Ernesto Samper

While Congress reopens an investigation that could lead to his impeachment, President Ernesto Samper is traveling the nation and handing out huge sums of government money. He is using pork-barrel politics to shore up his support among the poor because the facts condemn him, critics contend.

A U.S. federal prosecutor said the Cali drug cartel bribed former President Ernesto Samper to win passage of a favorable extradition law, prompting an angry denial from Samper. The prosecutor later formally withdrew his statement and U.S. Ambassador William Wood also gave assurances that the U.S. would comply with Colombia's extradition requirements. U.S. Atty.

Promising to do more for Colombia's long-neglected poor, ruling party economist Ernesto Samper won a hard-fought presidential election Sunday in a close contest between two survivors of this country's brutal drug wars. With 98% of the ballots counted, Liberal Party candidate Samper, a brainy but colorless former government minister, had 50.37% of the vote, to 48.64% for his opponent, former television anchorman Andres Pastrana.

Although Ernesto Samper's term as president has come to an end, his scandal-plagued legacy lives on in a court case that judicial officials warn could drag on for years. Colombia's Constitutional Court is investigating charges that 110 members of Congress who voted against impeaching Samper neglected their duty. The case stems from a congressional vote two years ago at the height of a movement to throw Samper out of office because of a campaign finance scandal.

President Ernesto Samper clashed with the nation's highest court, accusing it of political meddling after it overturned his emergency economic plan on grounds that it was unconstitutional. The clash between the executive and judicial branches came after the court, in a 6-3 vote Wednesday, struck down all 16 decrees issued under the state of economic emergency that Samper declared on Jan. 13 to help fight a growing fiscal deficit.

A U.S. federal prosecutor said the Cali drug cartel bribed former President Ernesto Samper to win passage of a favorable extradition law, prompting an angry denial from Samper. The prosecutor later formally withdrew his statement and U.S. Ambassador William Wood also gave assurances that the U.S. would comply with Colombia's extradition requirements. U.S. Atty.

A congressional committee recommended that President Ernesto Samper be cleared of charges that he accepted millions of dollars from the Cali drug cartel to finance his 1994 election campaign. The Chamber of Representatives investigating panel voted 10 to 3 against a resolution recommending that Samper be accused of criminal wrongdoing before the full Chamber. The panel, however, is dominated by 10 members of Samper's Liberal Party and was expected to back the president.

An alleged Colombian drug dealer imprisoned on trafficking charges whose wife was shot dead in a mob-style slaying has pleaded with the United States to take in his children because he fears for their lives, newspapers reported. Jesus Amado Sarria reportedly offered to assist U.S. drug investigations if his request was accepted.

President Ernesto Samper has raised the stakes in the nation's drug war by calling for an end to the constitutional ban on the extradition of cocaine traffickers and other criminals. The move, which could clear the way for jailed Cali cartel traffickers to be put on trial in the United States, must still be approved by Congress. Analysts say the issue is certain to be the subject of heated debate. U.S.

Colombian President Ernesto Samper is the target of a new probe into his alleged financial dealings with the Cali drug cartel, judicial sources said. A preliminary investigation, opened by the Committee of Accusations of the House of Representatives, focuses on charges that Samper used his post as head of the Development Ministry in 1991 to raise campaign funds for political cronies, the sources said.

Despite intermittent rain and a campaign of harassment by guerrillas, Colombians went to the polls Sunday in surprising numbers to vote in an election that pitted traditional machine politics against a new wave of independent candidates. Nearly 46% of the registered voters cast ballots, a large turnout for Colombian congressional races. Four years ago, fewer than one-third of those registered voted for lawmakers.

Suspected drug traffickers have kidnapped President Ernesto Samper's press secretary and a radio reporter, a radio network said. The RCN network said two people describing themselves as members of "the Extraditables" telephoned to say they were holding the spokesman, William Parra, and an RCN reporter, Luis Eduardo Maldonado. "The Extraditables" was the name of a shadowy group formed by late Medellin drug lord Pablo Escobar.

U.S. drug czar Barry R. McCaffrey met with President Ernesto Samper, breaking a two-year freeze on top-level U.S. contacts with the Colombian leader. Neither would comment afterward, but Colombia's ambassador to Washington, Juan Carlos Esguerra, said McCaffrey reiterated U.S. demands that Colombia reinstate extradition "without conditions" of criminals wanted in the U.S.

Colombian President Ernesto Samper is the target of a new probe into his alleged financial dealings with the Cali drug cartel, judicial sources said. A preliminary investigation, opened by the Committee of Accusations of the House of Representatives, focuses on charges that Samper used his post as head of the Development Ministry in 1991 to raise campaign funds for political cronies, the sources said.

Although President Ernesto Samper said his government is willing "to open a new door to peace" following Sunday's release of 70 soldiers and marines held by guerrillas, officials moved quickly to lower expectations that any negotiated settlement with insurgents is near. "It would be pure euphoria to think that" Latin America's longest civil war is close to ending, said Foreign Minister Maria Emma Mejia.

President Ernesto Samper has raised the stakes in the nation's drug war by calling for an end to the constitutional ban on the extradition of cocaine traffickers and other criminals. The move, which could clear the way for jailed Cali cartel traffickers to be put on trial in the United States, must still be approved by Congress. Analysts say the issue is certain to be the subject of heated debate. U.S.

Ernesto Samper will be sworn in as president of Colombia Sunday amid a simmering scandal over attempts by cocaine traffickers to finance Samper's electoral campaign. Samper has conceded that leaders of the Cali cartel, who control 80% of the international cocaine trade, offered money, but he denies accepting it. The allegations, which came to light with the release of secret recordings of the traffickers discussing their plans, alarmed U.S.

Suspected drug traffickers have kidnapped President Ernesto Samper's press secretary and a radio reporter, a radio network said. The RCN network said two people describing themselves as members of "the Extraditables" telephoned to say they were holding the spokesman, William Parra, and an RCN reporter, Luis Eduardo Maldonado. "The Extraditables" was the name of a shadowy group formed by late Medellin drug lord Pablo Escobar.

President Ernesto Samper clashed with the nation's highest court, accusing it of political meddling after it overturned his emergency economic plan on grounds that it was unconstitutional. The clash between the executive and judicial branches came after the court, in a 6-3 vote Wednesday, struck down all 16 decrees issued under the state of economic emergency that Samper declared on Jan. 13 to help fight a growing fiscal deficit.

Tens of thousands of public employees marched on Bogota's main square Tuesday in the first indication that unions have withdrawn support for President Ernesto Samper, who portrays himself as the defender of workers and the poor. The first nationwide work stoppage in 20 years began as a demonstration over the size of wage increases and plans to sell government companies, but it has evolved into a protest of government economic austerity programs.