The World - News from Oct. 8, 1989
Colombian President Virgilio Barco Vargas’ government was trying to negotiate a truce with drug traffickers until a presidential candidate was assassinated in August, the La Prensa newspaper reported. The Bogota daily said a former ambassador to the United Nations had delivered messages between the president’s secretary general, German Montoya, and the drug dealers. It said Montoya had acted on direct orders from the president in the negotiations. Montoya denied he had talked to drug traffickers. Barco’s government began a crackdown on the nation’s drug cartels after Sen. Luis Carlos Galan, a presidential candidate, was killed Aug. 18.
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