- BOGOTA, Colombia (Reuters)
- One of Colombia's most infamous drug lords, former Cali cocaine cartel
boss Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela, walked free from a maximum security prison
late on Thursday despite intense government efforts to keep him behind
bars.
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- Under cloudy night skies and heavy police guard, the
man once known as the Chess Player for his ability to outwit officials
calmly strolled out of the prison gates, where his ride was waiting. He
had served just seven years of his original 15-year sentence, reduced for
good behavior.
-
- The court-ordered release is an embarrassment for Colombia's
government, which had widely touted the 1995 captures of Gilberto and his
brother Miguel as major triumphs in its U.S.-backed war on drugs.
-
- Invoking "national dignity," President Alvaro
Uribe had fought last week's decision by a judge to let the drug lord go
-- even as the Supreme Court accused him of judicial meddling.
-
- "It's terrible, terrible, terrible. This is a moment
of mourning, of pain for the image of the nation, for the justice system
of Colombia," said Justice and Interior Minister Fernando Londono.
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- The Rodriguez Orejuela brothers' Cali cartel is thought
to have once controlled 80 percent of the world supply of cocaine, taking
over the multibillion industry after police gunned down rival drug lord
Pablo Escobar on a Medellin rooftop in 1993.
-
- Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela was at first set to have joined
his brother in freedom on Thursday. But the government won an appellate
court ruling earlier this week that convicted him of bribing a judge --
adding four more years to his sentence.
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- REVOLVING-DOOR PRISONS?
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- Uribe, who took office three months ago promising to
crack down on drugs and outlawed fighters in Colombia's cocaine-fueled
guerrilla war, had few legal options to prevent the release of Gilberto
Rodriguez Orejuela.
-
- Under Colombia's judicial code, even the most notorious
prisoners can win reduced sentences by studying or even by working in the
prison cafeteria. Sentencing laws were softened in the 1990s to help persuade
drug lords like Escobar and the Rodriguez Orejuela brothers to turn themselves
in.
-
- Prompted by an angry government, the attorney general
last week ordered an investigation into the judge who ruled the brothers
were eligible for early release. The government said that the judge did
not have to automatically free the brothers, who it said were a danger
to society.
-
- Uribe ordered officials to scour files for charges that
would keep them behind bars.
-
- Another possibility is that the United States could seek
the extradition of the freed drug lord. But, since Colombia had banned
extraditions until 1997, Washington would need to prove the brothers meddled
in the cocaine trade from inside maximum security prisons.
-
- "We would be remiss if we were not reviewing to
see if we have any necessary information that indicated they have been
involved in drug-trafficking since the Colombian constitution changed in
1997," said Will Glaspy, a spokesman for the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration in Washington. (
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- Additional reporting by Ibon Villelebeitia
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