USA: FORMER COLOMBIAN PRESIDENT WELCOMES INVESTIGATION

Описание к видео USA: FORMER COLOMBIAN PRESIDENT WELCOMES INVESTIGATION

(18 Apr 1995) Spanish/Nat

Former Colombian President Cesar Gaviria has said he would welcome an investigation into allegations that in 1991 he struck a deal with late drugs baron Pablo Escobar.

Ex Secret Police Chief General Miguel Maza Marquez has told APTV
that he had requested an investigation into the alleged deal that resulted in his resignation.

Maza, quoting a Colombian congressional source, said that Gaviria and Escobar had struck a deal to oust him from his post.

Gaviria, Secretary General of the Organization of American States, flatly denied the allegations.

Controversy has followed former Colombian President Cesar Gaviria from Bogota to Washington D-C.

On Tuesday as Secretary General of the Organization of American States, he participated in their celebrations of the Day of the Americas.

But there seems to be some unfinished business in his country.

On Sunday, former chief of the Secret Police, General Miguel Maza Marquez, announced he had asked for an investigation into an alleged deal between Gaviria and the then Medellin Cartel boss Pablo Escobar.

Maza, quoting a Colombian congressional source, said that in 1991 Gaviria and Escobar struck a deal to remove the general from his powerful post.

According to Maza, three months ago, a group of Congressmen visited Pablo Escobar's brother, Roberto, in prison who told them about the alleged deal.

Last night, Gaviria flatly denied the deal ever took place.

SOUNDBITE:

"Well, first of all, that is totally false. As President of Colombia, I did not strike any deals with the then boss of the Medellin Cartel, Pablo Escobar. Nor do I think that my government struck any deals with him. That would have been illegal. Everything we did was within the parameters of the policies of the time."

SUPER CAPTION: Cesar Gaviria, Former President of Colombia

The congressman who interviewed Roberto Escobar in his Itagui Prison confirmed that Escobar said that the Gaviria government reached a deal with his brother Pablo.

SOUNDBITE:

"During the investigation that we completed for a national security congressional debate, we interviewed convicted drug traffickers, and in one of those interviews, Roberto Escobar, who was doing his sentence in the Itagui Prison, stated that indeed there was a negotiation between Pablo Escobar and the Gaviria government to oust General Maza Marquez from his post."

SUPER CAPTION: Carlos Alonso Lucio, Chairman of the Security Committee in the Colombian Congress

On Sunday, Maza insisted that the alleged deal included guarantees that he would never return to public life.

SOUNDBITE:

"According to what the brother of Pablo Escobar said, the compromise was to oust me from my post and get guarantees that I would not be part of any government agency in Colombia. Thus I was denied the right to work in violation of my human rights."

SUPER CAPTION: General Miguel Maza, Former Chief of the Secret Police.

Gaviria, who governed Colombia from August 1990 to August 1994, wonders why Maza could ever give credibility to the words of a confessed drug trafficker.

SOUNDBITE:

"I was very concerned, as I stated it in a letter to the newspaper El Espectador, that General Maza gave so much credibility to the words of a criminal. I never understood why General Maza, knowing the Escobars and the way they misinformed the public opinion, was willing to believe them."

SUPER CAPTION: Cesar Gaviria, Former President of Colombia

Gaviria welcomed an investigation by the Colombian Attorney General that Maza has asked for.

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