US ‘Blacklist’ Report Links Colombian Politicians to Drug Trafficking

The United States has disclosed a ‘Colombia blacklist’ report linking Colombian politicians to drug trafficking during the presidency of Jimmy Carter (1977-1981), according to recently declassified documents presented by the National Security Archive (NSA).

The report, which is considered evidence of U.S. pressure on the administration of Colombian President Alfonso Lopez Michelsen (1974-1978), lists high-ranking officials, including several ministers of the time, Lopez Michelsen’s son, and future President Julio Cesar Turbay, who is indirectly linked to drug trafficking activities through his nephew, Anibal Turbay.

The revelations also include a collaboration between Colombian and Mexican traffickers to establish experimental opium crops in Colombia in 1977. According to the report, six Mexican farmers arrived in Cali, Colombia, with 100 kilos of opium poppy seeds.

Colombian ministers and military commanders

The document establishes the connection between at least 30 high-ranking Colombian officials, including ministers and top military commanders, who were allegedly involved in illicit drug trafficking activities. Among them are former Defense Minister Abraham Varon Valencia and former Labor Minister Oscar Montoya, along with Colonel Humberto Cardona Orozco, head of the Colombian state-owned arms manufacturer Indumil.

Cardona Orozco was dismissed in 1976 for narcotics-related corruption, accused of receiving bribes to favor known drug traffickers of the time. The now declassified report states that “he was removed from his position as Chief of the Customs Police in December 1976 for narcotics-related corruption, because he accepted bribes from many of Colombia’s top drug traffickers whom he knew personally”.

The document also states that “between June 1 and July 1976, Cardona received bribes in Colombian pesos worth more than $34,000 from lower level Customs officials in Santa Marta and Riohacha” and that “before leaving Customs, Cardona promoted six officials, four of whom were involved in narcotics trafficking.”

Family members of presidents under suspicion

The U.S. revelations indirectly taint the president at the time, Alfonso Lopez Michelsen, as they cite “suspicious drug trafficking activities” by Alfonso Lopez Caballero, son of the Colombian head of state, who became a two-time minister in the 1990s, in addition to developing a long diplomatic career that lasted until 2022 when he was ambassador to Russia.

Likewise, suspicions also fell on the one who would be Lopez Michelsen’s successor in 1978, Julio Cesar Turbay. The report warns that his nephew, Anibal Turbay, “could choose the heads of Colombia’s law enforcement agencies if Julio Cesar Turbay were to assume the presidency”. It is further alleged that Anibal Turbay was part of a drug trafficking network that traded millions of dollars in drugs.

“We also have information that Anibal Turbay Bernal, nephew of the leader of the Liberal Party, Julio Cesar Turbay Ayala, belongs to the drug trafficking network of Jose Manuel Parra Urrea who, in a period of only three months this year, sold at least 1.5 million dollars in narcotics”, closes the secret report.

Lopez Michelsen knew of the report in 1977

It is also known that Colombian President Alfonso Lopez Michelsen was aware of the report in July 1977, although it is not known what consequences it had, beyond the dismissal of Colonel Cardona, which took place that same year.

A declassified document also mentions the Navy Ship Gloria, an emblematic training ship of the Colombian Navy. This text explains that the vessel was used “to carry cocaine to Miami and New York”. The writer states that they managed to confiscate 48 kilos of cocaine on board the ship, but later they found out that there were more than 1000 kilos of cocaine. The document holds officer Alfredo Gomez, brother of the Gloria’s second-in-command, responsible for this action.