Word: cartels
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...bizarre twist to the tale, TIME Daily reports, the evidence seems to exonerate Samper. Local TV stations buzzed over what appeared to be the biggest political scandal in the South American nation's history, set off by a "smoking gun" audiotape of leaders of the world's largest drug cartel discussing putative campaign contributions to Samper and the loser, Andres Pastrana. But TIME Latin America bureau chief Laura Lopez says a source close to the Cali cartel told her that an unaired portion of the tape shows neither candidate took any money...
Colombia's new President, economist Ernesto Samper, has no plans to take on the kingpins of South America's most formidable cocaine cartel without international help, he declared after winning Sunday's election. Conservative opponent Andres Pastrana, who wanted to push for greater free-market reforms but lost with 48.6 percent of the vote, intimated in his concession speech that Samper's reticence may have something to do with rumors that he accepted campaign contributions from the drug traffickers...
Washington -- Top Clinton Administration officials have met with the two leading candidates in Colombia's presidential elections, Ernesto Samper and Andres Pastrana, to warn them that the CALI DRUG CARTEL -- which controls 80% of the global cocaine market -- is trying to channel drug money into their campaigns to gain influence. "We are deeply worried about a narcodemocracy developing," says a senior U.S. official. Another concern: DEA and State Department officers believe sensitive information provided to Colombian prosecutors has leaked to the cartel and may have led to the deaths of family members of anti-Cali witnesses. So strong is American...
...Cali cartel has already snatched most of Colombia's cocaine market from Escobar's weakened Medellin organization. But Escobar's vendetta against Orejuela and his Cali colleagues, who partially deafened Escobar's daughter in a bomb attack six years ago, had scared most of the barons away from taking advantage of Colombia's softened criminal statutes to turn themselves in. Now that he is dead, the Cali leaders are offering to stop trafficking, and even say they would be willing to serve limited jail sentences in exchange for relief from further prosecution and extradition...
...Colombia has shown that there is not any criminal organization that can defeat the nation," President Cesar Gaviria Trujillo told TIME. But few experts believe the Cali cartel, a smooth, sophisticated and low-profile organization, will simply walk away from a monopoly that brings in $9 billion a year. More likely, say several DEA officials, the Rodriguez Orejuelas and other Cali families will mend fences with the surviving members of Escobar's Medellin network, joining together in a supercartel more formidable than anything Colombia has yet seen. "We believe that it's going to be one big happy family down...