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BOGOTÁ — A Venezuelan businessman sitting in a Colombian jail could provide valuable evidence about the suspected close relationship between cocaine traffickers and the Venezuelan government, U.S. officials say.
But Colombia’s government has signaled that Walid Makled will not be extradited to the United States, which has blacklisted him as a “significant foreign narcotics trafficker.” He will be sent to Venezuela, they say, where President Hugo Chavez accuses him of fabricating stories as part of a smear campaign to debilitate his leftist movement, which opposes U.S. policies in the region.
If Makled is extradited to Venezuela, U.S. prosecutors looking into the transshipment of cocaine through Venezuela would be denied a vital witness.
