COLOMBIA: CHIEF PROSECUTOR ORDERS PROBE INTO ROLE PLAYED BY 3 CABINET OFFICIALS IN THE GROWING DRUG CORRUPTION SCANDAL
Record ID:
588503
COLOMBIA: CHIEF PROSECUTOR ORDERS PROBE INTO ROLE PLAYED BY 3 CABINET OFFICIALS IN THE GROWING DRUG CORRUPTION SCANDAL
- Title: COLOMBIA: CHIEF PROSECUTOR ORDERS PROBE INTO ROLE PLAYED BY 3 CABINET OFFICIALS IN THE GROWING DRUG CORRUPTION SCANDAL
- Date: 15th March 1996
- Summary: BOGOTA, COLOMBIA. (MARCH 15, 1996) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 1. SCU JOURNALISTS 0.10 2. SCU INTERIOR MINISTER SERPA SAYING THAT HE WILL VOLUNTARILY TAKE PART IN THE INVESTIGATIONS AND COOPERATE WITH THE AUTHORITIES IN ORDER TO RESOLVE THE SITUATION AS SOON AS POSSIBLE (SPANISH) 0.52 3. SV PRESS 0.53 4. SCU SERPA SAYING I AM GOING TO RESPOND TO ALL OF THE EXISTING CHARGES/ IT WAS RECOGNISED SEVERAL WEEKS AGO SOME CHARGES WERE MADE AGAINST ME, I THINK THIS IS A GREAT OPPORTUNITY TO DISPEL THOSE CHARGES SO SPECULATION WILL CEASE/ I AM SURE THAT MY ACTIONS HAVE ALWAYS BEEN ABOVE THE LAW (SPANISH) 1.30 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
- Embargoed: 30th March 1996 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: BOGOTA, COLOMBIA
- City:
- Country: Colombia LATIN AMERICA
- Reuters ID: LVA8MTLPRQYN3V7BKUXHVSGJ33D7
- Story Text: INTRO: The office of Colombia's chief prosecutor said on Friday (March 15) it had ordered a formal probe into the role played by three senior cabinet officials in the mushrooming drug corruption scandal.
-------------------------------------------------------------------- A brief statement from the office of Prosecutor-General Alfonso Valdivieso said the three, Interior Minister Horacio Serpa, Foreign Minister Rodrigo Pardo and Communications Minister Juan Manuel Turbay, were now targets of a "criminal investigation" that had been opened by the Supreme Court.
All three were involved in the 1994 campaign of President Ernesto Samper, who is being investigated by Congress on charges that he approved the use of Cali cartel drug money to finance his election bid. They have been implicated to varying degrees in acts of criminal wrongdoing, or efforts to cover-up drug-related corruption, by Fernando Botero, Samper's jailed former defence minister and campaign manager.
Sources close to Valdivieso, an anti-drug crusader, said that although the three officials faced possible criminal charges the opening of the Supreme Court probe did not mean they would have to step down.
But a report in Bogota's El Tiempo newspaper on Friday said Serpa and Pardo, Samper's staunchest defenders in the government, had both offered to resign because of the impending investigation.
Samper has rebuffed repeated calls for his resignation because of charges that he personally approved the use of about $6 million (USD) in drug money to bankroll his campaign. He has repeatedly proclaimed his innocence and insisted that the congressional probe will exonerate him of any wrongdoing.
Congress, many of whose members are suspected of drug-related corruption themselves, is the only body constitutionally authorised to hear and judge charges against a sitting president.
A statement issued by the presidential palace on Friday said Samper maintained his "absolute conviction" that all three ministers, who will be asked to testify as part of the Supreme Court probe, "will demonstrate their total innocence."
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