WORLD REPORT PROFILE : Alfonso Valdivieso : COLOMBIA’S POPULAR PROSECUTOR : Soft-spoken lawyer carries a big stick in the battle against drug corruption, defying threats on his life.

As authorities here close in on the all-powerful Cali drug cartel, Colombians are pinning their hopes on a mild-mannered, 5-foot-2 prosecutor.

Prosecutor General Alfonso Valdivieso is today the unlikely symbol of the nation’s struggle against drug traffickers and their ties with the political Establishment.

U.S. and Colombian officials say the little lawyer with deep-set eyes and a gentle voice is crucial to breaking the power of the Cali cartel, believed to control 80% of the world’s cocaine market and a large share of the heroin trade as well.

“Drug trafficking has deeply damaged our society,” said Valdivieso in an interview inside his bulletproof and bombproof office. “But I believe we can react and defeat it,” he said.

Valdivieso is a hero in this nation where drug traffickers have killed thousands of people, including judges, journalists and presidential candidates, while bribing members of the ruling elite. Last April, he opened an unprecedented investigation into charges that 49 people, including leaders of the ruling Liberal Party and the comptroller general, had connections with the Cali gang.

Since then he also has investigated the nation’s attorney general and set his investigators on the trail of the cartel’s vast network of front companies and payments to politicians and artists.

Polls mark Valdivieso as the nation’s most popular official, with nearly 90% approval ratings. The magazine Dinero ranked him Colombia’s second most powerful citizen, behind the nation’s top businessman and ahead of President Ernesto Samper.

“Valdivieso is carrying out a very important task with the complete support of our government,” said Samper. “His investigations are promoting a new atmosphere that is causing people to reject drug trafficking and illegal enrichment.”

Experts agree that Valdivieso’s moral authority is crucial to countering the corrupting influence of the Cali cartel. Unlike the rival Medellin cartel, which unleashed a wave of terror before being destroyed in 1993 by security forces, Cali traffickers have earned acceptance among many Colombians by promoting a peaceful image.

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Authorities suspect Cali gunmen in scores of killings. But skillful public relations and a multibillion-dollar income used to buy the friendship of politicians and businessmen have created the illusion of the “good” drug traffickers from Cali.

Valdivieso’s strength is that he refuses to make such distinctions. He says he is determined not only to fight the drug trade but “the movement of drug money into several areas of national life.”

“Valdivieso is an audacious man trying to reverse the disintegration of moral values in this country,” said Cesar Garcia, a former deputy minister of education who knows the prosecutor well. “He believes deeply in cleaning out the political system and preserving the system of justice.”

Experts say that Valdivieso’s biggest opportunities for a national purge lie in the June 9 arrest of Cali cartel chief Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela. According to local newspapers, documents seized during the capture detail drug payments to 16 business and political leaders and bribes to six members of the assembly that reformed Colombia’s constitution in 1991.

The press reports add that the investigations are the closest look into the power of drug traffickers since secretly recorded cassettes of conversations on the phone of the head of the cartel in June, 1994, revealed efforts to funnel $3.8 million to Samper for the presidential elections.

Samper denies accepting drug money, but Valdivieso says he will reopen investigations into the elections if the current inquiry turns up new evidence. “I will go as far as necessary to establish what really happened [in the elections] if the evidence merits it,” he said.

Valdivieso takes his inspiration from his first cousin, Luis Carlos Galan, a Kennedyesque campaigner and anti-drug crusader who was slain by traffickers when he was on the verge of winning the presidency in 1989.

Valdivieso grew up with Galan, campaigned with him and, as a senator, joined him in battling drug trafficking from the Senate floor.

“Valdivieso is not only committed to the country, but to the moral and emotional memory of his cousin,” said William Ramirez Tobon, a political scientist at National University. “He is an extremely honest and courageous person.”

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The prosecutor demonstrated those qualities almost immediately upon assuming office in August when he sought longer prison sentences for drug crimes and reviewed generous sentence reductions negotiated between his predecessor and drug traffickers.

Police discovered a group of hired killers plotting his murder four months later, allegedly on orders from a jailed Medellin cartel lieutenant. Valdivieso refused to be silenced.

“I now live a very limited life, unable to meet with friends when I want and constantly surrounded by bodyguards,” he said.

Authorities worry that he could face even graver threats now that security forces have captured Rodriguez. They worry especially about retaliation by the remaining Cali bosses who are the targets of harassing searches, about 12 to 20 searches a day, by soldiers and security officers, 6,000 of whom are deployed in their city.

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U.S. authorities have much invested in Valdivieso’s safety. After arguing with his predecessor Gustavo de Greiff over his advocacy of the legalization of drugs and negotiating moderate drug sentences, they see a staunch ally in Valdivieso.

Many Colombians, who have faith that Valdivieso is the best hope for national purification, pray that he will not join the legions of anti-drug crusaders slain by cartel gunmen in the 1980s.

The betting here holds that the diminutive prosecutor will be a presidential candidate in 1998 if he can survive the cartels and the political Establishment.