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Ernesto Samper Pizano (born 3 August 1950) is a Colombian politician who served as the President of Colombia from 1994 to 1998. From 2014 to 2017 he served as the Secretary General of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR). He is also a lawyer, economist and academic.
He was involved in the 8000 process scandal, which takes its name from the folio number assigned to it by the chief prosecutor's office. The prosecutor charged that money from the Cali Cartel was funneled into Samper's presidential campaign to gain his success in what would have been a very close race after he failed to win by a majority during the first round (Colombia has 2 rounds of elections, unless the first round yields a majority winner). The Colombian Chamber of Representatives acquitted Samper by a vote of 111 to 43, concluding the process.
One of his great great grandfathers, Teodoro Valenzuela Sarmiento, was the nephew of the former president and hero of the Independence of Colombia, . Another of his great great grandfathers was the poet , and his great great grandmother Felisa Pombo Rebolledo was the sister of the poet Rafael Pombo.
Samper is a collateral descendant of Antonio Nariño's, paternal grandson of writer , grandson in direct line of businessman Tomas Samper Brush, and grandson of the politician Miguel Samper Agudelo, who was a presidential candidate in 1898.
Samper is the nephew of the renowned architect , brother of writer, journalist and columnist Daniel Samper Pizano (as noted above), cousin of biologist Cristián Samper, cousin of Patricio Samper Gnecco, and uncle of the former director of SoHo, Daniel Samper Ospina.
Samper studied in the Gimnasio Moderno, a prestigious secondary school in Bogotá, and attended the Pontifical Xavierian University, graduating in 1972 with a degree in economics. He obtained a degree in law in 1973. Additionally, he conducted graduate studies in Economics at Columbia University while living in New York City. In 1974, he became a professor of law and economics at his alma mater, the Pontifical Xavierian University.
The results of the first round caused the Samper campaign team to secure additional funding to help widen the margin over the opposing candidate. The campaign had assumed that Ernesto Samper would win the election easily in the first round and had spent all of their campaign funds to achieve this. With the campaign financials running in the red, the campaign managers were faced with the need to rally support for an additional three weeks against a strong, well-funded opponent. In what can be described as an attempt to win at all cost, the campaign turned to the Cali Cartel, receiving cash donations in excess of $6 million US dollars. These donations were delivered in large colourful paper bags normally used for birthday gifts.
On 19 June 1994, after three weeks of arduous campaigning, Samper was elected president in the second-round voting, once again by a narrow margin, 50.37% to 48.64%, over Pastrana, being sworn in in August. Colombia:1994 Elecciones Presidenciales, Primera Vuelta, Resultados Nacionales
Gustavo de Greiff, Colombia's outgoing Chief Prosecutor cleared Samper of wrongdoing, after what critics termed a "less-than-exhaustive" investigation. His successor, Alfonso Valdivieso Sarmiento, personally led a new investigation. Valdivieso was a cousin of the late Luis Carlos Galán, a charismatic Liberal party presidential candidate assassinated in 1989 by the Medellín Cartel for his political views, particularly for favoring the extradition of drug lords to the United States. Valdivieso discovered connections between the Cali drug cartel and top figures of Colombia's society, including the Colombian comptroller general, the president of the lower house of the Colombian congress, and nine congressmen, as well as journalist Alberto Giraldo, who openly admitted to having ties to the Cali cartel. Although Samper's campaign treasurer, Santiago Medina, came under investigation, Valdivieso refused to re-open the "narco-cassette case" that had been closed by de Greiff.
As a result of the investigation, Santiago Medina, the campaign's treasurer, was arrested for accepting $50,000 from a company known to be a front for the Cali cartel. Just after Medina's arrest, Samper gave a unscheduled, nationally televised address where he admitted the possibility that drug money had gone to his campaign. On 31 July 1995, days after Medina's arrest, Fernando Botero, who had been Samper's campaign manager, and Horacio Serpa, another political ally, held a press conference to deny Medina's allegations, armed with copies of Medina's testimony to the chief prosecutor. Serpa said the testimony had come from "anonymous sources", but they were allegedly stolen from the prosecutor's office. Valdivieso appeared on national television to angrily denounce Botero and Serpa for divulging such testimony. Medina was later convicted, and sentenced to prison.
On 2 August 1995, Botero resigned as defense minister, soon after Valdivieso asked the Colombian supreme court to investigate his role, and that of communications minister Armando Benedetti, in Samper's campaign financing. On 15 August, Botero was arrested in connection with the investigation. Other political figures, such as Alberto Santofimio Botero and Eduardo Mestre, as well as journalist Alberto Giraldo, were also imprisoned as a result of the same investigation. The prosecutor also charged Samper, who insisted on his innocence. Samper said that if drug money had entered the presidential campaign, it had done so "behind his back". Subsequently, Samper declared a 90-day state of emergency, which caused some to fear a shift to the right by Samper. The defection to the United States of cartel accountant Guillermo Pallomari put a trove of documents in the hands of investigators.
Cardinal Pedro Rubiano, a leader of Colombia's Catholic Church, stated in an interview that not knowing that drug money financed part of the presidential campaign was similar to not noticing an elephant entering one's living room. Canal RCN – Noticias RCN Articulo Archivado FRASES DEL AÑO Since then, the events that led to drug money financing the "Samper for President" campaign have been referred to as "The Elephant".
According to the Colombian Constitution, only Congress can judge the president. So, once the Prosecutor General presented the case and delivered the evidence to the Congress, it was in the hands of the latter to evaluate the evidence and determine whether Samper was directly involved in this scandal. On 26 September 1995, Samper was questioned for nine hours by Heine Mogollón, the head of the Chamber of Representatives' Accusation Commission, at Samper's own request. Afterward, Samper went on television to say that he had answered all "the lies" and vowed to serve out his term. It was considered unlikely that the commission, composed mostly of members from Samper's own party, would recommend impeachment. A greater danger was the possibility that the supreme court would allow Valdivieso to investigate Samper. On 27 September, in an apparent attempt to force Samper to resign, two bodyguards of his attorney, Antonio José Cancino, were killed, with Cancino and another bodyguard wounded. On 14 December 1995, despite the publication in the magazine Cambio of the details of Pallomari's accusations, the congressional commission voted against opening a formal investigation into the charges against Samper, although Colombian justice officials continued to investigate.
On 15 March 1996, the Colombian supreme court opened an investigation into three cabinet members—Horacio Serpa, Rodrigo Pardo and Juan Manuel Turbay—alleged to be involved in the scandal.
In June 1995, a money-laundering law was signed; and Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela, a leader of the Cali Cartel, was arrested, one of over 1,100 cartel members arrested so far in the year. By August, five more cartel leaders—Henry Loaiza-Ceballos, Victor Patiño-Fomeque, José Santacruz Londoño, Phanor Arizabaleta-Arzayus, and Miguel Rodríguez Orejuela—had been arrested, leaving Hélmer Herrera the only top leader at large.
In the first half of 1995, about of coca crops and over of heroin crops were destroyed, much more than in 1994; more than of liquid chemicals and of solid chemicals were destroyed; of heroin were confiscated; and 243 drug labs were destroyed.
In 1995, Colombia's Caribbean islands became bases from which the military could intercept drug shipments and communications. Unprecedented police operations in the city of Cali took place with the same objective of disrupting drug trafficking.
Under strong U.S. pressure, leaders of the Cali Cocaine cartel are targets of a massive manhunt involving about 6,000 troops. Now controlling about 80 percent of the global multibillion-dollar cocaine trade, the loose-knit Cali syndicate is considered... to be one of the most difficult criminal enterprises to penetrate. While... anti-narcotics efforts concentrated on the rival Medellín cartel in the 1980s, the Cali organization grew... Instead of fighting the state through a campaign of terrorism, the leaders here set out to buy influence and control the economy.... all the leaders run separate trafficking, intelligence and security organizations, but they coordinate drug shipments and share information. With an intelligence apparatus encompassing hotel clerks, corrupt policemen and politicians and a taxi fleet of several thousand, the movements of police and army units are constantly monitored. To combat such corruption, Gen. Rosso José Serrano, commander of the National Police... in the last two months... has kicked out 220 officers... 400 noncommissioned officers and 1,600 other policemen... soldiers assigned to anti-drug duty, members of an elite 150-man unit trained as a shock force, live in utter isolation... None of the soldiers... is from the Cali area...
In less than 30 days, five of the cartel's seven most wanted members have been put behind bars. In thousands of raids on farms, houses, apartments and office buildings, police have found and seized weapons, drugs, money and—most importantly—business documents, accounts books and lists of payments essential to unraveling the drug lords' multi-billion dollar property and investment empire and their systematic bribes to politicians and other official protectors. 'We use a hammer-and-anvil tactic,' said Colonel Argemiro Serna, commander of the Cali police, in a recent interview. 'The search force raids suspected drug houses and possible hideouts, to try to flush them into movement. Then I send out units on roadblocks and aggressive random searches to trap them.' His boss, National Police Director Ross Serrano, described a more complex overall strategy—first closing down the private security agencies, taxi fleets and beeper companies that gave the cartel leaders bodyguards, safe transport and communications; arresting many of their messengers and lower-level employees to isolate them; and freezing their bank accounts to crimp cash flow.
However, with drug use in Europe on the rise, new markets opening up in Eastern Europe and Asia, and the United States reporting a 25% increase in cocaine-related medical emergencies since 1991, the continuing demand for drugs meant that drug trafficking would continue.
Samper stated that further measures to be taken should focus on increased international cooperation, including sharing information to speed up investigations and prosecutions, working toward implementing a treaty to stop cartel money laundering through established financial institutions, restricting the trade in precursor chemicals, enhancing international financial support for crop substitution, and holding a world summit on drugs.
On 1 March 1996, after an annual review of narcotics programs in 140 countries, U.S. President Bill Clinton cut off most of his country's over $1billion of economic aid to Colombia, saying that Colombia's government was too corrupt to combat its country's drug lords, although Colombia would continue to receive $37million in aid to combat narcotics trafficking. The United States would also seek to block loans from international organizations. For years, Samper's administration was lambasted by the US for its supposed failure to make every effort to effectively fight the war against cocaine and the Cali Cartel. Additionally, the US revoked Samper's visa and thereby effectively banned him from entering the country.
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