Senator Rubio urges Biden administration to freeze a former warlord’s extradition to Colombia

By JOSHUA GOODMAN
Associated Press Writer

MIAMI (AP) — Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio is calling on the Biden administration to reject Colombia’s request for extradition of a former warlord after he was named a peace envoy in the South American nation. Salvatore Mancuso completed a 12-year cocaine trafficking sentence in 2020 and has been been fighting extradition to Colombia ever since. This month Colombia’s government said it would seek to suspend prison sentences against Mancuso for his role in thousands of battlefield abuses so that he can serve as a peace envoy to promote the demobilization of other illegal armed groups. Rubio in a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland on Wednesday said such a scenario is an insult to Mancuso’s many victims.