FARC, led to a clash between Mr Samper and the then armed-forces commander, General Harold Bedoya.
President Ernesto Samper has already once tried, and failed, to end the horror by talking.
The Samper government says it is determined to see such a clause in the law.
President Ernesto Samper, no less than his country's drug barons, was one target of that American decision.
Colombian broadcasters fear a new television licensing law will be used to silence critics of President Ernesto Samper.
In 1994, Ernesto Samper's successful campaign for the country's presidency had been financed partly by the Cali drug mob.
Buoyed up by the soldiers' release, Mr Samper is keen to see negotiations that could lead to a lasting peace.
He will be hard pushed to slot into Mr Samper's fledgling peace plans while keeping the armed forces united behind him.
Support from Colombia's heavy-handed military establishment is crucial to Mr Samper's survival.
President Ernesto Samper said last month that he would push for constitutional changes to allow the extradition of drug kingpins, which tops the American list.
The two were asked whether, in office, they would extradite Mr Samper, were the United States, convinced of his links to drug-dealers, to seek that.
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Undermined by Colombia's long-running political scandals, President Ernesto Samper is in too weak a position to offer meaningful peace negotiations, as he promised when elected in 1994.
Two years ago, Mr Samper called for the demilitarisation of an area in the south of the country as a precursor to peace talks with the guerrillas.
Ms Betancourt waged a courageous, though ultimately ineffective, campaign for political reform, yet her claim to have been almost alone in opposing Mr Samper is somewhat exaggerated.
President Samper's announcement of a grand human-rights campaign days before General Bedoya's dismissal might suggest so, and that was the explanation offered by the defence minister immediately afterwards.
Officials at the American embassy in Bogota have voiced strong support for Mr Pastrana, in contrast to the criticism the combative former ambassador, Myles Frechette, heaped on Mr Samper.
The Bush administration would like to give Mr Uribe as much help as it can, regarding him as someone who means business, unlike his two weak predecessors, Ernesto Samper and Andres Pastrana.
If the Colombian Congress obliges, and lets the United States get its hands on the Cali bosses, then Mr Samper may get a little respite for the last nine months of his presidency.
President Ernesto Samper has tried more than once, barely noticed, let alone aided or even commended, by those who were happy to denounce the drug money that went into his election campaign in 1994.
The Americans have long been convinced that Mr Samper knew his campaign managers were in bed with the drug barons, and have hounded him since evidence began to emerge (from American telephone taps?) in his first days of office.
Mr Samper, weakened by corruption scandals and a sickly economy, had wanted the hostages freed to boost the popularity of his Liberal Party before presidential and congressional elections next May, but he is loth to provoke the armed forces further.
Many Colombians feel these have been neglected, though they are less agreed on whom to blame: Mr Samper, say some, though others point to the American pressure on him, which, they say, has diverted government time and money away from everyday affairs.
General Bonett repeated the message of military subordination firmly as he was sworn in, and, in case anyone had not noticed, Mr Samper stamped it in again at a ceremony on July 29th in which the armed forces acknowledged their new commander.
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