The wife of an alleged drug trafficker talked to President Ernesto Samper about meeting donors to his 1994 election campaign, according to a newly released audiotape.
Transcripts of the tape were published in newspapers Tuesday, amid growing allegations that Samper's campaign accepted $6.1 million from the Cali drug cartel.Samper's defense minister resigned and his campaign treasurer was arrested in what has become Colombia's biggest drug corruption scandal.
The weekly newsmagazine Semana said it received the tape of the telephone conversations from a former military intelligence agent.
Authorities did not immediately confirm the veracity of the tape, and Samper's office said in a statement that drug traffickers had released the tape to create a "climate of moral intimidation."
The statement did not deny the conversation took place but said no meeting with the mentioned donors ever occurred.
Samper's former campaign treasurer, Santiago Medina, has testified the president knew his campaign accepted $6.1 million from the Cali cartel, the world's main supplier of cocaine.
On audiotapes released last year, cartel leaders are heard discussing donations of millions of dollars to Samper's campaign. Police have confirmed the voices on those tapes are those of drug king-pins.
On the latest tape, a man identified as Samper is heard talking with the wife of a suspected trafficker about arrangements for a meeting with unidentified campaign donors.
The voice identified as Samper's is heard insisting he doesn't have time to meet with the donors, who were visiting from Brazil. He offers to send Medina or Fernando Botero, his campaign director.
"You don't know what my agenda is like. I'm really tied up," Samper tells the woman, identified as Elizabeth de Sarria. He finally urges her to bring her associates to his apartment.
De Sarria is wife of Jesus Sarria, a suspected drug trafficker and former policeman.
In a second tape recording, Medina is heard talking to de Sarria about a presumed meeting between Samper and the donors. "He thought they were a nice bunch," Medina says.
De Sarria then promises to put a donation that Medina identifies as "50" - possibly 50 million pesos, or $61,000 - in a bank account.