or even eliminated. This reduced both risk and cost, increased profits and eliminated competition.

FTW suspects the hand of Medellin co-founder Carlos Lehder in this process and it is interesting to note that Lehder, released from prison under Clinton in 1995, is now active in both the Bahamas and South America. Lehder was known during the eighties as "The genius of transportation." I can well imagine a Dick Cheney, having witnessed the complete restructuring of the global drug trade in the last eight years, going to George W and saying, "Look, I know how we can make it even better." One thing is for certain. As quoted in the CPI article, one Halliburton Vice President noted that if the Bush-Cheney ticket was elected, "the company's government contracts would obviously go through the roof."
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ciadrugs/bush-cheney-drugs.html