After repeatedly attacking the Colombian government and its President Alvaro Uribe, former President and current Liberal Party leader, Cesar Gaviria, is under attack by both the government and former President Andres Pastrana.
The most recent attack came on Tuesday. In an open letter, Pastrana accused Gaviria of having tried to hide evidence of drug money that was pumped into his Liberal Party adversary Ernesto Samper’s campaign in 1994. Samper won these elections, but ended up on a U.S. blacklist for his ties to the Cali cartel.
According to Pastrana, Gaviria’s cabinet tried to cut a deal with Pastrana so he wouldn’t publicize evidence received by the Conservative Party candidate which indicated Samper’s campaign was funded by the mafia.
Pastrana claims that the same day he handed the so-called narco cassettes to the then President Cesar Gaviria, his Defense Minister Rafael Pardo proposed a gentlemen’s agreement to keep the evidence secret. Pastrana refused and publicized the tapes.
Earlier this week, Social Welfare Minister Diego Palacio wrote to that Gaviria’s vociferous criticisms of the current administration and its efforts to seek the 2010 re-election of Uribe do not resemble Gaviria’s silence in 1994 when the drug money scandal hit Bogota.
Palacio ended his letter saying that he thinks Gaviria is acting more like a candidate than a former president or party director.
Gaviria has been one of the most outspoken critics of Uribe’s possible re-election bid and has appeared almost daily in the national media to criticize the government.