Colombia-Cloud of Suspicion
1-26-1995
^By ANDREW SELSKY=
^Associated Press Writer=
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) _ A half year after President Ernesto Samper took office vowing to imprison drug traffickers, they are still sending a blizzard of cocaine into the United States and other countries.
Refitted passenger planes _ their lights and radar transponders turned off to avoid detection _ soar into the night sky from Colombian airfields carrying tons of cocaine.
U.S. officials say the flights land in Mexico, where the cocaine is unloaded and smuggled by land into the United States.
At home, leaders of the Cali drug cartel, which supplies 80 percent of the world's cocaine, elude arrest with seeming ease.
When the kingpins visit a neighborhood in their home city of Cali, police on their payroll sometimes erect roadblocks to keep rivals and honest cops away, said a cartel source on condition of anonymity.
Almost six months after Samper's inauguration, U.S. officials are trying to determine which side of the drug war his administration is on.
Suspicion was cast on Samper even before he took office Aug. 7, when tape recordings emerged indicating his election campaign took cartel money. Samper denied it.
Without proof, U.S. officials decided to judge Samper on his actions.
So far, they're getting mixed signals.
On one hand, the Colombian government recently ousted two senior officials of the secret police and the federal prosecutor's office for alleged collusion with the cartel.
And it has begun, with U.S. assistance, spraying herbicide on plantations of coca, the raw material for cocaine, and poppies used to make heroin. Samper is also seeking an international agreement to fight money laundering.
Colombia's justice minister, prosecutor-general and national police chief are in Washington this week to try to persuade U.S. officials that Colombia is earnestly fighting trafficking.
U.S. officials sometimes think Colombian officials are more concerned about their image than about fighting drug trafficking, a State Department official said in a telephone interview from Washington on condition of anonymity.
The drug flights, for example, have angered U.S. officials.
The traffickers remove the passenger seats and registration numbers from the planes, some as large as Boeing 727s. False numbers are stenciled onto the planes and changed frequently.
U.S. drug agents have been tipped off to a few flights, but Washington hasn't sent up fighter planes to intercept them because of sovereignty concerns with Colombia and Mexico, U.S. officials said privately.
Washington also is upset that not one major trafficker has been caught, much less brought to trial, since Samper's inauguration.
Last week, the Samper administration ruled out resuming extraditions to the United States where traffickers would face stiff sentences, despite recommendations of Colombia's top prosecutor and the Constitutional Court president.
The U.S. Embassy has not commented publicly on Colombia's performance in the drug war. The head of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's operations in Colombia, Joe Toft, vented his frustration by branding the nation a "narcodemocracy" when he left Colombia after a seven-year tour in September.
U.S. Ambassador Myles Frechette will soon deliver a report to Washington on Colombia's level of cooperation in fighting drugs. President Clinton will consider it when he recommends March 1 whether Washington should continue current levels of aid to Colombia and other drug-producing or drug-transit countries.
Frechette refused to reveal what his assessment would be, although he said the Colombian government would "be a champ" if it eradicates all coca and poppy crops within two years.
Officials in Washington say the Colombian government must focus on catching major traffickers and putting them into prison.
Of all the world's nations that produce or move drugs, Colombia _ as the main cocaine supplier and with a share of the heroin market _ is the most significant.
And it's the one for which the most question marks remain.
___
EDITOR'S NOTE: Andrew Selsky is The Associated Press bureau chief in Bogota.
^By ANDREW SELSKY=
^Associated Press Writer=
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) _ A half year after President Ernesto Samper took office vowing to imprison drug traffickers, they are still sending a blizzard of cocaine into the United States and other countries.
Refitted passenger planes _ their lights and radar transponders turned off to avoid detection _ soar into the night sky from Colombian airfields carrying tons of cocaine.
U.S. officials say the flights land in Mexico, where the cocaine is unloaded and smuggled by land into the United States.
At home, leaders of the Cali drug cartel, which supplies 80 percent of the world's cocaine, elude arrest with seeming ease.
When the kingpins visit a neighborhood in their home city of Cali, police on their payroll sometimes erect roadblocks to keep rivals and honest cops away, said a cartel source on condition of anonymity.
Almost six months after Samper's inauguration, U.S. officials are trying to determine which side of the drug war his administration is on.
Suspicion was cast on Samper even before he took office Aug. 7, when tape recordings emerged indicating his election campaign took cartel money. Samper denied it.
Without proof, U.S. officials decided to judge Samper on his actions.
So far, they're getting mixed signals.
On one hand, the Colombian government recently ousted two senior officials of the secret police and the federal prosecutor's office for alleged collusion with the cartel.
And it has begun, with U.S. assistance, spraying herbicide on plantations of coca, the raw material for cocaine, and poppies used to make heroin. Samper is also seeking an international agreement to fight money laundering.
Colombia's justice minister, prosecutor-general and national police chief are in Washington this week to try to persuade U.S. officials that Colombia is earnestly fighting trafficking.
U.S. officials sometimes think Colombian officials are more concerned about their image than about fighting drug trafficking, a State Department official said in a telephone interview from Washington on condition of anonymity.
The drug flights, for example, have angered U.S. officials.
The traffickers remove the passenger seats and registration numbers from the planes, some as large as Boeing 727s. False numbers are stenciled onto the planes and changed frequently.
U.S. drug agents have been tipped off to a few flights, but Washington hasn't sent up fighter planes to intercept them because of sovereignty concerns with Colombia and Mexico, U.S. officials said privately.
Washington also is upset that not one major trafficker has been caught, much less brought to trial, since Samper's inauguration.
Last week, the Samper administration ruled out resuming extraditions to the United States where traffickers would face stiff sentences, despite recommendations of Colombia's top prosecutor and the Constitutional Court president.
The U.S. Embassy has not commented publicly on Colombia's performance in the drug war. The head of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's operations in Colombia, Joe Toft, vented his frustration by branding the nation a "narcodemocracy" when he left Colombia after a seven-year tour in September.
U.S. Ambassador Myles Frechette will soon deliver a report to Washington on Colombia's level of cooperation in fighting drugs. President Clinton will consider it when he recommends March 1 whether Washington should continue current levels of aid to Colombia and other drug-producing or drug-transit countries.
Frechette refused to reveal what his assessment would be, although he said the Colombian government would "be a champ" if it eradicates all coca and poppy crops within two years.
Officials in Washington say the Colombian government must focus on catching major traffickers and putting them into prison.
Of all the world's nations that produce or move drugs, Colombia _ as the main cocaine supplier and with a share of the heroin market _ is the most significant.
And it's the one for which the most question marks remain.
___
EDITOR'S NOTE: Andrew Selsky is The Associated Press bureau chief in Bogota.
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