US asks Colombia to extradite militia boss

BOGOTA, Aug 27 (Reuters) The United States has asked Colombia to extradite a former paramilitary boss after he violated a peace deal by organizing cocaine shipments from his jail cell, the government said today.

Carlos Mario Jimenez was one of Colombia's most powerful militia leaders before joining the deal that offered commanders short jail terms and protection from extradition in return for disarming around 31,000 fighters, giving full confessions and renouncing crime.

But authorities say he continued to traffic drugs from inside prison, and Foreign Minister Fernando Araujo said on Monday the US government has formally requested Jimenez's extradition.

It could ease pressure on President Alvaro Uribe, a conservative US ally who is trying to fend off critics in Washington who say he has failed to curtail the influence of militia commanders.

Uribe has been hit by a scandal linking some of his lawmaker allies to paramilitary death squads and US Democrats discussing a new aid package for Washington's key Andean ally want to see him do more to control the militias.

Should the Supreme Court clear his extradition and Uribe agree, Jimenez will face trafficking charges in a US court.

Uribe was reelected last year and is popular for driving back leftist guerrillas and reducing violence in Colombia's four-decade-old conflict.

But human rights groups say the paramilitary disarmament program has failed to stop former commanders running criminal gangs and rearming some of their fighters to battle for control of Colombia's huge cocaine trafficking trade.

US Democrats who control Congress want Uribe to do more to fight rights abuses and paramilitary influence over politicians and the military as they consider a new counter-narcotics package and a free trade deal for Colombia.

Started in the 1980s to counter rebels, paramilitary groups were responsible for some of the worst crimes in the conflict as they swept the country, taking land, controlling villages and massacring those they suspected of guerrilla sympathies.

Reuters RKM VP0125