Ernesto Samper served as the President of Colombia from 1994 to 1998, representing the Liberal Party.
21 Facts About Ernesto Samper
2.
Ernesto Samper was involved in the 8000 process scandal, which takes its name from the folio number assigned to it by the chief prosecutor's office.
3.
Ernesto Samper studied in the Gimnasio Moderno, a prestigious secondary school in Bogota, and attended the Pontifical Xavierian University, graduating in 1972 with a degree in economics.
4.
Ernesto Samper helped manage the unsuccessful 1982 presidential campaign of former president Alfonso Lopez Michelsen.
5.
Ernesto Samper became a member of the Bogota City Council.
6.
Ernesto Samper was then a member of the Senate of Colombia.
7.
Ernesto Samper unsuccessfully ran for the Liberal Party's nomination for president in 1990.
8.
In 1989, Ernesto Samper was wounded by 11 bullets during the assassination of Patriotic Union leader Jose Antequera, leaving Ernesto Samper hospitalized with near-fatal sepsis.
9.
Shortly after his presidential victory, Ernesto Samper was accused by Pastrana of having received campaign donations from the Cali Cartel of $3.75 million US dollars, with journalist Alberto Giraldo Lopez as the intermediary.
10.
Just after Medina's arrest, Ernesto Samper gave a unscheduled, nationally televised address where he admitted the possibility that drug money had gone to his campaign.
11.
Ernesto Samper said that if drug money had entered the presidential campaign, it had done so "behind his back".
12.
Subsequently, Ernesto Samper declared a 90-day state of emergency, which caused some to fear a shift to the right by Ernesto Samper.
13.
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 Ernesto Samper was directly involved in this scandal.
14.
On 26 September 1995, Ernesto Samper was questioned for nine hours by Heine Mogollon, the head of the Chamber of Representatives' Accusation Commission, at Ernesto Samper's own request.
15.
On 7 August 1994, under tight security, Ernesto Samper was sworn in as president in Plaza Bolivar, Bogota, with foreign dignitaries such as Cuban president Fidel Castro and US interior secretary Bruce Babbitt in attendance.
16.
Ernesto 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.
17.
For years, Ernesto 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.
18.
In July 2014, Ernesto Samper was named Secretary General of the Union of South American Nations.
19.
Ernesto Samper announced plans to create a South American International Criminal Court to deal with regional criminal issues.
20.
Ernesto Samper married Silvia Arbelaez with whom he had one son, Andres.
21.
The couple divorced, and Ernesto Samper married Jacquin Strouss Lucena on 16 June 1979, with whom he has two children, Miguel and Felipe.