- Title: Colombia will not extradite criminals who fulfill deals with gov't -Petro
- Date: 24th August 2022
- Summary: BOGOTA, COLOMBIA (AUGUST 24, 2022) (REUTERS) COLOMBIA'S PRESIDENT GUSTAVO PETRO GREETING SPANISH PRIME MINISTER PEDRO SANCHEZ COLOMBIAN AND SPANISH FLAGS SANCHEZ AND PETRO WALKING TOWARDS PRESIDENTIAL PALACE SANCHEZ AND PETRO ON STAGE SANCHEZ, PETRO AND COLOMBIAN AND SPANISH OFFICIALS DURING MILITARY HONOURS COLOMBIAN SOLDIERS DURING MILITARY HONOURS SANCHEZ AND PETRO DURING CEREMONY COLOMBIAN AND SPANISH OFFICIALS DURING CEREMONY PETRO GREETING SPANISH OFFICIALS SOLDIERS DURING CEREMONY VARIOUS SANCHEZ AND PETRO WALKING TOWARDS PRESIDENTIAL PALACE COLOMBIAN FLAG WAVING SANCHEZ AND PETRO SHAKING HANDS, POSING FOR PHOTO AND ENTERING PRESIDENTIAL PALACE
- Embargoed: 8th September 2022 00:41
- Keywords: Colombia Gustavo Petro Pedro Sanchez Spain
- Location: BOGOTA, COLOMBIA
- City: BOGOTA, COLOMBIA
- Country: Colombia
- Topics: Diplomacy/Foreign Policy,South America / Central America,Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA001041024082022RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: PART VIDEO QUALITY AS INCOMING
Colombian President Gustavo Petro said on Wednesday (August 24) that drug traffickers who comply with government surrender conditions and exit the trade will not be extradited to face charges abroad.
Petro, who was sworn in this month on promises to bring "total peace" to Colombia, said his government is in touch with various armed groups who want to negotiate their way out of the country's conflict.
Leftist Petro has broadly questioned the effectiveness of extradition, a legal tool that Washington considers a powerful deterrent to crime.
His government has floated an offer of legal benefits like reduced sentences to crime gang members who provide information about drug trafficking and lay down arms.
"Drug traffickers who do not negotiate with the state will be extradited, drug traffickers who negotiate with the state and re-offend will be extradited without any kind of negotiation to the United States," Petro told journalists after a bilateral meeting with visiting Spanish President Pedro Sanchez.
"Drug traffickers who negotiate legal benefits with the Colombian state and definitively stop being drug traffickers will not be extradited," he said.
The government is in communication with a variety of armed groups including the Clan del Golfo crime gang and dissidents from the now-demobilized FARC rebels, who reject a 2016 peace deal signed by their former group.
During the meeting Sanchez said his country will continue to back Colombia's efforts to implement the FARC deal and restart peace talks with the still-active National Liberation Army (ELN) rebels. Read full story
"We will support Colombia both in the implementation of the final peace agreement and in the negotiations that the new government decides to enter into with the armed groups that choose to abandon violence once and for all," said Sanchez, who is also traveling to Ecuador and Honduras this week.
Spain could even be the venue for ELN talks, Sanchez said. Petro said any decision on location would have to be taken jointly with the rebels.
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