DRUG MONEY STILL STAINS COLOMBIAN ELECTIONS

Analysts say process is awash in massive vote-buying by cartels, much like
1994 scandal

BOGOTA, Colombia -- When President Ernesto Samper claimed ignorance about
the $6.1 million that the Cali drug cartel gave his 1994 campaign, the
skeptical archbishop of Bogota wondered how philanthropy of such stunning
proportions could go unnoticed.

"If someone lets an elephant loose in your house, you have to see it," said
the Rev. Pedro Rubiano, in a phrase that became a popular metaphor for
political corruption.

The cartel donations turned into Colombia's biggest political scandal this
century. More than than 20 legislators, executive- branch officials and
political activists were jailed. Samper was nearly driven from office.

Yet four years later, the elephant is on a rampage. As Colombia prepares
for March 8 congressional elections and a first-round presidential vote on
May 31, analysts say the process is awash in drug money and tainted by
massive vote-buying.

"Torrents" of illegal donations are going to candidates, according to Jaime
Calderon, director of the National Civilian Registry, which is organizing
the elections.

"You notice, you can sense, and you can feel that huge quantities of money
are involved," Calderon said.

For many congressional candidates, the apparent lesson of 1994 is to be
more careful to hide the origin of drug cartel donations this time around.
To avoid a paper trail of evidence, they are more likely to receive cash or
other favors instead of checks, said Rodrigo Losada, a professor of
political science at the Javeriana University in Bogota.

However, nonstop radio spots and a bumper crop of expensive campaign
billboards are some of the signs that candidates are spending far more than
the $200,000 legal limit.

Ingrid Betancourt, a member of Congress from Bogota who is running for the
Senate, charges that more than half of the candidates for the 260 seats in
Colombia's House and Senate are accepting cash from drug dealers.

"They treat the narco-traffickers like cows. They milk them," she said.

Still, the cocaine kingpins often seem to get their money's worth.

Last year, amid widespread accusations of payoffs, Colombia's House voted
to extradite drug traffickers to the United States but refused to make the
law retroactive. That protected the imprisoned leaders of the Cali cartel,
who received short sentences and enjoy vast privileges in Colombian jails.

"From the point of view of fighting drug trafficking, the penetration of
substantial amounts of drug dollars in the congressional campaign is even
more alarming than drug money in the presidential race," Losada said.

Even honest politicians can be stained by drug money. Betancourt is
investigating the origin of three checks totaling about $3,000 that
mysteriously appeared in her campaign account.

"All of the campaigns are vulnerable to illicit donations," said Cesar
Gonzalez, campaign manager for Horacio Serpa, the presidential candidate
for the ruling Liberal Party and the current front-runner.

Yet this year, more traditional forms of fraud could have an even bigger
impact. Reports of vote-buying, the use of fake identity cards, the
intimidation of voters and other schemes are pouring in from around the
nation.

In the northern city of Bucaramanga, for example, a car dealership is under
investigation for offering taxi cabs for a down payment of $20 plus 13
votes for a local Senate candidate.

A handful of legislators who were jailed or fired for accepting drug money
in the last election have convinced relatives to run for their old seats.
They include brothers, sisters, daughters and wives, who use their maiden
names to confuse voters about their family ties.

On the Atlantic coast, political operators who control local branches of
the state electric company have offered to cancel light bills in exchange
for votes. The going price for a vote in that part of the country is about
$20.

"Whoever sells their vote or succumbs to offers of sinecures and favors
corrupts politics, disfigures democracy and causes immense damage to the
country," said an alarmed Rubiano.

Although the presidential race appears to be a cleaner affair, several
candidates have accused the government of funneling large sums of money to
Serpa through a myriad of state programs.

Serpa was interior minister until last year and is a close friend of
Samper. It is widely believed that a Serpa administration would give Samper
a greater degree of protection should more evidence against Samper turn up
in the ongoing investigation of how he financed his 1994 campaign.

At a recent press conference, Serpa denied the charges and insisted: "I am
campaigning with the highest level of honesty."

Dozens of new faces are running for Congress this year but it probably
won't lead to a full-fledged housecleaning. And given the extent of
electoral fraud, Juan Gabriel Tokatlian, a political science professor at
the National University in Bogota, says the entire exercise is suspect.

In a column in the Bogota daily El Tiempo he wrote: "It's worth asking
ourselves this question: Despite the legal validity of the March 8
election, will it be politically legitimate?"

John Otis is a free-lance journalist based in Bogota.

Copyright 1998 Special to the Chronicle