THE Colombian president, Mr Ernesto Samper, was acquitted yesterday of charges that he had accepted £4 million from the powerful Cali drug cartel, but the ongoing political crisis will continue until his term of office ends in August 1998.
The investigation was conducted by Colombia's lower house of Congress, with 43 votes for and 111 against prosecution, approximately the number of deputies with reputed links of their own to the drug trade.
President Samper's claims to know "absolutely nothing" about the funds, was compared by Colombian Monsignor Pedro Rubiano to "having an elephant stomp through your living room and not notice."
An agreement was reached among government and opposition parties that impeachment proceedings would have been pointless as the process would have taken well over a year to implement, overtaking the programmed elections for 1998.
"Any serious investigation into Congress would wipe the entire political class off the map," commented Mr Eduardo Umana Mendoza, a prominent anti corruption lawyer.
Just as the Samper investigation ended, another inquiry opened in Panama where top government officials have been linked to a $30 million money laundering scandal.
Mr Alfredo Aleman, chief campaign fund raiser and close friend of President Ernesto Balladares of Panama, has been indicted in the US on three cocaine smuggling counts.
The links between drug rings and Latin governments have mushroomed in the past decade, as free trade economics lead to alliances between weak, cash strapped governments and drug cartels in search of investment opportunities and a degree of legitimacy.
At least 80 per cent of all cocaine entering the US passes through Mexico, where army and police have fought gun battles over drug shipments, while 20 per cent of the region's drug proceeds pass openly through Brazil where there are no laws against money laundering.