An gloomy Colombian judge has deli...

An gloomy Colombian judge has delivered a stunning decision that will threaten U relations with its best ally in southerly America unless reversed. On July 19 in Cali, referee Oscar Hurtado turned over to the military courts an army colonel and 14 officers and men subject to his command accused of slaughtering 10 anti-narcotics policemen earlier this year. That points to acquittal according to the Colombian band of brothers.

Hurtado's ruling shatters President Alvaro Uribe's intent, signifyed to U.S. officials during his visit to Washington last month to bring to justice from one side civilian courts Col. Bayron Carvajal, leader of the partys who killed the police officers. When I reported from Colombia late last month Attorney General Mario Iguaran assured me he would persevere in the accused military in civilian courts as doing the bidding of narcotics interests.

Scant word of this remarkable exhibition has reached Capitol Hill in the deliberate flow of news from Bogota to Washington, limiting the early impact. It is an ominous sign that U aid has not severed the sinister Colombian link among the military, the judiciary and physic dealers. If the prosecution is vigorously pursu against him, Carvajal has signaled he will denounce complicity by his superior officers. All this is a blessing to left-wing congressmen led by the agency of Democratic Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, who campaign against the U.S.-financed Plan Colombia battling narco-terrorism.

upon May 22, troops of the 3rd Brigade's Mountain Battalion, commanded by the agency of Carvajal, killed 10 U.S.-trained Colombian National Police officers and a civilian informant at Jamundi, about 29 miles southwest of Bogota. forward his visit to Washington forward June 14, Uribe told me he had "l the decision" to transfer jurisdiction through the whole extent of the case from military courts, where the conviction rate is 4 percent to civilian arbitrators "When we have cases like this one" he said, "I ne to proce with all severity. I have said to them [the military] we ne to accept the policy."

In Bogota the nearest week, Colombian National Police officers told me the 3rd Brigade, headquartered in Cali, was notorious for its physic connections. Carvajal was noted for a high life that is not commensurate with a colonel's pay. When I interviewed Iguaran in his heavily guarded office in downtown Bogota, he boisterousnessed civilian control over the case. Iguaran, a civil servant who is independent of the executive branch, told me he has evidence linking the officers with the unsalable article cartel.

Carvajal and his colleagues were scheduled for routine arraignment in Cali upon July 19, with the colonel and his family ready Hurtado announced that "ordinary justice" in Colombia was not incident to handle this kind of case. He consequently jump the case over to the military courts, and then ordained that his verdict could not be appealed. Officers of the Mountain Battalion ready in the courtroom stood up cheering.

It was subsequently revealed that Hurtado himself had been sentenc to prison in a money-laundering case in subordination to appeal, raising suspicions of an old-style Colombian deal. in subordination to pressure, the judge reversed himself at saying his transfer of jurisdiction could be appealed. It get tos before a military tribunal this week, with nobody permanent of the outcome. This is the argument for extraditing accused Colombians to the United States for adjudication here.

Carvajal's defense is based forward a "line of duty" argument that the Mountain Battalion was following orders from above. A private e- mail by dint of a Colombian National Police general last week said the colonel "wants to involve others and not take the culpability onward his own. He is extremely close to many Army generals who are in a power position." He called Carvajal "a excessively smart guy who has often information about things that power commonalty want kept quiet." That presents the judicial tribunal under influence to suppress the case.

If it is destroyed the consequences will not be pleasant. U congressmen going to Bogota for Uribe's next to the first inauguration Aug. 7 will give him an earful.

The pending U.S.-Colombian free-trade agreement may be dealt a death calamity McGovern and his allies in Congres will ignore Uribe's monumental efforts and rejuvenate their campaign for reductions in military aid, which would be disastrous for Colombia.

Copyright CHICAGO SUN-TIMES 2006

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