Iguarán says he's not fazed. Instead, he seems to be plowing ahead.

Earlier this month, his office leaked a video to a local magazine of a former police and military intelligence officer who said the police executed several survivors of a guerrilla takeover of the Palace of Justice in 1985. The video promises to open up wounds that many officials hoped had healed following the incident, which left more than 100 dead, including 11 Supreme Court justices, when the army stormed the palace and it burned to the ground.

Iguarán also has reopened sensitive cases like that of Chiquita Brands International, which admitted to the U.S. Justice Department recently that it paid protection money to the paramilitaries.

SETTING PRECEDENT

Iguarán also has charged active-duty military officers with murder and working with paramilitaries, a first in Colombian history.

But the biggest cases involve some of the president's closest advisors, including his former handpicked intelligence chief, Jorge Noguera.

Iguarán credits some of Uribe's policies for pushing the investigations as far as they have come and says that the president supports him.

But the prosecution of some of Uribe's inner circle has clearly put the attorney general at odds with the presidency. The presidency has hired at least two people that Iguarán had fired, and the media in Colombia have reported that Noguera's attorney met with Uribe's advisors to discuss his legal strategy.

The dimensions of the scandal have caught Iguarán by ''surprise,'' he told The Miami Herald in a rare display of trepidation.

''It's an anxiety that I feel that could end up turning into anguish,'' he said.

Still, in times of turmoil, Iguarán says he turns to the south, toward the church in Buga with a mighty crucifix that performs miracles.

''I go there whenever I get the chance,'' he said. ``Unfortunately, that's not too often, because I'm so busy.''