Drug lords promise to continue killings

Press, 21 August 1989, Page 9

Drug lords promise to continue killings

NZPA-AP Bogota Colombian drug lords stood up to President Virigilio Barco and his war on drugs yesterday, declaring they will keep killing Government officials and judges.

“Now the fight is with blood,” the Medellin Cartel declared in a brief communique. The threat by what is considered the world’s most powerful drug organisation was broadcast by RCN radio network and printed in "La Prensa,” one of the Colombian capital’s major dailies. The Medellin Cartel and a ring in Cali are thought to be behind up to 80 per cent of cocaine smuggled into the United States. "We do want peace. We have screamed for it, but we will not beg for it,” said the document signed by "The Extraditables.”

Previous documents of the Medellin Cartel have carried the same anonymous signature, which apparently refers to drug traffickers liable for extradition to the United States for criminal trial. Mr Barco announced drastic, measures against drug-traffickers on Saturday night after the killings of Judge Carlos Valencia Garcia; the police chief of Antioquia, Waldemar Franklin Quintero; and a leading presidential candidate, Luis Carlos Galan, of the Liberal Party. The Government has sent an elite police force to the drug-trafficking

bastion of Medellin, and all of the armed forces have been placed under alert, meaning the Army can be called into action at any time. Mr Galan’s murder occurred in public as he presided over a rally in the city of Soache, 20km from Bogota. Television footage showed him approaching the platform at the rally when automatic gunfire was heard. The crowd scattered in panic, leaving two bodies on the platform, one of them Mr Galan’s and the other of a councilman. Drug kingpins have murdered politicians and journalists in recent years, but had not previ-

ously killed a man considered a strong candidate to be Colombia’s next President. Mr Galan was leading opinion polls as his party’s choice for next year’s Presidential elections. A poll last week placed Mr Galan with 62 per cent of Liberal party support, well ahead- of the 13 per cent of his closest rival, Ernesto Samper. Mr Galan, aged 46, a journalist who later became a politician, favoured .extraditing drug traffickers to the United States. He said it was "instrumental” to defeat drug kingpins. Drug lords pledged to kill Mr Galan two years ago. Aware of the threat,

Mr Galan always wore a bullet-proof vest while attending public meetings. Witnesses said he was attacked by a man armed with a machine gun and six armed accomplices. The vest shielded him from three bullets, but another penetrated the abdomen, according to a forensic report. Mr Barco, in a nationwide television address, said drug traffickers will be extradited to the United States without legal warrants and their properties will be confiscated. A previous provision to extradite traffickers was suspended after it triggered a wave of violence by drug gangs.