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 Colombias 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 Colombias 50-year armed conflict: a perception by some that rural areas have been shut out of economic development.
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