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Carmen Elisa Nunez offered Clinton one of her most prized possessions -- a medal won by her late husband.

They were two of a dozen widows and mothers of men who had died during Colombia's fight against drug traffickers and rebels who spoke to Clinton during his visit to Colombia.

Seated under a blue canopy to shield them from the hot sun, each woman took her turn to tell the president her story of how her husband or son died in the line of duty.

Clinton listened intently as Colombian President Andres Pastrana translated the stories, and offered his sympathy.

Some, like Viveros, could not hold back their tears.

"I came to help," said Clinton, in Cartagena to show the United States' support for Colombia's struggle with drug traffickers and Marxist rebels. "We have to make sure your husband did not die in vain."

Clinton wiped away Yina Ruth Garcia's tears as she told how her husband had died. She is six months pregnant. "Remember my mother carried me as a widow," Clinton told her.

Clinton's father William Blythe died in a car accident three months before the future president was born.

Although protesters were burning him in effigy in other cities like the capital Bogota, the women and many residents of Cartagena gave Clinton a hero's welcome.

Nunez even presented the president with the Medal of Honour won by her late husband, Army Captain Wilson Quintero.

Clinton said he would take the ribbon but she should keep the medal as a keepsake. Nunez refused, pushing the box into Clinton's hands, telling him her husband had won four.

"Thank you very much for coming," she said, telling Clinton that her husband had died last year.

Pastrana said the celebrated case "was one of the worst ever" and said the man had escaped from rebel kidnappers but then sought refuge with a peasant sympathetic to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebel group who tortured and raped him.

Visibly moved, Clinton finally accepted the medal and held it close to his chest.

"I will put this up in the White House," said Clinton.