Click here for a special offer. Click here for our free newsletter. Now the country has charged a ring with smuggling 20 to 30 tons of cocaine each month into the United States. One defendant is Fabio Ochoa of the once terrifying Medell n cartel, which set off bombs to intimidate Colombia into halting extraditions to the United States.
Extradition is legal again, but no one has had to face American justice.
Colombia says the new suspects must be turned over to U.S. courts. Some Republicans will blame Democrats in election battles for allowing Colombia's cocaine crop to double since 1995. Some analysts argue that 5,000-soldier divisions are too cumbersome to move rapidly. Critics favor smaller units that can form task forces as needed. The Army will experiment with restructuring two brigades at Fort Lewis in Washington State.