Virgilio Barco Vargas

The government said Thursday that it will let voters decide whether suspected drug traffickers wanted in the United States should be extradited. A plan by President Virgilio Barco Vargas to hold a referendum on the extradition issue was announced in a communique made public by Minister of Government Orlando Vasquez, who had earlier announced plans to resign. Vasquez appears to be a casualty of political fighting within Barco's Liberal Party.

Vice President Dan Quayle, arriving Wednesday on his first visit to Latin America, discussed anti-drug efforts with Colombia's president and declared U.S. opposition to any Latin "debtor cartel." The vice president arrived a day before inaugural ceremonies for Venezuela's new president, Carlos Andres Perez. His met first with President Virgilio Barco Vargas of Colombia.

In an emotional appeal for global support, President Virgilio Barco Vargas of Colombia told the United Nations on Friday that his country stands in the front line of the "total war" waged against all nations by drug cartels, a war that he declared Colombia and the world must win. The white-haired Latin leader won repeated applause as delegates cheered him for more than a minute--a far more positive response than that given to President Bush, Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A.

President Virgilio Barco Vargas said Friday that Colombian security forces will maintain pressure on narcotics traffickers who have announced a suspension of their anti-government terrorist campaign. The traffickers, in a statement Wednesday, acknowledged the supremacy of the government and said they were suspending all executions, bombings and kidnapings. They also promised to end cocaine shipments and to turn over their weapons if given "constitutional and legal guarantees."

A gunman killed the leading candidate in next year's presidential election Friday, prompting an angry President Virgilio Barco Vargas to revive an extradition treaty with the United States to combat a string of cocaine traffic-linked killings of public officials. The assassination came only hours after drug traffickers killed a provincial police chief in the city of Medellin. The gunman opened fire on Sen.

In their single biggest victory in the drug war, Colombian police Friday shot and killed notorious narcotics trafficker Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha, who as a leader of the Medellin cartel waged a campaign of terror to maintain the world's biggest cocaine empire.

President Bush, seeking to shore up Colombia for a prolonged offensive against its cocaine cartels, promised Thursday that the United States will take the lead in repairing an international coffee agreement considered critical to the Colombian economy. The pledge to visiting Colombian President Virgilio Barco Vargas was a clear sign of the White House's determination to bolster Barco and his government in the face of burgeoning opposition within the South American nation to the anti-drug effort.

In the first test of Colombian President Virgilio Barco Vargas' decision to resume extradition of drug fugitives to the United States, reputed money launderer Eduardo Martinez Romero was flown from Bogota on Wednesday night bound for Atlanta to be arraigned on drug-related charges, U.S. law enforcement officials said. After a scheduled refueling stop at a U.S.

The Colombian government sought to rally national and international support Thursday for its battle against drug lords accused of planning a terrorist bomb attack that killed as many as 61 people. "With faith, bravery and firmness let us stand up to defend the fatherland," President Virgilio Barco Vargas said in a message from Japan, where he was finishing an official visit. "We are not going to let ourselves fall under the bloody tyranny of the narco-terrorists."

Facing what a security source called "one of the hardest assignments" in its history, the Secret Service has prepared three secret routes for safely delivering President Bush to the Andean nations' drug summit in the violence-plagued Colombian resort of Cartagena, a White House official said Tuesday.