Latin America

Judi Lynn

(160,516 posts) Fri Aug 26, 2016, 05:52 PM Aug 2016

US judge denies bail to fugitive former Colombia minister

US judge denies bail to fugitive former Colombia minister

written by Adriaan Alsema August 26, 2016

Florida judge has denied bail to Colombia’s former agriculture minister who fled his own country before being sentenced 17 years in prison for embezzlement of public funds.

The decision is another mayor blow for Colombia’s conservative opposition, which is seeing more and more former officials of the administration of Alvaro Uribe in prison.

Former Agriculture Minister Andres Felipe Arias fled Colombia in 2014 just before he was convicted for embezzling more than $20 million in funds meant for poor farmers.

He was arrested by US marshals on Wednesday in compliance with an outstanding extradition request.

More:
http://colombiareports.com/us-judge-denies-bail-fugitive-former-colombia-minister/

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US judge denies bail to fugitive former Colombia minister (Original Post) Judi Lynn Aug 2016 OP

Colombian official who fled corruption trial arrested in Weston Judi Lynn Aug 2016 #1

Judi Lynn

(160,516 posts)

1. Colombian official who fled corruption trial arrested in Weston

Reply to Judi Lynn (Original post)

Tue Aug 30, 2016, 05:31 PM

Aug 2016

Colombian official who fled corruption trial arrested in Weston

August 24, 2016 8:04 PM

By Kyra Gurney
kgurney@MiamiHerald.com

Two years after evading corruption charges by fleeing to South Florida, a former Colombian agriculture minister and onetime presidential candidate was arrested Wednesday morning at his home in Weston.

Andrés Felipe Arias was in federal court Wednesday afternoon with his wrists and ankles shackled for the initial appearance in extradition proceedings to send him back to Colombia.

It has been over a year and a half since Colombia first asked U.S. authorities for Arias’ extradition, and now, on the day of Colombia’s historic peace agreement with the FARC guerrilla group, the U.S. government has detained the former minister.

Arias was convicted of embezzling millions from a subsidy program created to help poor farmers. He steered the money to wealthy landowners instead. His crime, as prosecutors saw it, illustrates the dynamics at the root of Colombia’s 50-year armed conflict: a perception by some that rural areas have been shut out of economic development.

More: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article97695987.html#storylink=cpy

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