Andean Report by Javier Almario

Click here for Full Issue of EIR Volume 21, Number 41, October 14, 1994

Samper's narco-Iinks confirmed cassettes-which have the voices of The retired director of DEA in Bogota says the evidence is Cali Cartel bosses Gilberto and Mi guel Rodriguez Orejuela confirming conclusive: Colombia's President took money from narcos! the bribery of Samper-do not consti tute proof that a crime was committed. The only real crime, insisted De C olombian President Ernesto "At that moment, there was a great Greiff, was that the recordings were Samper Pizano received millions from deal of information available about the illegally made, without judicial per the Cali drug cartel, and his predeces drug traffickers' maneuvers in the mission! At the time, De Greiff had sor Cesar Gaviria Trujillo was a wit Constituent Assembly in order to·free telephoned Toft, accusingly de ting collaborator in the cartel's pene themselves from extradition." Toft manding to know who had made the tration into the very pores of confirmed what has long been ru recordings. The U. S. officially denied Colombia's political system, ac mored, that President Gaviria was in any involvement. cording to bombshell statements made possession of the narco-video but EIR has reported for years that at the end of September by Joseph chose never to reveal it, despite the fact Samper is a longstanding spokesman Toft, the head of the Drug Enforce that the DEA considered it "convinc for the narcotics mafia and for the le ment Administration in Bogota, on the ing evidence." galization of drugs. Moreover, EIR day of his retirement. Gaviria was also responsible for has insisted that the political godfather Former President Gaviria, who the escape of the late drug kingpin Pab of both Samper and Gaviria, and of was delivered the prestigious post of lo Escobar Gaviria, because the Presi the drug cartels themselves, is former secretary general of the Organization dent "knew what was happening at The Colombian President Alfonso L6pez of American States (OAS) by the Unit Cathedral [the estate which served as Michelsen. ed States, could only sputter his indig Escobar's prison following the assem The interview with Toft triggered nation at Toft's statements, but chose bly vote against extradition-ed.], an upheaval in diplomatic relations not to counter Toft's explicit charges, knew that Escobar was in control between United States and Colombia, which included that Colombia's 1991 there, that he would come and go at already shaky from this past summer's Constitution was drafted by Constit will, and he knew long before it hap "narco-cassettes" scandal. While the uent Assembly delegates who were pened that Escobar would escape," Colombian government denounced massively bribed by the drug traffick said Toft. and dismissed Toft·s charges outright, ers-with the full knowledge of then Toft also confirmed that the infa the U.S. Embassy in Bogota issued a President Gaviria! Thanks to these mous "narco-cassettes," the popular formal statement distancing itself bribes, the assembly constitutionally name given to secretlymade tapes that from Toft, now a private citizen. banned the extradition of Colombian document the millions contributed by However, the DEA has not contradict nationals to a foreign country. "Extra the drug traffickers to Samper Pi ed the statements of its former agent. dition was the only thing the traffickers zano's campaign to buy him the presi Toft made no mention of the role feared," said Toft. dency, are but one more piece of of L6pez Michelsen as political god Toftrevealed that the DEA had co evidence that the government of Co father to the Colombian narcotics operated at the time with the Colombi lombia is a full-blown "narco-democ cartels, yet it is well known that the an police in videotaping a secret meet racy." However, it is not the only evi L6pez government (1974-78) deliber ing between a lawyer for drug lord dence against Samper. "The narco ately opened the doors to the cultiva Pablo Escobar and a delegate to the cassettes for me are evidence," but tion of marijuana and to the laun Constituent Assembly from the "legal "there is much more information" dering of the drug proceeds, through ized" narco-terrorist movement, the concerning the millions contributed a series of banking and other decrees. M-19, at which a substantial bribe to by the traffickers to Samper's cam It is therefore not surprising that it was vote against extradition passed hands. paign. Toft also said that the Cali Car L6pez who responded with the most On the video, subsequently known as tel has "immense power" in Congress. fury to Toft's charges, accusing the the "narco-video," one can hear the Last August, then-Prosecutor former agent of creating an interna boast that the M-19 delegate was but General Gustavo de Greiff (like tional dis information network, for the one of many assembly delegates who Samper, a supporter of drug legaliza sole purpose of "slandering" Co had succumbed to greed or fear. tion), was emphatic that the narco- lombia.

EIR October 14, 1994 International 39