Colombia-Scandal
8-17-1995
^By ANDREW SELSKY=
^Associated Press Writer=
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) _ From a college campus scrawled with leftist graffiti to the tennis courts of an exclusive neighborhood, Colombians are discussing what was considered unthinkable just a few weeks ago.
Will, for the first time in history, the nation's president be forced to leave office?
Almost daily, Colombians are turning on their TV sets or opening their newspapers to see startling new revelations in the "narcoscandal," which had been bubbling along for a year before it blew wide open three weeks ago.
On July 26, President Ernesto Samper's 1994 election campaign treasurer, Santiago Medina, was imprisoned. Since then, Medina has testified that Samper and campaign director Fernando Botero accepted millions of dollars from the Cali drug cartel for the election bid. Botero resigned as Defense Minister on Aug. 2 and was arrested on Tuesday.
Many wonder if Samper will be next.
On Wednesday, the president declared a state of emergency, saying he needed extra powers to fight violence in Colombia. But many Colombians feel it is an attempt to divert attention from his troubles.
"It's hard to keep up with what's going on. But with all that's come out, I think Samper should resign," Juan de Dios Contreras, a bodyguard sitting in a pickup truck outside a kindergarten, said Thursday. "The president has soiled this country's image."
The opinion of Contreras, who was protecting children of wealthy families, is shared by most Colombians.
A poll says 48 percent believe Samper knew drug traffickers donated money to his campaign. Only 44 percent think he's innocent. If it's proven the campaign was funded by drug traffickers, 73 percent said Samper should step down.
At Bogota's National University, a hotbed of radicalism where slogans supporting Peru's Shining Path guerrillas and other leftist groups are spray-painted onto buildings, there has been no uproar about the scandal hitting the presidential palace less than two miles away.
Nestor Patino, a 23-year-old graphic design major, said he and many of his fellow students are fed up.
"There's a feeling that there is perpetual corruption in politics in Colombia and that nothing can be done about it," said Patino, wearing granny glasses and a gold earring and with his long hair in a ponytail.
Nevertheless, many students said they were closely following developments, including watching live televised discussions on the scandal in Congress.
Public prosecutors netted the arrests of Botero and Medina through their relentless investigation. But the president is being investigated by a commission of Congress, many of whose members are also accused of taking money from traffickers.
This has led many Colombians to doubt the commission will conduct a thorough probe.
"Absolutely nothing will happen," wrote Antonio Caballero, a columnist for the newsmagazine Cambio 16. "The president won't fall. He won't resign, no one will fire him and no one will topple him."
For many, the scandal now hinges on Botero. If, in a bid for leniency, the election campaign director corroborates the treasurer's testimony that Samper approved of taking Cali cartel money, the president may not escape the tightening ring of evidence.
"Botero is the key," said Milciades Rincon, a tennis pro at Bogota's Santa Ana Oriental neighborhood, an enclave of homes blooming with bougainvillea and protected by private security guards.
The tennis courts overlook a military base where Botero is being detained while prosecutors question him and decide whether to charge him.
"If Botero admits the campaign took drug money _ which would be a very shameful thing for this country _ then both Samper and Botero should be punished to the full extent of the law," Rincon said.
Fifty-two percent of Colombians believe Samper will last his full term, which ends in 1998, according to the opinion poll. But 41 percent, an astonishing amount considering that a Colombian president has never been ousted despite decades of corruption, believe Samper will fall.
The poll, published Aug. 6 in the newspaper El Tiempo, had a 4.4 percent margin of error.
^By ANDREW SELSKY=
^Associated Press Writer=
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) _ From a college campus scrawled with leftist graffiti to the tennis courts of an exclusive neighborhood, Colombians are discussing what was considered unthinkable just a few weeks ago.
Will, for the first time in history, the nation's president be forced to leave office?
Almost daily, Colombians are turning on their TV sets or opening their newspapers to see startling new revelations in the "narcoscandal," which had been bubbling along for a year before it blew wide open three weeks ago.
On July 26, President Ernesto Samper's 1994 election campaign treasurer, Santiago Medina, was imprisoned. Since then, Medina has testified that Samper and campaign director Fernando Botero accepted millions of dollars from the Cali drug cartel for the election bid. Botero resigned as Defense Minister on Aug. 2 and was arrested on Tuesday.
Many wonder if Samper will be next.
On Wednesday, the president declared a state of emergency, saying he needed extra powers to fight violence in Colombia. But many Colombians feel it is an attempt to divert attention from his troubles.
"It's hard to keep up with what's going on. But with all that's come out, I think Samper should resign," Juan de Dios Contreras, a bodyguard sitting in a pickup truck outside a kindergarten, said Thursday. "The president has soiled this country's image."
The opinion of Contreras, who was protecting children of wealthy families, is shared by most Colombians.
A poll says 48 percent believe Samper knew drug traffickers donated money to his campaign. Only 44 percent think he's innocent. If it's proven the campaign was funded by drug traffickers, 73 percent said Samper should step down.
At Bogota's National University, a hotbed of radicalism where slogans supporting Peru's Shining Path guerrillas and other leftist groups are spray-painted onto buildings, there has been no uproar about the scandal hitting the presidential palace less than two miles away.
Nestor Patino, a 23-year-old graphic design major, said he and many of his fellow students are fed up.
"There's a feeling that there is perpetual corruption in politics in Colombia and that nothing can be done about it," said Patino, wearing granny glasses and a gold earring and with his long hair in a ponytail.
Nevertheless, many students said they were closely following developments, including watching live televised discussions on the scandal in Congress.
Public prosecutors netted the arrests of Botero and Medina through their relentless investigation. But the president is being investigated by a commission of Congress, many of whose members are also accused of taking money from traffickers.
This has led many Colombians to doubt the commission will conduct a thorough probe.
"Absolutely nothing will happen," wrote Antonio Caballero, a columnist for the newsmagazine Cambio 16. "The president won't fall. He won't resign, no one will fire him and no one will topple him."
For many, the scandal now hinges on Botero. If, in a bid for leniency, the election campaign director corroborates the treasurer's testimony that Samper approved of taking Cali cartel money, the president may not escape the tightening ring of evidence.
"Botero is the key," said Milciades Rincon, a tennis pro at Bogota's Santa Ana Oriental neighborhood, an enclave of homes blooming with bougainvillea and protected by private security guards.
The tennis courts overlook a military base where Botero is being detained while prosecutors question him and decide whether to charge him.
"If Botero admits the campaign took drug money _ which would be a very shameful thing for this country _ then both Samper and Botero should be punished to the full extent of the law," Rincon said.
Fifty-two percent of Colombians believe Samper will last his full term, which ends in 1998, according to the opinion poll. But 41 percent, an astonishing amount considering that a Colombian president has never been ousted despite decades of corruption, believe Samper will fall.
The poll, published Aug. 6 in the newspaper El Tiempo, had a 4.4 percent margin of error.
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