Time was short, and Guillermo Pallomari's options were few. Hit men from the Cali cocaine cartel, for which he had been a top accountant, were reportedly on his trail. U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents had obtained intelligence that senior cartel figures, fearful that Pallomari would make a deal with Colombian prosecutors to testify against the drug ring, had ordered his execution. So when dea agents offered him a safe haven in the U.S. if he would tell them all he knew, Pallomari quickly agreed.

Last week Colombian authorities disclosed--and DEA officials confirmed--that Pallomari, who may have information related to charges that Colombian President Ernesto Samper Pizano took campaign funds from drug traffickers, is now in protective custody in the U.S. He left Colombia with his children on Aug. 17, taking a charter aircraft bound for Miami. His wife Gladys Cardona stayed behind to take care of some financial matters--a possibly fatal mistake. While her family headed for the U.S., she disappeared, and police fear that she has been kidnapped or even killed.

By all accounts, no one is in a better position than Pallomari to tell authorities how drug dealers succeeded in turning Colombia into a "narcodemocracy." A U.S. official says the accountant's high place in the cartel and his knowledge of its operations make him potentially one of the most significant witnesses ever developed against the Cali mob. A Chilean by birth, he is under indictment in the U.S. and wanted for questioning in Colombia in connection with his alleged money-laundering activities and running of front companies for the cartel. Raids in 1994 on his offices and those of another Cali money manager turned up documents implicating hundreds of police and politicians in taking bribes.

Most significant was a $50,000 check found in Pallomari's office that was made out to Santiago Medina, treasurer of Samper's successful 1994 presidential campaign. Subsequently, Medina was arrested and decided to cooperate with prosecutors, who are bringing cases against six of the Cali cartel's seven chieftains. Medina alleges that $5.9 million was given to the campaign by two of those leaders, brothers Gilberto and Miguel Rodr’guez Orejuela. Investigators believe that if such transactions occurred, Pallomari may have played a role. The President has acknowledged that some drug money may have made its way into campaign coffers but denies any knowledge of it.

Pallomari was ordered for questioning in Colombia last April for the crime of testaferrato, or serving as a front for a criminal enterprise. In June he was one of those named in a series of U.S. indictments in Florida of lawyers and accountants said to be working for drug traffickers--a group that also included former U.S. Justice Department attorney Michael Abbell.

It is not known whether Pallomari has been offered immunity from prosecution in return for his testimony against U.S. cocaine traffickers. But his disclosures could be more important in Colombia where the six Cali cartel leaders are now awaiting trial, along with a dozen Congressmen and former Defense Minister Fernando Botero. Lawmen from the Colombian Prosecutor-General's office are eager to fly to the U.S. to interview Pallomari, who is being held at an undisclosed--and no doubt well-protected--location.

--By Michael S. Serrill. Reported by Pamela Mercer/Bogota and Elaine Shannon/Washington