Paramilitary Law Cements Colombia's Double Standard

By Sean Donahue,
Posted on Wed Jun 29th, 2005

Any pretense that the U.S. and Colombian governments were cooperating in a real war on cocaine trafficking in Colombia was erased completely last week when the Colombian Congress passed the Orwellian "Justice and Peace Law" which allows paramilitary leaders implicated in drug trafficking to get off with a slap on the wrist, hold on to their wealth, maintain their terror networks, and escape extradition by making vague confessions and accepting light prison sentences.

This despite the fact that the Uribe administration's own study on demobilization, prepared in secret two years ago, concluded that paramilitaries are responsible for at least 40 percent of the cocaine trafficking in Colombia.