Drug cartel leader arrested I
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - A
leader of the once-powerful Medellin
cartel was among 30 people arrested
Wednesday and slated for extradition to
the United States in what authorities
described as the biggest blow to
Colombian drug trafficking since
1995.
In a separate, unrelated operation,
U.S. drug officials in Puerto Rico
announced the arrests of 1,290 lower
level trafficking suspects in 15 coun
tries and the seizure of more than two
dozen drug-running boats in a two
week operation, mostly in the
Caribbean.
Former Medellin cartel leader
Fabio Ochoa, 42, was the best-known
suspect seized in Colombia in pre
dawn raids that officials said crippled
the heir-apparent to the Medellin and
Cali cartels, Colombia’s main drug
mafias throughout the 1980s and early
1990s.
The successor ring smuggled up to
30 tons of cocaine a month into Mexico
for distribution throughout the United
Slates using transit countries, including
Ecuador and Chile, and also shipped
the drugs to Europe, according to
Colombian and U.S. officials.
u
This operation is as if we removed the chief
executive officers of three major
corporations who joined together in an
illegal conspiracy
Janet Reno
attorney general
Past law enforcement crackdowns
have failed to stem the flow of drugs
from Colombia, where leftist rebels are
increasingly involved in protecting
cocaine and heroin production. This
poor Andean nation has a rich tradition
of criminal enterprise, and it was
unclear how much of a dent the arrests
would make in the international drug
trade.
New smuggling organizations have
traditionally emerged to take over the
business of jailed drug bosses.
Nevertheless, Attorney General
Janet Reno on Wednesday said she was
encouraged by the arrests.
“This operation is as if we removed
the chief executive officers of three
major corporations who joined togeth
er in an illegal conspiracy” she said in
Washington.
The ring allegedly was organized
by 40-year-old Alejandro Bernal
Madrigal of Bogota, who officials said
pulled together remnants of the
Medellin and other drug gangs and per
sonally established smuggling routes
through Mexican organizations.
Bernal’s chief link in Mexico,
Armando Valencia, was among 43 co
conspirators named in an indictment
unsealed Wednesday in Miami that
specified drug trafficking, racketeering
and money laundering charges.
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The power to simplify
Complete Plath works
to be released to stores
NEW YORK (AP) - Finally, one of
the great underground documents in lit
erature is coming to bookstores: the
complete journals of Sylvia Plath.
For decades, readers have obsessed
like conspiracy theorists about Plath,
the poet and novelist who killed herself
in 1963. Biographers continue to ana
lyze everything from her work to her
famously difficult marriage to fellow
poet Ted Hughes. Their relationship
lived on in Plath’s posthumously issued
poems and letters and in Hughes’
“Birthday Poems,” published just
months before he died in 1998.
The journals should add greatly to
what Hughes eventually derided as
“Plathiana.” An edition published in the
1980s is believed to comprise only one
third of the collection. The new book is
expected to contain hundreds of previ
ously unpublished pages.
“The decision has been made to
publish them in their entirety, unedited,
so the world can judge for themselves,”
said Joanna Mackle, publishing direc
tor for London-based Faber and Faber,
which in April will issue the book in
Britain. A U.S. publisher is expected to
be announced shortly.
Few have seen all the journals,
which have been stored for years at
Plath’s alma mater, Smith College, but
the Faber and Faber catalog promises an
“intimate portrait” of “vigorous imme
diacy.” The manuscript handed in by the
editors at Smith runs at least 1,000
pages, more than double the original
publication.
Mackle, who handles questions on
behalf of the Plath estate, would not
give a specific reason for the decision
but did confirm that it was made before
the death of Hughes, who was appoint
ed Britain’s poet laureate in 1984.
The estate is now run by their chil
dren, Frieda and Nicholas.
The upcoming journals are not
technically “complete”; at least one
notebook is apparently gone forever. In
an announcement that enraged many,
Hughes confessed in the first edition’s
introduction that he had destroyed
pages which covered the months imme
diately preceding her suicide.
“I think by suppressing or trying to
suppress for the children’s sake all
accounts, etc., of Sylvia’s more difficult
side, I have done everybody an ill-ser
vice. Myself especially, perhaps,” he
later wrote to a friend.
In the original introduction, Hughes
also claimed another notebook “disap
peared,” but he later wrote that it “may,
presumably, still turn up.” Those entries
are not believed to be included in the
new edition, which will cover the years
1950-1962.
What ended up as one of the great
cottage industries both in publishing
and academia began as a romance.
Hughes and Plath were in their 20s
when they met at Cambridge
University in England, in the winter of
1956. She was an American student and
writer living abroad, he a young British
poet trying to establish a literary maga
zine.
They were married within months,
but by the end of 1962, they were living
apart.
'Hugnes was seeing anotner woman
and an increasingly unhappy Plath had
moved with the children from their
country house to a London flat. Plath,
who had a history of mental problems,
killed herself in February 1963.
At the time of her death, Plath had
just one book published under her
name. But a decade later, she was a
feminist martyr, the mourned and
beloved author of the “Arier poems
and the novel “The Bell Jar.”
Meanwhile, Hughes was cast as the
cold, oppressive villain, the man who
stifled Plath in life and censored her in
death. Plath fans harassed Hughes at
readings and hacked his name off
Plath’s tombstone, which had been
inscribed: “Sylvia Plath Hughes.”
While friends of Hughes defended
him as a caring husband driven away by
his unstable wife, the poet himself said
little in public for decades.
Officials say Pat Buchanan
close to making Reform bid
WASHINGTON (AP) ^
Republican presidential candidate
Pat Buchanan is preparing to bolt his
party and begin a quest for the
Reform Party nomination Oct. 25,
officials close to the conservative
commentator said Wednesday.
Two officials, speaking on condi
tion of anonymity, said Buchanan
was planning to announce his depar
ture from the GOP in suburban
Washington, New Hampshire and
perhaps other key states.
The officials cautioned that
Buchanan could still reverse course
and stay out of the increasingly frac
tious third-party bid. But they said he
intends to bolt, and the departure was
virtually certain.
In the clearest signal yet of his
intentions, Buchanan’s campaign
mailed hundreds of invitations to
supporters Tuesday night inviting
them to a “major announcement”
Oct. 25 at a Falls Church, Va., hotel,
the officials said.
As many as 3,000 invitations also
were being sent for a New Hampshire
stop, they said.
“He’s almost too far down the
pike to get out now,” said one of the
officials.
However, spokeswoman Joanne
Hansen said no final decision has
been made.
Lagging in GOP polls, Buchanan
says he believes the party’s nomina
tion battle is rigged in favor of Texas
Gov. George W. Bush, who he says is
too moderate.
The Reform Party nominee
would lay claim to almost $ 13 mil
lion in federal matching money. Party
founder Ross Perot earned 19 percent
of the vote in 1992 and 8 percent in
1996.
Republicans fear that a third
party run by Buchanan would siphon
conservative votes from their nomi
nee.
Buchanan, however, would not be
assured the nomination. A parade of
celebrities and politicians are men
tioned as potential candidates.
Donald Trump formed an
exploratory committee last week, and
says he would spend $30 million if he
jumps in the race. Buchanan, who has
had trouble raising money in the GOP
race, could not match that total but
has more political experience than
Trump.
The contest is already heated.
Trump consultant Roger Stone
said Buchanan wants attention, not
the White House.
“Pat’s avocation at this point is
running for president. It’s all he
does,” Stone said in a telephone inter
view. “Trump will spend $30 million
to get on the ballots in every state. I
don’t think Pat can do it.”
Jesse Ventura, the party’s highest
ranking elected official, has ruled out
a 2000 presidential campaign, though
the speculation continues. He is urg
ing Trump to seek the nomination,
saying Buchanan is too conservative
on social issues for the party.
Buchanan is drawing support
from the Perot wing of the party.
“Isay to Roger Stone,‘Bring your
candidate on.’ It’ll be another head on
the wall,” said Pat Choate, Perot’s
1996 running mate. “I believe Pat is
going to get in the race, win the nom
ination and, with any luck, the White
House."