Colombia extradites militia head

Judges said Jimenez's extradition did not mean he would not pay reparation

Colombia has extradited of a former paramilitary leader to the US to face drug-trafficking and terrorism charges.

The Colombian president's office said Carlos Mario Jimenez, also known as Macaco, was flown to Washington on a US Drug Enforcement Administration plane.

Earlier, the judiciary's high council overturned a Supreme Court ruling that he should stay until he confessed to his alleged crimes and paid reparation.

Last year, the government accused him running a criminal empire from prison.

They said Jimenez had therefore violated the 2003 peace deal, which obliged paramilitary leaders to surrender and demobilise 31,000 men in exchange for reduced jail terms and extradition protection.

He was transferred in August to Colombia's most secure prison, Combita, to be tried as an ordinary criminal without such privileges.

Compensation

Colombian Police Director-General Oscar Naranjo said a US DEA plane carrying Jimenez had departed from a secure hangar at Bogota's El Dorado airport early on Wednesday morning.

The extradition took place only hours after the High Council of the Judiciary overturned a ruling by the Supreme Court last month which temporarily blocked it, on the grounds that Jimenez's many victims might never be compensated.

Speaking for the seven judges on the panel, Judge Angelino Lizcano said the extradition would not cause "irreparable damage" to the victims' claims because it did not mean reparations could not still be sought by the government in the US.

"Both the person responsible for wounding or killing, as well as the government, are under the obligation to respond in solidarity" with the rights of the victims, he said.

The US has accused Jimenez of drug trafficking, money laundering and financing terrorist groups. It has also frozen any assets he has in the US and forbidden its citizens from doing business with him.

The first extradition of a former paramilitary leader was welcomed by human rights groups, but analysts say it threatens to increase tensions between the authorities and other jailed leaders who are believed still to be behind much of the organised crime in Colombia.

The paramilitaries were organised and funded by wealthy landowners and drug traffickers to combat rebel armies, but evolved into drug cartels accused of committing some of the country's worst atrocities.

Jimenez commanded what is thought to have been the largest paramilitary group, the United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia.