Colombia-Campaign Treasurer Arrested
7-27-1995
^By ANDREW SELSKY=
^Associated Press Writer=
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) _ The white bullet-proof sedan carrying the arrested man swept around the corner Thursday and screeched to a halt.
Police brandishing automatic rifles took up positions to keep away a crowd of more than 1,000 onlookers as officers hustled the suspect, Santiago Medina, inside a building for interrogation.
Many assumed the suspect was yet another Cali drug kingpin. But Medina, wearing a gray suit, a blue tie and a worried look on his face, is none other than the campaign treasurer whose money-raising talents helped bring President Ernesto Samper to power in 1994 elections.
Medina, arrested Wednesday evening, is the first member of Samper's campaign team to wind up behind bars on accusations the campaign used drug money to gain the presidency.
Local news media immediately began speculating on who would be next, with the focus on Defense Minister Fernando Botero, who was Samper's campaign manager. The opposition newspaper La Prensa claimed this week that Botero and Medina solicited campaign donations from the Cali cartel, then cooked the books to hide the illicit source.
Botero, on a visit to Washington, said the Samper administration fully supports the efforts by Prosecutor General Alfonso Valdivieso to investigate Cali cartel corruption of Colombian politics.
In an interview with RCN radio, he did not discuss the allegations reported by La Prensa.
Ironically, the focus on Botero comes as the United States is heaping praise on both him and Samper for the offensive the Colombian government has mounted against the Cali cartel, which controls the global cocaine trade.
The United States had complained last year that Samper was doing nothing against the cartel. In response, the government sent an elite force of soldiers and police to Cali, the southwestern city that is the cartel's home, to raid cartel properties and hunt for the kingpins.
The raids, assisted by U.S. drug and intelligence agents, have led to the arrests or surrender of five cartel leaders in less than two months. Authorities also seized property and documents that allegedly implicate thousands of people as being cartel allies.
The prosecutor general, who has total independence in his actions, is using the seized documents to expand his investigation of cartel corruption. Valdivieso told reporters he could not rule out the possibility that the trial will lead to the president himself.
If, as some observers suspect, Samper launched the offensive to appease the United States, and if he intended the offensive to have limited results, it has now snowballed out of his control.
So much incriminating material has been uncovered _ canceled checks sent to the Samper campaign from Cali cartel front companies, lists of cartel payoffs to prominent Colombians _ that the government is now compelled to investigate it.
^By ANDREW SELSKY=
^Associated Press Writer=
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) _ The white bullet-proof sedan carrying the arrested man swept around the corner Thursday and screeched to a halt.
Police brandishing automatic rifles took up positions to keep away a crowd of more than 1,000 onlookers as officers hustled the suspect, Santiago Medina, inside a building for interrogation.
Many assumed the suspect was yet another Cali drug kingpin. But Medina, wearing a gray suit, a blue tie and a worried look on his face, is none other than the campaign treasurer whose money-raising talents helped bring President Ernesto Samper to power in 1994 elections.
Medina, arrested Wednesday evening, is the first member of Samper's campaign team to wind up behind bars on accusations the campaign used drug money to gain the presidency.
Local news media immediately began speculating on who would be next, with the focus on Defense Minister Fernando Botero, who was Samper's campaign manager. The opposition newspaper La Prensa claimed this week that Botero and Medina solicited campaign donations from the Cali cartel, then cooked the books to hide the illicit source.
Botero, on a visit to Washington, said the Samper administration fully supports the efforts by Prosecutor General Alfonso Valdivieso to investigate Cali cartel corruption of Colombian politics.
In an interview with RCN radio, he did not discuss the allegations reported by La Prensa.
Ironically, the focus on Botero comes as the United States is heaping praise on both him and Samper for the offensive the Colombian government has mounted against the Cali cartel, which controls the global cocaine trade.
The United States had complained last year that Samper was doing nothing against the cartel. In response, the government sent an elite force of soldiers and police to Cali, the southwestern city that is the cartel's home, to raid cartel properties and hunt for the kingpins.
The raids, assisted by U.S. drug and intelligence agents, have led to the arrests or surrender of five cartel leaders in less than two months. Authorities also seized property and documents that allegedly implicate thousands of people as being cartel allies.
The prosecutor general, who has total independence in his actions, is using the seized documents to expand his investigation of cartel corruption. Valdivieso told reporters he could not rule out the possibility that the trial will lead to the president himself.
If, as some observers suspect, Samper launched the offensive to appease the United States, and if he intended the offensive to have limited results, it has now snowballed out of his control.
So much incriminating material has been uncovered _ canceled checks sent to the Samper campaign from Cali cartel front companies, lists of cartel payoffs to prominent Colombians _ that the government is now compelled to investigate it.
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