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Ernesto Samper Pizano was the newly elected president of Colombia. He was accused of taking $3.7 million in campaign funds from Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela, a leader of the Cali Drug Cartel. This accusation effectively aligned Samper with Colombia's drug lords.1
Three audio tapes of conversations between Rodriguez and Samper's campaign manager, Santiago Medina, were handed over to United States Department of State officials before the election, but no action was taken. Drug Enforcement Administration officials were reportedly furious, stating that the United States Department of State allowed this "travesty to take place" and that "Everybody, including the U.S. government, is participating in this cover-up." The United States Department of State responded by saying, "We can't interfere with elections."1
Footnotes
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Seymour, Cheri. The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro’s Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010. ↩︎