by Austin Galt
It was a massive hit against the state and it shocked the nation. However, it wasn’t to be the last shocking event of such magnitude perpetrated by Pablo Escobar.
The other instigator of the attacks against Escobar, Luis Galán, had run for president in 1982 under the Liberal Party banner. He lost, coming in third to Belisario Betancur. Along with Rodrigo Lara he formed an offshoot movement, New Liberalism, but returned to the fold to run for president in the 1990 elections.
Galán had gained a lot of popularity since the late 1970s by denouncing the mafia and corruption in politics. So much so that he appeared to be a shoe-in to become the next president. Not only did he explicitly attack the Medellín Cartel, he promised to reintroduce extradition to the United States for drug traffickers. This both infuriated and scared the drug chiefs.
With Galán polling at more than 60 percent, Escobar became desperate. He could not afford for Galán to become president and needed to deal with the situation swiftly. Plata o plomo was Escobar’s motto, but bribing the straight-shooting Galán was clearly out of the question. Lead seemed the only solution. On 18 August 1989, while campaigning in the municipality of Soacha, Galán stepped up onto the podium and within seconds was cut down by submachine-gun fire. He collapsed and video footage shows his blood streaming off the stage. He was dragged into a nearby vehicle and rushed to hospital but he was already gone. The country went into mourning having lost one of the most popular politicians in modern Colombian history.
César Gaviria, Galán’s debate chief, assumed the mantle and vowed to pursue the policies of his deceased boss. He easily won the 1990 presidential election, beating out Álvaro Gómez. It was Gaviria who agreed to Escobar’s terms to surrender and reside in the jail built to his specifications.
It would not be until 20 years later that some peace could be achieved for those families involved. Pablo Escobar’s son, now called Sebastián Marroquín, came out of hiding and revealed he had been living in exile in Argentina with his mother and sister under an assumed name. In 2009, he released a documentary titled Sins of My Father whereby he met with the sons of Lara and Galán and apologised for their fathers’ deaths on behalf of his own father and asked for their forgiveness. His sincere reconciliation efforts were appreciated and accepted. He has also stated that he still misses and loves his father. Having completed college, Sebastián now works as an architect and is married with a daughter. His mother and sister meanwhile have chosen to mostly remain out of the public view.
While Pablo Escobar grew up poor, several other leaders of the Medellín Cartel came from the opposite spectrum. The Ochoa brothers – Juan David, Jorge and Fabio – were already involved in the cocaine business when Escobar came on the scene. They were from a prominent Medellín family led by their father, the patriarch Fabio known as ‘Don Fabio’. He was also a restaurateur with a love for Paso Fino horse breeds, and in the early 1990s, he opened another site for his restaurant, La Margarita del Ocho, to the north of Bogotá where his famed horses would parade for diners. Lily and I visited the establishment on one of our first dates and enjoyed the show as we ate some quality steaks.
Don Fabio was one of Colombia’s cocaine pioneers, but he is never listed as one of the leaders of the Medellín Cartel. This may be due to his own cunning. Well-connected politically, he was likely Medellín’s true godfather. He certainly knew what his sons were up to and would give them advice. Perhaps one piece of advice was to not get in Escobar’s way and instead allow him to be the public face of the cartel.
The Ochoa brothers were instrumental in the formation of one of the first right-wing paramilitary groups. In 1981, their sister, Marta, was kidnapped by the M-19 guerrillas who demanded a big ransom. The three brothers, along with their fellow traffickers including those from Cali, formed Muerte a Secuestradores (MAS) or Death to Kidnappers. Its arrival onto the scene was announced when a small plane flew over Cali’s Pascual Guerrero stadium during a football match, dropping leaflets stating that 223 drug traffickers had contributed $9 million and 2000 armed men to the cause.
It was like a game of chicken and, in the face of the new threats against them, it was the guerrillas who went weak at the knees first. After scores of guerrillas were killed, Marta was returned unharmed and without a ransom being paid. Her return didn’t put an end to the activities of MAS. On the contrary. Buoyed by its initial success it continued with its fight against left-wing guerrillas, providing protection for landowners.
In 1982, the Asociación Campesina de Ganaderos y Agricultores del Magdalena Medio (ACDEGAM) or Association of Middle Magdalena Ranchers and Farmers was formed by Gonzalo Pérez and his son Henry as a legal umbrella of the paramilitaries. Its members needed a way to combat the kidnappings and other abuses of the guerrillas. The drug traffickers pumped a lot of cash into the organisation which was essentially used to fund paramilitary operations. ACDEGAM threatened community leaders and guerrilla sympathisers and those threats were carried out by groups such as MAS. Towards the end of the decade, ACDEGAM also created and financed the political party Movimiento de Renovación Nacional (MORENA) or National Renovation Movement.
Don Fabio was arrested in the aftermath of the Lara assassination but released shortly after due to lack of evidence. His sons weren’t as confident about their chances, however, and they, along with the other cartel leaders, fled to Panama where they were protected by its president Manuel Noriega. It is there that they met with the ex-Colombian president Alfonso López Michelsen to try to broker a deal to avoid extradition while keeping most of their fortunes.
Alfonso López Michelsen was thought to have largely turned a blind eye to drug trafficking during his presidency from 1974 to 1978. During his term the national bank, Banco de la República, opened what was called the ‘ventanilla siniestra’ or ‘sinister window’ which allowed Colombians to exchange US dollars for Colombian pesos without the need to declare where the money came from. The drug traffickers, known as ‘los mágicos’ or ‘the magicians’ due to amassing huge fortunes seemingly overnight, took full advantage and helped to greatly increase the country’s international currency reserves. When running for president again in 1982, allegations were made that his election campaign received ‘hot money’ to which he gave an eyebrow-raising response saying he ‘didn’t use a thermometer to take the temperature of electoral contribution monies’. The sinister window was closed in 1991.
The deal the drug bosses put forward, which involved withdrawing from the drug-trafficking business, getting out of politics and repatriating their fortunes from hidden bank accounts, was rejected. So too was an alleged, more informal offer to pay off the country’s foreign debt. Jorge Ochoa then fled to Madrid along with Cali Cartel boss, Gilberto Rodríguez Orejuela, who had also decided to escape the Colombian government’s crackdown on the mafia.
While also looking to set up a distribution network, both drug kingpins, already friends, lived it up abroad. Their extravagant lifestyles piqued the interest of Spanish authorities, leading to their arrest in late 1984. The time they spent in a Spanish prison together helped to strengthen their friendship. In future, whenever disputes arose between the two cartels they would converse to see if an agreement could be reached.
Despite being requested for extradition by US authorities, both drug bosses were deported back to Colombia in 1986. Gilberto Rodríguez Orejuela was acquitted of his drug charges by a judge in Cali due to being a ‘pharmacist’, while Jorge Ochoa was given a 20-month prison sentence in Cartagena for, of all things, smuggling bulls from Spain. He was released on bond and never returned but was caught several months later just outside of Cali driving his Porsche.
With the Colombian government still fixated on extradition, prison was a perilous place to be and in response to Ochoa’s incarceration, The Extraditables delivered a signed message to Medellín’s main newspaper El Colombiano. It announced they would commence killing Colombian politicians should Jorge be extradited. The government understandably relented and Jorg
e was released soon after.
The Medellín Cartel’s war against the state soon began to heat up and President Virgilio Barco struggled to contain the situation. In early 1988, Attorney General Carlos Mauro Hoyos was kidnapped on his way from Medellín to the airport in Rio Negro. The original plan was to kill him and blame it on the guerrillas. But during the operation his bodyguards noticed their car was being followed. They sped off trying to escape but were intercepted which led to a shoot-out. The cartel’s men were able to overcome the bodyguards and take Hoyos, but as they loaded him into the car he tried to make a break for it. During the struggle one of the kidnappers’ submachine guns went off, fatally wounding him.
By 1989, the war was in full swing. The year started badly for the government when Rodríguez Gacha ordered the massacre of 12 judicial officials who were investigating paramilitary crimes in La Rochela, Santander. Escobar had also offered cash rewards for killing policemen in Medellín which resulted in hundreds of casualties. Out of fear, many police chose to not wear their uniforms.
The war ramped up in the second half of the year. On 27 November 1989, just two months after Galán’s assassination, Avianca Flight 203, bound for Cali, had just taken off from Bogotá when it was blown out of the sky by a bomb that had been smuggled on board inside a briefcase. All 107 passengers and crew, as well as three people on the ground, were killed. Pablo Escobar was deemed to be the intellectual author of the attack. He was targeting presidential candidate César Gaviria, but he never boarded the plane and would go on to become the country’s next president.
Escobar then ordered the bombing of the Bogotá headquarters of the Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad (DAS) or Administrative Department of Security. On 6 December 1989, a truck laden with 500 kilograms of dynamite was detonated in front of the building killing over 50 people and injuring another 600, while several surrounding blocks were destroyed. The target, its director Miguel Maza, was unharmed.
Escobar also began kidnapping as many important people as he could in an effort to prevent extradition being approved. Francisco Santos spent eight months in captivity before being released. The Santos family is part of the Colombian elite and his cousin, Juan Manuel Santos, would later attain the presidency. Francisco went on to become the vice-president under Álvaro Uribe. Diana Turbay was a Colombian journalist and the daughter of ex-president Julio César Turbay who ruled from 1978 to 1982. She was kidnapped and held on a farm just outside Medellín before being killed during a botched rescue attempt.
Pablo Escobar would often use The Priscos for kidnapping and killing people. They were a criminal outfit comprising of four brothers, while a fifth brother served as Escobar’s personal doctor. The Priscos would generally organise the assassinations or kidnappings and then subcontract the work out to sicarios, as was the case with the Lara Bonilla hit. The brothers were put out of business permanently by the police in 1991.
For tough jobs considered suicide missions, such as the bombing of Avianca Flight 203, it was necessary to recruit assassins known as the ‘Suizo’ or ‘Swiss’. It had nothing to do with people from Switzerland but instead is a derivation of the word, suicida or suicide. The Swiss were mostly young men, perhaps still teenagers, who were either deceived or were prepared to sacrifice their lives in order, for example, to provide a better future for their mother.
By 1991, both the state and the drug traffickers were tiring of the war. President Gaviria offered them reduced prison sentences to be served in Colombia. That was good enough for Don Fabio, who negotiated the surrender of his sons to face Colombian justice. This was the first real breakaway from Pablo Escobar, who didn’t trust the Colombian authorities and remained on the run. But as the pressure on Escobar intensified, Don Fabio stepped in and helped to negotiate Escobar’s eventual surrender and his entry into his private prison, La Catedral or The Cathedral.
The Ochoa brothers spent the next five years in jail. The two eldest bothers, Juan David and Jorge, stayed out of trouble after that. However, the youngest brother, Fabio, was later accused of continuing his drug-trafficking activities and extradited to the United States in 2001 where he was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Don Fabio died in 2002 of kidney failure, while his son Juan David died of a heart attack in 2013. At the time of writing, Jorge remains a free man.
Carlos Lehder was the cartel’s top transporter and, while listed as a leader, he was not given the same status as the other leaders. He was born to a German father and Colombian mother in Armenia, the capital of Quindio state. He considered himself a Nazi, perhaps due to being influenced by his father’s heritage. While still a teenager he made his way to the United States where he was arrested in 1973 for stealing cars and marijuana dealing. He was released from jail, in 1976, and he got straight to work cocaine trafficking.
By 1978, Lehder was already cosy with Bahamian government officials as he began buying up all the properties on the island, Norman’s Cay. Those who refused to sell were threatened and bullied to do so. Most residents left of their own accord after being paid off, while one resident who didn’t comply was found dead on his yacht adrift at sea.
Lehder converted the island into a heavily secured trafficking hub protected by radar, bodyguards and Doberman attack dogs. Small planes laden with Colombian cocaine would refuel there before heading to Florida. Boats would also drop off large loads which would then be transferred to small aircraft for the final leg. Lehder made the island a great point to stop and unwind too. Cocaine flowed freely with beautiful bikini-clad women in abundance. It was a true cocaine-trafficker’s paradise.
The Medellín Cartel began sending large quantities of product via Norman’s Cay, and Lehder received 25 percent of each shipment helping him become a billionaire in short order. He was a pilot and had his own fleet of planes stationed on the island, so he essentially had the whole production chain covered from processing the coca into cocaine in the jungles of Colombia to smuggling his own loads flying his own planes.
The island’s true purpose was made public after the airing of a television report titled, The Bahamas: A nation for sale. Produced by investigative journalist Brian Ross, it was shown on NBC’s nightly news in 1983. The US authorities pressured the Bahamian government and Carlos Lehder became a persona non grata.
Having already returned to Colombia, Lehder built a five-star alpine hotel called the Posada Alemana or German Inn situated on the highway north of Armenia. It featured 30 cabanas, a Bavarian restaurant and bar, winery, farmhouse and motocross track. Other attractions included a condor cage and a discotheque adorned with John Lennon memorabilia, including a bronze sculpture of The Beatles’ singer. He was a massive fan of the musician-turned-peace activist, which was a bit strange considering he was also an Adolf Hitler fan.
Like Escobar, he also entered politics, forming the Movimiento Latino Nacional or National Latino Movement which was a right-wing neo-Nazi party. Among other reasons, he set it up to have his own club after the high society social clubs in his home town of Armenia, such as the Club Campestre or Country Club, refused him membership. He attended rallies flanked by a group of young minions dressed in khaki military uniforms and would argue against extradition. A couple of his catchphrases were: ‘Marijuana is for the people’ and ‘Cocaine is for taking money from the rich’. He was also able to spout his views through his own newspaper, Quindío Libre. Carlos Lehder was a good-looking man but considered a touch crazy and the other drug traffickers began calling him ‘El Loquito Carlos’ or ‘The Crazy Carlos’.
In February 1987, while hiding out on a farm just outside of Medellín, the police swooped after receiving a tip-off. Escobar’s former assassin, Jhon Jairo Velásquez alias ‘Popeye’, has said that his boss was the one who gave up Lehder as he and the other leaders had become uncomfortable with his erratic behaviour which could hurt their business. Lehder was immediately extradited to the United States and sentenced to life without parole, with an additional 135 years just for good measure.
Later that same year, Benjamín Herrera travelled to the United States where he was arrested. Herrera was Lehder’s brother-in-law, while Herrera’s brother Gustavo helped Lehder establish himself in The Bahamas. He and Lehder were, at the time, the biggest drug lords to ever face justice in the United States.
‘El Mexicano’ or ‘The Mexican’ – José Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha – named for his love of all things Mexican, was born into a poor family of pig farmers in rural Cundinamarca state. He began his criminal career as a bodyguard for Colombia’s emerald czar, Gilberto Molina, before moving to Bogotá and entering the drug-trafficking business.
He was the Medellín Cartel’s man responsible for setting up Tranquilandia, which was a massive cocaine-producing laboratory located in the jungle in Yari, Caquetá. Hundreds of people lived and worked there and it had all the amenities to keep the workers comfortable, including televisions, air conditioners, bathrooms and a kitchen. The Colombian police destroyed the laboratory in 1984 after the DEA had earlier placed tracking devices on tanks of ether, a major ingredient for processed cocaine, which led authorities to the location. It was a huge blow to the Medellín Cartel, which lost one of its biggest production houses along with $1 billion worth of processed cocaine.
It was The Mexican’s partner, Leonidas Vargas, who knew and had access to the jungles in Caquetá, which was also the location of another big cocaine laboratory, Villacoca. This jungle region of Caquetá was FARC territory, and if the drug bosses wanted to operate there then it had to be as an alliance with the guerrillas. After working side by side with the FARC, Rodríguez Gacha would go on to despise the communist guerrillas. He championed a campaign aimed at exterminating communism from the country and was behind the murders of many Patriotic Union members. It is thought this was due to the FARC stealing money and a large quantity of cocaine from a laboratory he had with Leonidas Vargas.