US links Colombia candidate to drug cartelsreport

NEW YORK, Oct 26 (Reuters) A top U.S. official has said the United States
has ``solid proof'' that the frontrunner in Colombia's presidential race,
Horacio Serpa, has close ties to drug cartels, according to a report on
Sunday in Newsweek International.

The report in this week's edition of the magazine cited senior U.S.
officials as saying Washington is debating whether to release what the
United States has on Serpa, possibly at a congressional hearing.

Newsweek quoted a Clinton administration source as saying, ``We can't just
stand by and let Colombia go over a cliff.''

Serpa, a fromer interior minister and close ally of Colombian President
Ernesto Samper, is emerging as the clear frontrunner in the campaign to
succeed Samper in May.

Samper has defied repeated calls for his resignation because of charges
that his 1994 election campaign was partly financed by the Cali drug
cartel.

Serpa was closely involved in fund raising for Samper's campaign, and is
still under investigation by the prosecutor general's office in Bogota for
possible drugrelated corruption in connection with the campaign.

Samper's U.S. visa was revoked in July because of his alleged ties to drug
traffickers and as a sign of Washington's displeasure over a move by
Colombia's Congress to clear him of drug corruption charges a month
earlier.

Colombia is the world's leading exporter of cocaine and was identified by
the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration last month as the top supplier of
heroin to the United States.

The Newsweek article said that if Serpa were elected president, the United
States would ``certainly vote for trade sanctions on Colombia.''

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