Colombian President Called On To Resign Campaign Treasurer Alleges That Samper Involved With Cali Cartel

The country’s worst narcotics scandal threatened Thursday to oust President Ernesto Samper, as explosive new accusations emerged about his alleged ties with the world’s top cocaine traffickers.

The allegations, by the treasurer of Samper’s 1994 presidential campaign, also described how senior officials have tried in recent days to launch a cover-up to protect the president.

The charges prompted opposition politicians and critics to call on Samper to step down.

“I think the president has little time left,” admitted an influential government official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The crisis broke after Samper’s former campaign treasurer, Santiago Medina, gave wide-ranging testimony to judicial investigators that implicated many of the president’s men.

Snatches of Medina’s testimony, leaked to the press, forced the resignation Wednesday of one of Samper’s confidants, Defense Minister Fernando Botero.

The former treasurer said Botero, while serving as Samper’s campaign manager, had supervised the collection of at least $6 million in donations from cocaine traffickers.

Both Botero and the president have consistently denied accepting campaign funds from the Cali Cartel, the world’s largest cocaine-trafficking group. Samper has even asked a congressional commission to investigate him.

But on Thursday, the scandal widened as nearly all of Medina’s testimony was published in Colombia’s largest newspaper, El Tiempo of Bogota.

Medina’s testimony - backed up by more than 400 documents he presented - portray a president who tried to keep cartel leaders at arm’s length, even as he sent his campaign treasurer to negotiate with them.

Medina said he met twice with senior Cali Cartel leaders in May and June last year, after Botero told him that Samper had selected him as the campaign’s emissary.

After receiving Botero’s order, Medina said, he confronted Samper.

“He told me very nervously that he wanted to be left out of this, and to coordinate with Fernando Botero,” Medina testified.

At the first meeting with cartel leaders, in a plush Cali penthouse, Medina asked for about $2.5 million, he testified.

In exchange, he said, he carried a promise from Samper that the future president would try to “change the climate” so it would be easier for the cartel leaders to turn themselves in and obtain reductions in their sentences.

Cartel leaders eventually provided at least $6 million, he said.