Arrests Colombia

Pablo Escobar, the billionaire cocaine lord who eluded an intense police manhunt for seven years, surrendered to Colombian authorities Wednesday in exchange for a promise of leniency for drug-related crimes and a guarantee against extradition to the United States.

Police say it was an offer that Colombian detectives could, and did, refuse: a $5-million bribe from Otto Herrera Garcia of Guatemala, a suspected drug trafficker they had just collared in the parking lot of a Bogota shopping center. "Stop the car; let's talk about this. Let me make a phone call and we'll fix this," police say Herrera told them. "How much do you want to let me go? $2 million?"

As police announced the capture of an alleged gunman, thousands of Colombians surged through the streets of Medellin on Sunday to mourn soccer player Andres Escobar, killed for his accidental role in the national team's elimination from the World Cup. Draped in the Colombian flag and crying "Justice," sorrowful and outraged fans crowded a stadium to view Escobar's simple wooden casket and then accompanied the funeral cortege to a packed cemetery.

In the second embarrassing incident involving U.S. troops here in a little more than a month, Colombian police have detained two U.S. soldiers on suspicion of arms smuggling near a large military base in this nation's heartland, officials said Wednesday. The soldiers, whose names, ranks and duties were not disclosed, were arrested Tuesday in a condominium near the town of Carmen de Apicala with a "big quantity" of ammunition, Colombian Police Chief Jorge Daniel Castro told local radio. The U.S.

Ian Fleming might have been proud to have created Werner Mauss. Like Fleming's master spy 007, Mauss is an expert equestrian. He is so sophisticated and well-connected that he introduced the giants of corporate Germany to the power brokers of Colombian politics; so daring, he earned the affection of the founder of one of Colombia's most powerful guerrilla groups.

The No. 2 man in the Medellin cocaine cartel surrendered Tuesday in exchange for the government's promise not to extradite him to the United States, where he is wanted on drug charges. Jorge Luis Ochoa, 41, turned himself in at Caldas, 10 miles south of Medellin, and was jailed in the Medellin suburb of Itagui, court officials said. He could face up to 30 years in prison, but authorities have promised to be lenient with dealers who turn themselves in.

The Colombian military in Bogota seized a cache of weapons and arrested four leftist guerrillas who were part of a rebel plot to assassinate President Ernesto Samper, authorities said. An army statement said the rebels, belonging to the Marxist Revolutionary Armed Forces, known as FARC, were also planning attacks against other public figures in response to Samper's recent exoneration in Congress on drug corruption charges.

Police battled violence and drugs Monday by arresting suspects in a lethal bombing and hunting for the second of two brothers believed to run the notorious Cali cocaine cartel. Several people were arrested as suspects in the bombing of a street festival that killed 29 people Saturday. The bombing came one day after police arrested Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela, who with his brother, Miguel, leads the Cali cartel. Police carried out more raids Monday in the search for the brother.

Colombia's political crisis deepened following the arrest of a key figure in President Ernesto Samper's 1994 election campaign for allegedly accepting donations from drug traffickers. Santiago Medina, treasurer of Samper's campaign, was to be interrogated in Bogota after his arrest.

A man claiming to have taken part in the assassination of a veteran political leader in the Colombian capital turned himself in to police but has not yet been charged with any crime, authorities said Saturday. Gloria Cassiani, chief prosecutor in Aguachica, a rural town in northern Cesar province, said the suspect was being held under her custody while doctors tried to determine his mental state.

The Colombian army on Saturday captured two suspected rebels accused of hijacking a jetliner to kidnap a senator on board--an incident that escalated the country's decades-long civil war. The Feb. 20 hijacking prompted the Colombian government to end three years of peace talks with the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

The Colombian army said it has arrested a fourth man suspected of being a member of the Irish Republican Army, less than two weeks after three other alleged members of the Northern Ireland guerrilla group were detained in Bogota. The man, whose identity was unknown, was arrested in southern Huila state, a military source said. On Aug. 11, the army arrested three suspected IRA members believed to have trained Colombian rebels.

In a danger sign for peace talks on two continents, three members of the Irish Republican Army were being held here Monday after allegedly providing explosives training to Colombia's largest leftist rebel group. Military officials said the three men were captured at the airport in Bogota on Saturday after spending five weeks in the demilitarized zone in southern Colombia where the government is negotiating with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

Brazil's most powerful drug lord, Luiz Fernando da Costa, arrived here Wednesday, five days after he was captured in Colombia. Da Costa arrived in Brasilia aboard a Brazilian air force plane and was taken to police headquarters. Da Costa, with one arm in a sling tucked under a bulletproof vest, was briefly shown to reporters at the headquarters, his first public appearance in Brazil in five years.

A Colombian policeman was arrested on suspicion of trying to kill a U.S. television network reporter, a police official said. Raul Benoit, a Colombian correspondent for Univision Communications Inc., the leading Spanish-language broadcaster in the U.S., was unharmed after shots were fired at him in Cali. The suspect, Carlos Emilio Molina, was shot and wounded by one of Benoit's bodyguards and arrested at the scene, National Police Gen. Ernesto Gilibert said.

A man who posed as a monk or charity worker to gain the confidence of his young victims has confessed to torturing, raping and murdering about 140 children during a five-year, nationwide killing spree in Colombia, authorities said Friday. The confession appears to end an investigation into serial killings that have shocked this nation, despite Colombians' frequent exposure to massacres linked to a prolonged civil war and to slayings related to the illegal drug trade.

Police on Saturday seized up to two tons of high explosives in Bogota and arrested six men suspected of planning a wave of bomb attacks before today's presidential election, local radio said. A police officer confirmed that a large consignment of explosives was impounded but said details would be made public later. The seizure occurred hours after a bomb exploded Friday night in a northwestern suburb of Bogota, injuring at least five people.

The Colombian army on Saturday captured two suspected rebels accused of hijacking a jetliner to kidnap a senator on board--an incident that escalated the country's decades-long civil war. The Feb. 20 hijacking prompted the Colombian government to end three years of peace talks with the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

Leftist rebels are holding four American bird-watchers that they abducted at a roadblock south of the capital, a government official said Thursday. The four were among 27 people taken captive. The Americans--three men and a woman--were on a bird-watching trip Monday when they were stopped at a rebel roadblock 35 miles south of Bogota, the official said. The U.S. Embassy had no immediate comment.

Armed investigators captured Colombia's billionaire "emerald czar" Victor Carranza, wanted on charges of organizing a right-wing death squad, in a raid on his house in northern Bogota, the capital. Carranza, 63, controls two of Colombia's four biggest emerald mines and has a major stake in another.