BOGOTA, July 9 (Reuter) Former president Alfonso Lpez Michelsen condemned
the concentration of wealth in the hands of Colombia's four top conglomerates
and the flood of "narcodollars" into the economy, in what local media
described Wednesday as an extremely "harsh" speech.

"These groups have concentrated national wealth in just a few hands...we must
not confuse the development of a country with the enrichment of a single
class or social group," said the 83yearold statesman, who led Colombia from
197478.
At an event to mark the 70th anniversary of the National Coffee Growers'
Federation, Lpez Michelsen said the country's economic elites, the Santo
Domingo Group, the Sindicato Antioqueo, the Ardila Lulle conglomerate and the
Sarmiento Angulo financial group, reported combined profits of some $1.4
billion last year.

Between them, these groups have a virtual stranglehold on Colombian media,
its financial system, food and drink sales and the manufacturing industry and
exert strong political as well as economic power.
The former Liberal Party president, who still commands immense respect in
political circles, went on to criticize the inflows of laundered money,
largely the proceeds of drug trafficking, into the Colombian economy.

Economic analysts estimate that repatriated funds from the export of illicit
drugs account for the equivalent of as much as 5 percent of Colombia's gross
domestic product.

Lpez Michelsen said that much of this money was returned to Colombia in the
form of "foreign investment or foreign loans".
Some political analysts, however, noted that Lpez Michelsen had little moral
authority to launch such a stinging attack.

Both he and his family are said to have substantial shareholdings in radio
networks controlled by the Santo Domingo group and personally control TV news
programs and political magazines, which give almost unquestioning support to
the country's financial elites.
During his mandate, Lpez Michelsen did little to improve the lot of the
working classes, analysts say. By 1978, only 30 percent of Colombia's
workforce had access to any form of social benefits. Companies are now
legally obliged to provide cover for all their employees.

Lpez Michelsen's presidency saw one of the country's biggest coffee bonanzas
and the first association contracts with foreign companies to exploit
Colombian oil.
But he also presided over the marijuana boom which thrust Colombia to
international prominence in the drug trade, and provided a fertile training
ground for mobsters who would later become the allpowerful cocaine kingpins,
whose illicit business activities undermined the formal economy.

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