Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday remained steadfast in his stance that a plan by his new right-wing government to overhaul the judiciary, which has come under increasing criticism, would not harm the country’s economy.

“In recent days, I have been hearing concerns regarding the impact of the judicial reform on our economic resilience. … The exact opposite is true,” Netanyahu said at a news conference with Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich of the far-right Religious Zionism party.

The judicial reforms, which have yet to be written into law, would tighten political control over judicial appointments and limit the Supreme Court’s powers to overturn government decisions or Knesset laws.

The proposed plan would bolster the economy, Netanyahu said, adding that “excessive judicial intervention in Israel is like sand in the wheels of Israel’s economy.”

“When the judicial reform passes, and it will pass … I am convinced that everyone will see that rule of law is intact and has even been strengthened, that democracy remains intact and has even been strengthened, that our free economy remains intact and has even been strengthened,” he said.

Netanyahu’s rebuttal comes as leading Israeli economists warn that the judicial shakeup would cause “unprecedented damage to the Israeli economy” and amid mass protests across the country.

In a letter published by Israeli news site Ynet on Wednesday, more than 250 top economists – including former central bank officials – expressed “deep concern that weakening the judiciary will lead to long-term damage to the economy’s growth trajectory and the quality of life for Israel’s residents.”

The letter was released a day after Bank of Israel Governor Amir Yaron met with Netanyahu to give him an economic strategy that included policy recommendations.

“Governor Yaron reflected to the Prime Minister various issues that arose in … the discussions he had with the senior officials of the global economy and with the senior officials of the rating companies in recent weeks,” the central bank said.

The proposed legislation has sparked a fierce debate in Israel, with hundreds of thousands of citizens protesting against it weekly across the country. Opponents say it would undermine the country’s system of checks and balances and endanger democratic values.

An S&P Global Ratings analyst this month told Reuters that Israel’s judicial reforms plan could pressure the country’s sovereign credit rating.

Netanyahu, who is on trial for corruption charges he denies, has dismissed the demonstrations as a refusal by leftists to accept the results of last November’s election, which produced one of the most right-wing governments in Israel’s history. He says the plan would rein in Supreme Court overreach.

Justice Minister Yariv Levin has said that the reforms are meant to restore balance between the judiciary, legislative and executive branches.

(Reuters) – The key to providing tanks for Ukraine’s defence against Russia was speed and sufficient numbers, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Wednesday.

In his nightly video address, Zelenskiy also said he had spoken to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and called for supplies of long-range missiles and aircraft to add to the commitments by the United States and Germany to provide advanced battle tanks.

“The key now is speed and volumes. Speed in training our forces, speed in supplying tanks to Ukraine. The numbers in tank support,” Zelenskiy said.

“We must form such a tank force, such a freedom force that after it strikes, tyranny will never again rise up.”

Russia, which invaded its Western-leaning neighbour Ukraine 11 months ago in what it called a “special military operation” to protect Russian security, condemned the decision on tanks as a dangerous provocation.

Ukraine and its Western allies describe Moscow’s war as an imperial-style land grab.

Zelenskiy referred to his conversation with Stoltenberg in saying that “progress must be made in other aspects of our defence cooperation”, namely long-range missiles, artillery and aircraft for Ukraine.

“This is a dream. And it’s a task. An important task for all of us,” Zelenskiy said.

For nearly a year, Ukrainian forces have shown their ability to heroically defend their land and their people against Russia’s invading army. However, despite some genuine triumphs on the battlefield, Ukrainian soldiers and civilians continue to die. Meanwhile, Russian forces are seeking to consolidate their gains and a major new Russian offensive may be looming in the near future.

In this context, after tense and drawn-out wrangling among Western allies and partners, Germany has finally agreed to send (and allow others to send) Leopard 2 main battle tanks to Ukraine, while the United States will provide 31 M1 Abrams tanks. Ukrainians and their supporters have welcomed these long-awaited decisions. Leopard print is now all the rage in Ukraine.

Such decisions are worth celebrating as they were hard fought and will make a difference in saving Ukrainian lives. But while the landmark step of sending tanks demonstrates further Western resolve in support of Kyiv, Ukraine’s partners cannot afford to take a victory lap. Instead, they must remain firmly focused on the work ahead. Tanks are a vital element in Ukraine’s fight, but timing is everything and more is still needed to win the war. Ukraine’s allies and partners must continue to prepare for the long haul in order to defeat Russia.

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In the short term, Ukraine’s Western partners need to ensure the country has what it needs to defend against Russian attacks and launch additional counteroffensives to push back Russian forces. In addition to main battle tanks, the announcement earlier this month by France, Germany, and the United States that they would provide newer infantry fighting vehicles, as well as other countries stepping up to provide critical equipment including Czechia, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Poland, and Sweden, were important steps toward ensuring Ukraine will be able to pack a substantial punch. Meanwhile, Patriot missile systems will further augment Ukraine’s air defense against Russian missile attacks that have terrorized civilians.

While this support is meaningful, there is no time for complacency. Speed in both decision-making and delivery must now be prioritized. As Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said to the latest Ramstein Format meeting on January 20, “time remains a Russian weapon. We have to speed up.”

New weapons systems will require training and logistical support networks to handle everything from maintenance to refueling. Moreover, Russian forces continue to launch attacks, while their terror tactics remain a major threat to the civilian population and infrastructure. Crucially, Putin’s troops are also digging in and fortifying their positions in an effort to better defend and consolidate their gains.

Ukraine’s Western partners should not stop with tanks and armored fighting vehicles. While tanks have long been a Ukrainian priority, a range of other important items featured on Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov’s wish list before the latest Ramstein meeting, including more air defense systems and systematic ammunition supplies. And just as HIMARS devastated Russian supply depots, transportation nodes, and command centers during summer 2022, setting the stage for Ukraine’s autumn counteroffensives, the United States should now give Ukraine longer range systems and UAVs, including ground-launched small diameter bombs and ATACMS, to better enable Ukraine to lay the groundwork for future counteroffensives.

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The international coalition of nations backing Ukraine’s war effort cannot confine themselves to short-term thinking alone. Evidence suggests Russian President Vladimir Putin is preparing for a long war, overseeing the mobilization of new recruits and ordering the country’s defense industry to boost production. Western leaders must make it abundantly clear, in word and action, that Putin cannot wait them out.

It is also vital to consistently and clearly reaffirm and communicate the interests and values at stake in this war. Most notably, Russia under Putin has proven itself to be irredeemably revanchist, undermining European security and flagrantly violating international norms in an unjustified war of aggression. In the long-term, transatlantic security is best served by a strong, committed response to Putin’s aggression.

Furthermore, Western partners need to ensure they are able to produce what is necessary to support Ukraine and account for their own security. There are positive indicators toward this end. For example, a recent New York Times report stated that the Pentagon is planning to substantially increase the monthly production of 155 mm artillery shells, critical for the howitzers Ukraine has used to counter Russia’s artillery advantage. The United States, along with allied and partner governments, will need to continue to work with the private sector to ensure long-term support for Ukraine is feasible.

Finally, Western leaders should prepare for a world in which Ukraine is victorious and Russia is defeated. Indeed, there ought to be shared strategic clarity that this is the desired end state. Fear of the consequences of Russia’s defeat must not delay further support for Ukraine.

A defeated Ukraine would be a disaster, inviting further aggression from Putin once he rebuilds his battered military. That outcome seems less likely at this point, though a hypothetical collapse of Western support in conjunction with a major renewed Russian offensive means it cannot be ruled out. A concession-laden compromise remains more likely, spurred by fatigued Western allies and partners losing the will and capacity to support Ukraine. This, too, would be far from ideal, as it would show Putin (and other autocrats) that aggression can pay, even if it is costly.

The best outcome is one in which Ukraine is victorious and well-positioned to become an integrated part of Western institutions capable of deterring any future aggression. This scenario would see Russia defeated and Putin’s dreams of empire shattered against the steely resolve of Ukraine and its Western partners. With continued and heightened support, there is a viable path to this outcome.

A Ukrainian victory would bring its own uncertainties. What would a defeated Russia mean for the future of Putin and his regime? Would the regime collapse and unleash democracy or a new autocracy? The possibility of instability in a country with massive amounts of nuclear weapons must also be taken into account. These are genuine concerns and Ukraine’s Western partners should be thinking through how to navigate them. It is clear, however, that the devil we know is a callous, genocidal, cosplaying Peter the Great who only stands to destabilize and destroy unless he is stopped for good.

Jeffrey Cimmino is associate director in the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. Shelby Magid is deputy director of the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center.

Further reading

UkraineAlert
Jan 25, 2023

Scholz tank drama casts unflattering light on Germany’s Russia problem

By
Diane Francis

After months of debates and delays, Germany finally succumbed to international pressure on January 25 and announced that it would be delivering German-made Leopard tanks to Ukraine and allowing others to do so.

Conflict
Defense Industry

UkraineAlert
Jan 24, 2023

Putin is facing defeat in the information war

By
Peter Dickinson

Russia’s entire invasion of Ukraine has been built on a web of deceit but Putin is now facing defeat in the information war as the gap between the Kremlin’s alternative reality and the real world becomes too big to bridge.

Conflict
Disinformation

UkraineAlert
Jan 17, 2023

How Europe can help Ukraine defeat Russia and win the peace in 2023

By
Andreas Umland

Continued European support for Ukraine will be crucial in 2023 and must feature a combination of intensification and innovation if Vladimir Putin’s invasion is to be decisively defeated, writes Andreas Umland.

Conflict
Economic Sanctions

The views expressed in UkraineAlert are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Atlantic Council, its staff, or its supporters.

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The post Tanks are vital but Ukraine will need much more to defeat Putin’s Russia appeared first on Atlantic Council.

(JTA) — Jews made up nearly half of America’s biggest philanthropic donors last year, according to a calculation by Forbes of who gave the most money away in 2022. 

In a year that saw their fortunes take a hit amid declines in the stock market, America’s 25 “most generous givers” donated a collective $27 billion, up from $20 billion in 2021, for a lifetime total of $196 billion, according to Forbes. They included 12 billionaires with Jewish backgrounds — a dramatic overrepresentation when compared to the proportion of Jews in the overall U.S. population.

The Jews on the list include financier George Soros, who gave away at least $300 million to racial justice and humanitarian work in Ukraine and other causes;  businessman and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg with $1.7 billion in donations to charter schools, clean energy, and fighting heart disease; and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, whose charity donated more than $900 million, with much of the money going to fund research into artificial intelligence and genomics at universities. 

One thing that stands out about these Jewish philanthropists is that almost none focuses giving on the Jewish community. Only Lynn and Stacy Schusterman of the Tulsa oil dynasty, who are paired together on the list, are prominent donors to Jewish causes. 

To be sure, many, if not all of the others have given at least small amounts to Jewish charities. In 2021, for example, Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, announced $1.3 million in gifts to 11 Jewish groups; last year they distributed more than $900 million in total, according to Forbes. Meanwhile, former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and his wife, Connie, have donated at least $1 million to the Jewish National Fund; they gave away more than $800 million last year. And Michael Dell, the founder of the Dell computing company, donated the land for a Jewish community center in his home of Austin, Texas, and supported a recent renovation.

But only the Schustermans, who donated $370 million last year, have prioritized Jewish giving with hundreds of millions of dollars over their decades of involvement in the Jewish communal world.

It’s hard to make comparisons to the past and say whether Jews at the apex of philanthropy ever tended to focus on Jewish causes because the level of wealth today is almost unprecedented, according to Andrés Spokoiny, the president and CEO of the Jewish Funders Network. 

“Historically, individuals, except for during the Gilded Age, perhaps, didn’t amass these types of fortunes, and there weren’t many Jews at this economic caliber,” Spokoiny said. 

As to why many of the philanthropists don’t dedicate themselves to the Jewish community, Spokoiny offered three explanations. One is, simply, assimilation. “They don’t necessarily have a strong Jewish upbringing or Jewishness does not play a major role in their lives, and in that way they are not different from the rest of us,” Spokoiny said.

Another reason is that, given their immense resources, some prefer to tackle massive global issues such as climate change or pandemics. And lastly, Spokoiny said, some philanthropists think that being associated with Jewish causes might not fit with their political aspirations or personal brand. 

Mark Charendoff, who ran the Jewish Funders Network before Spokoiny, is now president of the Maimonides Fund, which has emerged as a major Jewish charity in recent years. He echoed some of the same explanations as Spokoiny. He also said that in past generations, wealthy Jews who wished to enter philanthropy didn’t always have the option of donating outside the Jewish community. 

“Universities, hospitals, symphonies weren’t always excited about having Jewish donors, particularly active ones,” Charendoff said. “Now you would be hard-pressed to find a not-for-profit that isn’t eager for Jewish representation.”

Successful fundraising by Jewish recipients in what Charendoff calls the “more competitive landscape” of today will require long-term investments in fostering Jewish identity, he said. 

“If we want the biggest philanthropists to give more Jewishly then we need to invest more in Jewish education and engagement for all Jews,” he said. 

Here are the philanthropists with Jewish roots who made Forbes’ “America’s Most Generous Givers” list. 

1. George Soros: +$300 million in 2022
2. Michael Bloomberg: +$1.7 billion
3. Jim & Marilyn Simons: +$1.9 billion
4. Mark Zuckerberg & Priscilla Chan: +$900 million
5. Edythe Broad & family: +$340 million
6. Steve & Connie Ballmer: +$800 million
7. Sergey Brin: Newcomer to the list
8. Lynn & Stacy Schusterman: +$370 million
9. Michael & Susan Dell: +$177 million
10. Donald Bren: +$470 million
11. Dustin Moskovitz & Cari Tuna: +$670 million
12. George Kaiser: +$120 million

This article originally appeared on JTA.org.

The post Half of America’s 25 most generous philanthropists are Jews. Few give much to Jewish causes. appeared first on The Forward.

The S&P 500 ended lower on Wednesday as a string of corporate earnings ran the gamut from downbeat to dismal, reviving worries over the economic impact of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s restrictive policy.

All three major U.S. stock indexes pared their losses throughout the afternoon to close well off session lows.

The tech-laden Nasdaq was weighed down after Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O), the first major technology firm to post quarterly results, offered dour guidance and raised red flags with respect to its megacap peers which have yet to report.

“We’ve had up and down days, that indicates an ongoing tug-of-war,” said Chuck Carlson, chief executive officer at Horizon Investment Services in Hammond, Indiana. “The dour guidance good news from the standpoint of what the Fed is doing is working.”

“That outcome has become the catalyst for the market one way or the other,” Carlson added. “Earnings matter but what’s really got the market’s focus is the Fed interest rate/inflation story.”

Fourth-quarter earnings season has shifted into overdrive, with 95 of the companies in the S&P 500 having reported. Of those, 67% have beat consensus estimates, well below the 76% average beat rate over the past four quarters, according to Refintiv.

Analysts now see aggregate S&P 500 earnings dropping 3.0% year-on-year, nearly double the 1.6% drop seen on Jan. 1, per Refinitiv.

According to preliminary data, the S&P 500 (.SPX) lost 0.73 points, or 0.02%, to end at 4,016.22 points, while the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) lost 20.92 points, or 0.20%, to 11,313.35. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) rose 5.67 points, or 0.03%, to 33,742.72.

Boeing Co’s (BA.N) shares reversed an earlier dip, turning positive after the plane maker posted widening losses for 2022, but reported its first positive cash flow since 2018 on the strength of commercial airplane deliveries.

Abbott Laboratories (ABT.N) dropped as weaker-than-expected medical device sales weighed on the stock.

Among gainers, News Corp (NWSA.O) jumped after Rupert Murdoch withdrew a proposal to reunite News Corp and Fox Corp.

AT&T Inc (T.N) also delivered disappointing guidance but its renewed focus on its telecoms business helped boost subscriber numbers, sending its shares higher.

General Dynamics Corp (GD.N) slid after its weak 2023 forecast overshadowed its earnings beat.

Electric automaker Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) is expected to post results shortly.

Finally, in a post-script to Tuesday’s technical glitch which halted the opening auctions for a spate of stocks and prompted a review by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) said a manual error resulted in the snafu which caused widespread confusion at the opening bell.

A California farm worker was charged on Wednesday with seven counts of murder for a shooting spree that killed seven people, some of them his co-workers, in the state’s second deadly gun rampage in recent days.

The San Mateo County District Attorney charged Chunli Zhao, 66, the lone suspect in Monday’s massacre at two mushroom farms in the town of Half Moon Bay near San Francisco, with seven counts of murder and one count of attempted murder, hours before he was expected to appear before a judge at the San Mateo County Superior Court in Redwood City.

Zhao was charged with “special circumstances,” accused of “personally and intentionally” shooting to kill. California law declares that defendants convicted of murder with “special circumstances” can be eligible for the death penalty, but Governor Gavin Newsom in 2019 declared a moratorium on executions. The state has not executed a condemned inmate since 2006.

Also on Wednesday, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, a California native, planned to travel to the Los Angeles suburb of Monterey Park, site of the first of the recent deadly rampages. She was expected to meet with some families of the 11 people who were fatally shot in a dance hall on Saturday night by a gunman who later took his own life.

Coming in quick succession, the two shooting sprees left California reeling from one of the bloodiest spates of mass gun violence in decades in a state with some of the strictest firearm laws in the country.

Zhao was taken into custody on Monday evening outside a sheriff’s station, where police said he had driven shortly after the attack on farm workers.

The precise motive for the shooting remained unclear. Zhao had been employed by one of the growers, Mountain Mushroom Farm, and had resided at the property along with some other employees, according to a spokesperson for California Terra Gardens, which owns the farm. Authorities said early evidence indicated the bloodshed stemmed from a workplace grievance. The second crime scene, Concord Farms, is about a mile away.

Half Moon Bay, a community of about 12,000 residents south of San Francisco, is home to both a luxury resort and a low-income farming community. The shooting cast a renewed spotlight on hardships faced by the area’s farm workers, many of them immigrants from Latin America and Asia who often live in squalid labor encampments and toil long hours under poor conditions for extremely low pay.

The San Mateo County Coroner named six of the seven deceased victims on Wednesday and listed their ages as between 43 and 73. Charging documents listed the dead as Yetao Bing, Qizhong Cheng, Jingzhi Lu, Zhishen Liu, Aixiang Zhang, Jose Romero and Marciano Martinez Jimenez.

Jose Romero’s brother Pedro was also injured in the attack and was hospitalized as of Tuesday, the brothers’ cousin Jose Juarez told Reuters. Juarez said the brothers had immigrated from Mexico and worked at Mountain Mushroom Farm.

Two days before the Half Moon Bay killings, another gunman 380 miles to the south opened fire at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio, a club frequented mostly by older patrons of Asian descent in Monterey Park.

Eleven people died and nine were injured in Saturday night’s gunfire, which some survivors and bystanders said they initially mistook for fireworks as the predominantly Asian-American community was observing the start of the Lunar New Year.

Authorities said the assailant, Huu Can Tran, 72, drove a short time later to a second dance hall in the neighboring town of Alhambra. There, the club’s operator disarmed him before he could open fire.

The next morning, Tran shot himself to death behind the wheel of his getaway vehicle as police closed in on him south of Los Angeles, leaving investigators with few clues as to his motive.

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The number of migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela caught crossing the U.S.-Mexico border dropped 97% from December to January following new restrictions by U.S. President Joe Biden that expel them back to Mexico.

U.S. authorities encountered an average of just 115 migrants from those countries over a weeklong period ending on Jan. 24, down from an average 3,367 on Dec. 11, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said on Wednesday.

The department attributed the decrease to the restrictions and new legal pathways opened for migrants with U.S. sponsors who enter by air.

As a battle between Republicans and Democrats over raising the federal debt ceiling unfolds, the U.S. Treasury has begun using extraordinary cash management measures to keep the U.S. government from breaching the $31.4 trillion borrowing limit.

The measures will allow the Treasury to claw back more than $500 billion in borrowing capacity, but it’s unclear how long that will last beyond early June as tax revenues ease and outlays for debt service, healthcare and Social Security grow.

Here’s a rundown of the Treasury’s tools to keep borrowing under the limit.

On Jan 24, the Treasury suspended daily reinvestments in a federal employee retirement fund known as the G Fund, which had a balance of $294 billion as of Dec. 31. Normally the money market-like fund reinvests its entire balance daily into special-issue Treasury securities that count against the debt limit, but the move allows the government to issue more normal Treasury bills, notes and bonds instead.

The fund must be made whole, including lost interest, when the debt ceiling is raised or suspended, protecting federal employees.

The Treasury on Jan. 19 suspended investments in the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund and the Postal Service Retiree Health Benefit Fund — except for amounts needed to pay benefits.

The suspensions allow Treasury to reclaim about $8.3 billion in borrowing capacity per month, or a total of $41.5 billion for the five-month “debt issuance suspension period” declared by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen though June 5 — a period that could be extended.

On June 30, the Treasury can regain another $143 billion in borrowing capacity when $131 billion in investments in the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund matures. A $12 billion interest payment to the fund also is due on that date. If Yellen extends the suspension period past June 30, the Treasury can suspend these investments and reclaim borrowing capacity in a one-time action that must be reversed once the borrowing limit is raised.

The Treasury could dip into this seldom-used $210 billion fund and suspend daily reinvestment of the dollar balance — currently about $17 billion — to free up borrowing headroom. Created during the Great Depression of the 1930s to stabilize dollar exchange rates, the fund was most recently used during the COVID-19 pandemic to backstop Federal Reserve emergency lending programs for businesses. The funds would need to be restored once the debt impasse ends, but not lost interest.

The Treasury can suspend sales of State and Local Government Series securities — known as “slugs” — which are special low-interest Treasury securities offered to state and local governments to temporarily invest proceeds from municipal bond sales. Slugs issues, which count against the debt limit, have recently averaged $6 billion per month, but monthly volumes vary. At that rate, a five-month suspension could conserve $30 billion in borrowing headroom.

These items were the only ones that the Treasury identified in a description of extraordinary measures, but the department also has employed and considered other tactics in the past:

The Treasury could cut issuance of longer-term government debt and rely more heavily on short-term cash management bills to gain more day-to-day control over debt outstanding. Cash management bills are typically issued for days instead of normal Treasury bill maturities of four weeks to one year. But this is unlikely to buy much time and officials have traditionally been wary of making major shifts in the Treasury’s debt issuance calendar, which could upset markets.

Treasury secretaries in the past have halted sales of U.S. savings bonds to the public during debt limit impasses, but it would not free up borrowing authority and would only prevent small amounts of new debt from being issued. Savings bond sales increased the federal debt by just $5.7 billion since the start of the 2023 fiscal year last October.

The Federal Financing Bank can issue up to $15 billion in debt on behalf of other government agencies that is not subject to the debt limit. So the Treasury could exchange FFB debt for other debt to reduce the total amount subject to the limit. However, the measure would also create only a small amount of borrowing headroom. According to the bank’s fiscal 2022 annual report, $4.8 billion worth of this capacity had already been utilized.

The Treasury could consider sales of U.S. gold or other holdings to pay bills, but department officials in the past have argued that this is unworkable, creating the specter of fire sales or destabilizing markets by reducing U.S. reserve assets.

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The leader of a prominent Colombian criminal group pleaded guilty on Wednesday to U.S. drug trafficking charges, court records showed.

Dairo Antonio Usuga David, better known as Otoniel, admitted in Brooklyn federal court to one count of running a continuing criminal enterprise, as well as two counts of drug distribution stemming from federal indictments in Manhattan and Miami that were transferred to Brooklyn.

Usuga, 51, had been arrested by Colombian armed forces in October 2021 near the South American country’s border with Panama on U.S. charges of smuggling “outrageous” amounts of cocaine to the United States while leading the Clan del Golfo cartel.

“With today’s guilty plea, the bloody reign of the most violent and significant Colombian narcotics trafficker since Pablo Escobar is over,” Breon Peace, the top federal prosecutor in Brooklyn, said in a statement.

Usuga faces a mandatory minimum prison term of 20 years. Prosecutors agreed when seeking his extradition from Colombia not to seek a life sentence, court papers show.

“Mr. Usuga David pleaded guilty because he wants to accept responsibility as quickly as possible for his crimes,” his lawyer Alexei Schacht said in an email. “He hopes that his plea and prior calls for peace may help to make Colombia a more peaceful place.”

U.S. District Judge Dora Irizarry, who oversees the case, has not yet set a sentencing date. Usuga has been detained in Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center since May.

Extradition to the United States is among Bogota’s main weapons to fight drug trafficking.