NARCOTICS: US to Limit Colombian Drug Baron’s Sentence

By Estrella Gutiérrez Reprint | | Print |

Estrella Gutierrez

CARACAS, May 6 1997 (IPS) - The only way Venezuela will hand over the alleged Colombian Drug Baron Justo Pastor Perafan to the United States is if a series of commitments are made, including giving him a term of less than 30 years.

The move to extradite Perafan to the United States was given a great boost Tuesday when a report on the case recommending the move was handed over to the Supreme Court by the Attorney General, Ivan Badell.

Perafan was arrested in San Cristobal, in the frontier state of Tachira, by the Venezuelan National Guard on April 17 this year. He is believed to be the biggest Colombian narcotraffic leader still unsentenced.

Venezuela wants the US sentence limited as Perafan was caught here, in a country which has neither the death penalty nor life imprisonment, and where the maximum sentence is 30 years.

However, figures like former Supreme Court judge, Roberto Yepes, said as Perafan is already 50 years old, 30 years would effectively mean life.

Also, Venezuela does not allow people aged over 70 years-old to remain in prison, but rather house arrest, and some analysts say Perafan should therefore have the same rights if sentenced to more than 20 years.

Present leader of the Supreme Court, Cecilia Sosa, said the verdict on the extradition will come through within the next two weeks “on strictly legal reasoning.”

Meanwhile, former dean of the leading law faculty in the nation, Alberto Arteaga, told IPS house arrest is a national benefit which cannot legally be awarded extraterritorially.

However, he added the Court could impose any conditions they like to bring Perafan’s trial and sentence in line with the Constitution and Venezuelan law. A precedent of this has already been set on extraditions to Washington.

The Court could decide to send him to Colombia or the United States, or to try him here, where he was resident for the last year, although there are no drug offence charges against him here yet.

Should he go to the United States the preconditions could limit his prison term and prevent him from being tried in States which give the death penalty or life imprisonment for such crimes.

However, the US case against Perafan is in New York, where both verdicts are possible. The charges lodged in 1995 include the possession, distribution and importing of 30 tons of drugs, which could mean between 40 years and life, said the public prosecutor on the case, Edgardo Ramos.

The US embassy in Caracas insisted the legal conditions imposed by Venezuela would be honoured, as is stated in article four of the bilateral extradition agreement.

Perafan, a man with an estimated personal fortune of some 12 billion dollars, faces far more serious drug trafficking accusations in the United States than in Colombia, and it is therefore suspected the former will be his ultimate destination.

In Colombia, he is only wanted for illicit wealth, as no concrete proof of his drug trafficking activity has been found.

This nation also purposely handed in its extradition request after the United States, in the hope he would have to face the tougher charges there.

It also avoids the problem of the lack of extradition agreements between Colombia and the United States.

Indeed, Colombia’s antidrugs minister, Carlos Tablante said was more convenient “this man be handed over to the United States,” adding that Venezuela deserved to receive a portion of the 3 billion dollars of his property so far confiscated.

One of Perafan’s lawyers, Hugo Romero, insisted Tuesday that the defendent was innocent, and demanded he be sent to Colombia not the United States.

However, he failed to explain why, after fleeing Colombia, he maintained a false identity in Venezuela, changing his physical appearance with drastic plastic surgery.

Romero simply claimed this was a matter of personal vanity as the now unrecognisable Perafan – a previous beau of Miss Colombia – took pride in his physique.