Word: botero
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...first victim of last week's political storm was Defense Minister Fernando Botero Zea, 39, who resigned amid accusations that he had received almost $6 million in contributions from the Cali cartel when he was Samper's campaign manager. Botero's accuser was Santiago Medina, campaign treasurer, who was arrested two weeks ago after a police raid turned up a check made out to him by a cartel front company...
Medina, under questioning by investigators for Colombia's independent chief prosecutor, Alfonso Valdivieso, not only gave up Botero but also claimed that the dirty money was raised with Samper's full knowledge...
Samper, 45, said he would answer Medina's charges "one by one." Botero--whose father Fernando Botero Angulo is Colombia's most famous painter--also denied the accusations, saying he only stepped down so he could devote time to preparing his defense. "I cannot prolong a situation in which my personal integrity and my family's honor are questioned," he said...
...irony of last week's sensational disclosures was that in recent months Botero, who was in charge of both the military and the national police, had been decimating the Cali cartel's formidable drug hierarchy. Behind bars after 15 years of activity were billionaire Cali kingpins Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela and Jose Santacruz Londono. Botero's national police director, General Jose Rosso Serrano, is said to be on the trail of the two remaining major Cali mobsters, Rodriguez's younger brother Miguel and Helmer "Pacho" Herrera...
There are signs that when it wants to, the CIA can clean house. Fernando Botero, the defense minister of Colombia, recalls a visit four months ago by agency officials who explained that they could no longer do business indiscriminately with the Colombian military, some of whose officers have death-squad links. From now on, "liaison" would occur only with officers found to be free of corruption and human-rights violations. Despite patriotic grumbling within his government, Botero agreed, and the result has pleased him. The agency drew closer to the Colombian National Police, one of the government's cleaner outfits...