Word: botero
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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...
...Given Botero's success, U.S. officials, who had been pressuring the Samper government to crack down on the drug mafia, greeted the Defense Minister's resignation with mixed emotions. "This guy was pushing very, very hard for the right results," said a ranking U.S. policy hand. "He's been very helpful." Other U.S. agents, however, bolstered Medina's story when they found two Chase Manhattan Bank accounts in New York that appeared to be linked to Samper's inner circle. Medina says that a Chase account was used to launder the Cali funds...
...document that brought Botero down and damaged Samper was the record of a July 28 interrogation of Medina that was stolen or leaked from Valdivieso's office. In the transcript Medina says that on April 29, 1994, Botero gave him the go-ahead to seek funds from the Cali cartel to help pay for Samper's campaign. Medina ultimately received, he said, two payments totaling $5.9 million...