Suspected Colombia Rebel Extradited

Suspected Colombia Rebel Extradited
By KIM HOUSEGO, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 55 minutes ago

A Colombian leftist rebel suspected of helping kidnap the mother of a Detroit Tigers baseball player was extradited by Venezuela on Monday to face trial in his homeland, officials said.

Juan Jose Martinez, a member of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as FARC, was handed over to Colombian agents in the Venezuelan city of San Antonio and flown by military plane to Bogota, Colombia's secret police said in a statement.

Authorities allege Martinez was a FARC commander in charge of rebel efforts to acquire weapons in exchange for cocaine along the borders with Venezuela and Brazil. He faces charges of homicide, kidnapping and rebellion.

Martinez was arrested by Venezuelan officials in that country's Bolivar state Feb. 18 on suspicion of helping in the September kidnapping of the mother of Ugueth Urbina, a Venezuelan who is a relief pitcher for the Detroit Tigers. She was rescued by police after five months in captivity.

Martinez is also suspected of a playing role in the 1994 kidnapping and killing in Colombia of two American missionaries — Timothy Van Dyke of Towanda, Pa., and Stephen Welsh of North Platte, Neb., the Colombian statement said.

The extradition came despite tensions between the two nations over Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's decision to acquire 100,000 assault rifles from Russia. U.S. officials have expressed concern the weapons could fall into the hands of the FARC.

Chavez and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe agreed in February to share intelligence on criminals wanted by either nation after resolving a diplomatic dispute caused by bounty hunter's grabbing a prominent Colombian rebel in Venezuela's capital, Caracas.

Chavez, a populist leader whose political opponents accuse him of sympathizing with Colombia's leftist rebel groups, has promised to stop incursions into Venezuelan territory by any illegal armed group.

Colombia's decades-long civil war pits left-wing rebels against right-wing paramilitary groups and the Colombian army. Guerrillas, militiamen and drug smugglers often seek refuge from combat in Venezuelan territory.

By Lionheart on May 16, 2005, 17:02 in Politics & the war.

juancegomez says on May 16, 2005, 17:48:

Finally, this had been hyped too much for too long, considering how relatively little it's worth (though it's always good to have a degree of law enforcement cooperation).