This followed President Néstor Kirchner's decision not to continue with the policy of his two predecessors, Carlos Menem and Fernando de la Rúa, to oppose such extraditions. They did so ostensibly because, as a result of two laws passed under the Alfonsín administration (1983-89), some of these officers were exempted from penal responsibility, while others, tried and sentenced, were later pardoned by Menem -so trying them again would mean violating the double jeopardy principle.
Underlying their stance, also, is a resistance to 'outsource' judicial remedies, an option only Colombia has embraced under US pressure for people wanted on drug-trafficking charges.
There is some doubt as to whether the extradition will actually go ahead. Spain's chief prosecutor has said that he will oppose it, on the grounds that the accused would most probably have to be released.
This is because, first, there is now Spanish jurisprudence that prevents trying anyone for crimes committed abroad in which there were no Spanish victims and, second, that the only crimes for which Spain could claim extraterritorial jurisdiction, genocide and terrorism, are not on Garzón's charge sheet.
The situation regarding a third possibility, torture, is unclear.
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