Andrés Pastrana’s forceful response to Rodríguez Orejuela, the drug lords of the Cali cartel

In the last hours, a new letter from The Rodríguez Orejuela brothers, founders of the drug lords of the Cali cartel, in which they indicated that, indeed, this group had had financial influences within the presidential campaign of Ernesto Samper, although they also sought to smear the also former Colombian head of state, Andrés Pastrana.

Faced with this new letter, which adds information to the one presented by Pastrana to the Truth Commission, in which they only referred to the money presented in Samper’s campaign, Pastrana issued a statement to public opinion in which he refers to new assurances from drug traffickers – Pablo Escobar Gaviria’s perennial alter ego – who now tie him to illicit money.

With the phrase “you must have the courage to speak the truth, especially when speaking of the truth,” Pastrana listed eight points regarding the alleged new revelations. First of all, the former Democratic president stressed that “through the media I saw a letter, without a signature, that supposedly drug traffickers Gilberto and Miguel Rodríguez Orejuela sent me ”.

At this point, he pointed out that this new document “does not deny in any of its sections, the letter signed by the Rodríguez Orejuela family on the financing of the Cali cartel and other drug traffickers in the Ernesto Samper campaign in 1994. On the contrary, it confirms once again that trafficking drug bought the presidency at the time ”.

Moreover, he clarified that this new letter “confirms that Ernesto Samper was an interlocutor of Rodríguez Orejuela”.

He also referred to the Chambacú and Dragacol scandals, to which the founding brothers of the Cali Cartel link him in the new communication. “Former President, you forgot to inform the Truth Commission of your criminal participation in the much-mentioned contracts of Dragacol and Chambacú where you were the leader of this conspiracy. criminal of defrauding the multi-million dollar state“reads letter from drug traffickers, currently convicted in the United States.

On this point, the former president of the Conservative Party was frank and stressed that these scandals “originate from the Samper government and they have been widely investigated and tried by Colombian justice, without my having been linked ”.

Besides, Patrana added that in 1994, the nation’s attorney general’s office – then headed by Gustavo de Greiff– ordered the opening of an investigation into his presidential campaign for the alleged inflows of money from drug trafficking. He mentioned it, not without first pointing out that De Greiff was the father of Mónica de Greiff “treasurer of the Samper campaign, a prosecutor without an American visa because of his links with the Cali cartel and very close to Samper ”.

Regarding this investigation, he recalled that, although it lasted more than two years, “It was closed with full verification that not a single dollar of drug trafficking entered my campaign.”

“My campaign in 1994 was carried out in the most careful manner by Luis Alberto Moreno, Hernán Beltz and Claudia de Francisco, about whom there is no doubt of their honesty and who have never been the subject of ‘an investigation for links to drug trafficking. “

He pointed out that during his rule, more than 110 drug traffickers were extradited. “Although the Rodríguez Orejuela were jailed for the same crime, they could not be extradited at the time because the 1991 Constitution and the law that the Samper government dealt with did not allow extradition for previous events. to their expedition, ”he explained.

For its part, Samper He gave credence to the comments of the drug traffickers and reacted to the letter of the priests of the Cali Cartel and posted a statement on their social media.

The predecessor of Pastrana, of the liberal party, said he was “surprised by the explosive statements of the Rodríguez Orejuela brothers about the unworthy behavior of former president Andrés Pastrana to mount, as President of the Republic, a criminal provocation against Horacio Serpa and against me ”.

He added that, according to him, Pastrana “must explain to the country his conduct in these circumstances and the judicial authorities, including the Prosecutor’s Office and the House of Representatives Indictments Committee, must undertake the investigation of the serious facts denounced. “

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