http://www.user1.netcarrier.com/~aahpat/qes.htm Pubdate: Wed, 04 Apr 2001 Source: Houston Chronicle (TX) Copyright: 2001 Houston Chronicle Contact: http://www.chron.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/198 Author: Andrew Selsky, Associated Press Writer COLOMBIA REBELS, DRUG TRADE LINKED BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - The commander of Colombia's army said Wednesday he has hard proof that leftist rebels are now involved in almost every phase of the international drug trade and warned that guerrillas could be extradited for trial abroad. Documents seized during army raids in the jungles of eastern Colombia showed the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, are involved in the cultivation of coca, own processing labs and illicit airstrips, and sell cocaine to international cartels, Gen. Jorge Enrique Mora told a news conference. "They are also involved in money laundering," Mora said. "The only thing we have not found is these bandits of the FARC selling cocaine on the streets of New York." Mora said the documents would be turned over to Colombian prosecutors and "international institutions,'' adding: ``The bandits of the FARC can be extradited." During a recent visit to jungles near the border with Brazil, U.S. Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace o who heads U.S. military operations in Latin America o said he believed rebels and drug traffickers are "one and the same in this region." FARC spokesman Carlos Antonio Lozada called the charges "a pretext and excuse to the international community for the growing (U.S.) intervention in the Colombian conflict." In comments carried by a pro-FARC Internet site, ANNCOL, Lozada said any extraditions of rebels to the United States would derail peace initiatives President Andres Pastrana's government is pursuing with the rebels. Pastrana has refused to call the FARC drug traffickers. The FARC acknowledges it "taxes" farmers who grow coca crops, but denies it smuggles cocaine or works directly with international drug traffickers. Prosecutor-General Alfonso Gomez said in a recent interview that if the United States sought the extradition of rebels for drug trafficking, such requests would be considered on a case-by-case basis. Colombia has already dispatched a dozen suspected drug traffickers o who were not guerrillas o to the United States since extraditions resumed in 1999. U.S. officials have kept largely silent on whether they would seek the extradition of suspected rebel drug traffickers for trial in the United States o a move that would increase suspicion that Washington is getting involved in Colombia's civil war under the guise of fighting drugs. Under a $1.3 billion aid package, Colombian soldiers trained by U.S. Green Berets have been destroying drug labs protected by the FARC and by a rival right-wing paramilitary group. The troops also provide covering fire for crop dusters, accompanied by U.S.-supplied combat helicopters, which have wiped out 100 square miles of coca plantations since December. - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D