Cartel Figure’s Surrender Has Some Colombians Edgy : Drugs: Accountant for Cali traffickers turned himself in to U.S. authorities. His testimony could bring down Bogota’s embattled president.

News that a middle-aged accountant is in the custody of U.S. drug enforcement officials has spread panic among many Colombian entertainers, politicians and business leaders--everyone on the Cali cocaine cartel payroll.

Guillermo Pallomari, the cartel’s top accountant, knows them all.

And Colombians with drug ties are anxiously waiting to see whom the jowly, balding man behind the thick, horn-rimmed glasses will betray to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and Colombian prosecutors. He may just embarrass a few members of Congress. Or he might bring down the government.

Pallomari is the one man who should know whether President Ernesto Samper’s campaign treasurer is lying when he says that Samper asked drug lords for campaign contributions.

The president denies allegations that he personally solicited money from the cartel. Pallomari, a low-key, 40-year-old accountant, could provide the testimony exonerating or convicting Samper.

The Chilean-born Pallomari, who surrendered to U.S. authorities in August, is believed to have financial records detailing how much the cartel paid--and to whom. U.S. reports say he could be one of the greatest witnesses ever concerning the international drug trade.

“There must be lots of terrified people here,” said Francisco Santos, managing editor of El Tiempo, Colombia’s leading daily. “This guy was the central computer of the cartel’s financial and bribing operations.”

Pallomari, a quiet family man, seems to have had little in common with his Cali bosses, who figured prominently in Colombian business and social life. Unlike the cartel chiefs who presided over mansions of stone and marble--while exporting 80% of the world’s cocaine--he is said to have lived a modest life and shunned publicity.

Colombian intelligence officials even suspect that his notorious reserve and discipline may have been part of training he received as an informant for U.S. drug enforcement officials--an allegation denied by the Americans.

Prosecutors hope to learn much from Pallomari, who ran key financial and security operations for the cartel. Analysts say he could be devastating for the Samper government. Samper has been fighting for his political survival since Santiago Medina, his campaign treasurer, testified to prosecutors that the president was a longtime friend of Cali drug chiefs and that he personally solicited drug money.

While Medina is the only member of the campaign to accuse Samper of direct drug connections, Pallomari’s confirmation of Medina’s claims that drug lords donated $6 million to the presidential campaign have given the former treasurer greater credibility as a witness. Confirmation of the contribution has undermined efforts by the government to discredit Medina by calling him a liar and cartel agent.

“I am absolutely certain that the campaign received drug money and that Samper must have known,” said Enrique Parejo, a former justice minister who is known as an anti-drug crusader and who ran against Samper for president. “The amounts were so large that it’s as if somebody put an elephant in your living room and you turned around and said, ‘I didn’t notice.’ ”

Prosecutors also hope to get Pallomari’s help in interpreting documents seized from cartel offices in July, 1994. The papers indicate that the cartel made payments to police and include a long list of deliveries of champagne and T-shirts to politicians. Although prosecutors are convinced that the champagne and T-shirt entries actually refer to thousands of dollars in political contributions, they will need Pallomari’s testimony to confirm their suspicions.

In all, they will need his help in completing investigations into the possible drug connections of more than 200 people.

Pallomari reportedly surrendered to U.S. authorities amid growing evidence that he would be assassinated on his bosses’ orders. Fearing for his life, he fled with his children to an undisclosed U.S. city and surrendered to federal agents. His wife has disappeared, and there are conflicting versions of her fate. Press reports indicate she was kidnaped and killed. But intelligence sources here believe she is safely in the United States, receiving DEA protection.

The accountant “is a man who knows all the intimacies of the Cali cartel,” said Juan Carlos Pastrana, editor of the opposition newspaper La Prensa. “If he supplies evidence, he could liquidate half of Colombia’s political class.”