BOGOTA, (AP) President Ernesto Samper, barred from entering the United
States for alleged links to drug traffickers, has received a special visa
to attend the United Nations General Assembly next week.

Samper will leave for New York on Wednesday, the presidential palace said
in a statement Friday night. The U.S. Embassy in Bogota could not be
reached for comment.

The United States revoked Samper's visa last year after evidence emerged
that his 1994 election campaign took money from the Cali drug cartel.
Samper was cleared by a loyalist congress in June 1996 despite testimony
against him from campaign leaders.

The United States routinely extends special visas for U.N. visits to heads
of state who otherwise are barred entry, such as Cuban President Fidel
Castro.

Samper visited the U.N. under a special visa in September 1996, when he
appeared before the General Assembly to propose a global strategy to fight
narcotics.

For that trip, Samper was forced to fly to New York on a commercial
airliner after heroin was discovered aboard his personal jet in Bogota.
Samper claimed the drugs were planted as part of a plot to ``undermine
Colombia and its democratically elected government.''