November 29, 1999

Colombia handed over Jaime Orlando Lara Nausa, an alleged heroin kingpin, to the US on 21 Nov. This was a calculated risk by President Pastrana, who hopes to secure more US aid without touching off a constitutional riot in his own country. Colombia has not extradited a drug lord to the US in nine years. The US dropped its demand for such extraditions to get Colombia's vote on the UN Security Council to support the war against Iraq. Pastrana knows that the drug war and the rebel insurgency are now one and the same, as the rebels have moved from merely guarding drug operations for pay to outright running them.--Stephen V Cole

November 28; It was a bloody weekend, as left and right wing terror squads killed fourteen people, including three police, two TV reporters. In many of these cases, it was difficult to tell which faction did the deed.