President Ernesto Samper, riding out Colombia's recent loss of backing from Washington as a full partner in the fight against drugs, says that recent statements by American officials criticizing his presidency are more damaging to the two countries' relations than decertification itself.
"I think that to resort to these types of arguments is even more serious than decertification," Samper said in an interview Thursday night, repeating an earlier threat to review the terms for American agencies operating in Colombia.During the interview in the Presidential Palace, Samper chose to interpret Colombia's decertification by the United States as an effort to downplay his country's efforts to fight drug trafficking, rather than as a result of American distrust of Samper and his administration.
From virtually the moment of Samper's election in 1994, allegations that top drug traffickers from the city of Cali bankrolled his campaign have dogged him, and the charges have featured prominently in statements by American officials since the decertification on March 1.
Decertification ends most U.S. aid and withdraws American-backed loan guarantees, a serious blow to the Colombian economy. It does not, however, automatically cut off any funding or manpower for programs to fight the drug trade.
"Perhaps this difficult situation will allow us to communicate more sincerely in our relationship with the United States," Samper said.
But for Samper, cooperation with the United States in the fight against drugs has been problematic. Robert Gelbard, the assistant secretary of State for international narcotics and law enforcement affairs, said on the day Colombia was decertified that American officials had confronted Samper twice with their belief that he had accepted money from drug traffickers. Samper denied the charges.
Behind the scenes, American officials were able to use their distrust to pressure Samper to prove himself, in a sense, with results. In a stunning sweep of arrests between June and August of last year, Colombian police arrested six of the top seven drug exporters in Cali, which supplies 80 percent of the cocaine that reaches the United States.
But U.S. suspicions came to the surface with the decision to decertify Colombia. Gelbard credited the chief of the national police and the country's chief prosecutor for much of the progress. But he criticized Samper's role.
"During 1995, the Samper administration lacked commitment to support the efforts of Colombian law enforcement entities and to strengthen the nation's institutions to combat the destructive effects of narcotics traffickers," Gelbard said, adding that the arrested "Cali leadership continues to manage its criminal empire from prison."
One sticking point in Samper's relations with the United States is the absence of a body within Colombia to judge the president that carries credibility with Washington.
Constitutionally, that job falls to Colombia's Congress, but its Committee of Accusations, which received four charges against the president last month, had decided once before not to send a related accusation to the full house.
Some congressional leaders have been discussing a "punto final," named for the law that granted amnesty to Argentina's military, that would provide amnesty to lawmakers for drug-related corruption in exchange for a lifetime pledge to withdraw from public office.
The proposal originated with Samper's supporters to allow lawmakers to examine - and perhaps eventually clear - the president while avoiding prosecution themselves. Scores of members of Congress are also suspected of taking money from drug dealers. Samper suggested a broader version of the amnesty - one that, implicitly, might embrace himself.
"We don't need a law so much as a policy of punto final, a policy that will allow us to liberate ourselves from this entire problem," Samper said. "Not only in politics, but in other activities - in social activities, in economic activities."
Though in the past, Samper has said he would consider national elections should his "conditions of governability" prove untenable, he gave no sign that he is currently considering that course.
Asked if he was damaging his country by remaining in office, whether guilty or innocent, Samper cited an unpublished poll, which his office did not have on hand, indicating that his support had risen to 56 percent, "perhaps thanks to decertification."