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Colombia’s new right-wing president, Abelardo de la Espriella, has approved the extradition of five rebel armed group members who are wanted in the US on drug-related charges.<\/b><\/p>\n
The move is a step towards ending a plan by his left-wing predecessor Gustavo Petro who tried to end the violence that has plagued Colombia for decades by bringing rebel and criminal groups to the negotiating table.<\/p>\n
“Since the first day it was clear: peace cannot be a refuge for criminals nor a mechanism of impunity,” de la Espriella wrote on X.<\/p>\n
Speaking later he said Petro’s peace plan had opened doors to criminals without securing their cooperation.<\/p>\n
Critics of Petro’s plan say his attempts to negotiate with a number of armed groups failed as members of the illegal organisations repeatedly broke ceasefires and walked away from the talks.<\/p>\n
The five men facing extradition are members of dissident factions of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc), a left-wing rebel group that signed a peace deal with the government in 2016, and the Gulf Clan, thought to be Colombia’s main drug trafficking cartel.<\/p>\n
They are all wanted in the US on charges including drug trafficking, narco-terrorism and illegal weapons possession, among others. Only two of them are being held by Colombian authorities; three others remain at large.<\/p>\n
The extraditions were approved by Petro in 2025, but they remained suspended because the men took part in the former president’s peace efforts.<\/p>\n
De la Espriella, who was sworn in earlier this month, has promised US President Donald Trump to escalate a war against drug trafficking in Latin America. Trump’s administration has made targeting traffickers in the region a priority.<\/p>\n
Colombia is the world’s largest producer of cocaine and has long been one of Washington’s closest allies in Latin America, but relations came under strain under Petro.<\/p>\n
He openly challenged Washington’s approach to combating drug trafficking and condemned the US military’s deadly strikes on suspected drug-smuggling boats.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n