MURDERED ARCHBISHOP SAID CANDIDATES TOOK DRUG MONEY

DAYS before this month's legislative elections, the late Archbishop Isaias
Duarte claimed some candidates had received campaign money from drug lords.
Even though the 63-year-old archbishop of Cali did not name names,
authorities believed his information about the "narcos" was explosive
enough to put his life in danger.

On Saturday, those fears were realised when Duarte was gunned down outside
the Buen Pastor church, where he had just presided over a group wedding in
a working-class neighbourhood. The two gunmen escaped. No one has claimed
responsibility.

The Rev German Robledo, a top church official in Cali, said Duarte made his
allegations after parish priests showed him evidence that at least three
drug trafficking organisations in the area were buying votes and financing
candidates.

The groups included traffickers based in the northern part of Valle de
Cauca state, of which Cali is the capital, as well as the western port of
Buenaventura and the centre of the state, Robledo added.

Duarte was a tough critic of leftist rebels and even had excommunicated
them, leading many Cali residents to believe guerrillas were behind the
killing. He also denounced a brutal rightist paramilitary group during an
earlier posting in conflictive northern region, Uraba.

President Andres Pastrana, who visited Cali on Sunday, announced a $434,000
reward for information on the gunmen or those who ordered the
assassination. Two gunmen, police sketches of whom were shown Sunday,
repeatedly shot Duarte as he emerged from the lime-green church. He
collapsed 50 feet from the front door.

Duarte was a beloved man in Cali, where thousands paid their respects on
Sunday by filing past the bishop's open wood casket.

Pope John Paul II named Duarte archbishop in Cali, 185 miles southwest of
Bogota, the capital, in August 1995.

The pontiff said on Sunday the cleric had "paid the highest price" for
defending human life and opposing violence.

"I urge Colombians once again to follow the way of dialogue, excluding all
types of violence, blackmail and kidnapping of people and to firmly commit
themselves to what are the true roads of peace," the pope said at St
Peter's Square in the Vatican.

Cali's mayor, Jhon Maro Rodriguez, declared three days of mourning and
scheduled a city wide moment of silence and candlelight vigil yesterday.
Sister Gloria Ocampo, who attended an early morning Mass in the cathedral,
described Duarte as a champion of the poor who built dozens of schools
during his seven years as archbishop of Colombia's third-largest city.

She said Duarte's frankness had made him martyr.

Paramilitary leader Carlos Castano said in a recent biography that he
considered the archbishop "a friend".

Duarte reportedly was nervous about that description because he believed it
could make him a target.