News (Media Awareness Project) - Colombia: Killing Pablo: Escobar Complains Of Unfair Treatment |
| Title: | Colombia: Killing Pablo: Escobar Complains Of Unfair Treatment |
| Published On: | 2000-11-30 |
| Source: | Inquirer (PA) |
| Fetched On: | 2008-01-28 22:48:29 |
MAP's index for the series: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n000/a251.html
Bookmark: Reports about Colombia: http://www.mapinc.org/area/Colombia
ESCOBAR COMPLAINS OF UNFAIR TREATMENT
Chapter 19 of a continuing serial
If Pablo Escobar had ever doubted that the United States was hot on his
trail, those doubts vanished after the U.S. Embassy in Bogota refused to
issue visas for his wife and children to flee to the United States in
February 1993.
Escobar had always tried to avoid picking a fight with America, but now the
Americans' latest moves clearly distressed him. Ambassador Morris Busby
received by mail a newspaper clipping in an envelope that appeared to have
been hand-addressed by the fugitive. The clipping was about the decision to
turn back his family, and in a quotation from one of Escobar's defenders,
one line was circled: ". . . is it valid to cancel the visas of children
because one is persecuting the father?"
On March 2, Busby received a handwritten letter from Escobar, with his
signature and thumbprint at the bottom. The letter mentioned a comment by a
prosecutor in New York, in reference to the World Trade Center bombing
earlier that year, that no enemy of the United States could be ruled out in
investigating the attack. Included on the enemies list was Escobar's
Medellin cartel.
Escobar wrote that he wasn't at war with the United States "because in your
country the government has not been participating in bombings, kidnappings,
torture and massacre of my people and my allies."
If he had carried out the World Trade Center bombing, he added, "I would be
saying why I did it and what I want."
The bloodbath continued in Colombia, with Escobar's random car bombs
increasingly answered with chilling precision by the vigilantes from Los
Pepes. The day after Luis Londono - described by the DEA as one of
Escobar's primary money-laundering experts - was killed, his brother Diego
Londono, an architect, turned himself in, claiming Los Pepes had also tried
to kill him.
Diego Londono told the National Police where to find a young man named
Lisandro Ospina, who had been kidnapped the previous December. When the
Bogota apartment was raided, Ospina, chained to a bed, was executed by his
kidnappers, all of whom were then killed by the police. Escobar had ordered
Ospina kidnapped in an effort to find his sister, Dolly Moncada, who was in
hiding and cooperating with the Americans.
The day Londono surrendered, Escobar's brother-in-law, Hernan Henao, known
as "HH," was killed by Search Bloc members as they raided his apartment in
Medellin.
Dolly Moncada had urged her new American allies to go after not just
Escobar's gunmen, but his infrastructure, his family and his legal teams.
In the spring of 1993, that's what started happening.
For surveillance purposes, the Drug Enforcement Administration had compiled
elaborate lists of Escobar's relatives, with many of the names provided by
Dolly Moncada. A list given in February by Joe Toft, the DEA country chief,
to John Craig, the CIA deputy station chief, listed names and phone numbers
for Escobar's father, mother, wife, brothers, sisters, brothers-in-law,
sisters-in-law, mother-in-law, and children.
On March 4, an attorney who had worked for Escobar, Raoul Zapata, was found
murdered. The next day another attorney, Maria Munoz, was murdered. After
another of Escobar's car bombs exploded in Bogota on April 15, killing 11
and injuring more than 200, Los Pepes exacted swift revenge, blowing up two
fincas, or estates, owned by Escobar's key associates.
The same day, two more of Escobar's lawyers, Juan Castano and Guida Parra,
were killed. Parra was murdered along with his 18-year-old son, Guido
Andres Parra. They had been abducted from their apartment in Medellin by 15
heavily armed men.
Their bodies were found, hands tied with plastic tape and bullet wounds to
the head, stuffed in the trunk of a taxi. A hand-lettered sign in the trunk
read, "Through their profession, they initiated abductions for Pablo
Escobar." It was signed, "Los Pepes," with a postscript: "What do you think
of the exchange for the bombs in Bogota, Pablo?"
The body of the taxi driver was found about a mile away, with a sign that
accused him of working for the Medellin cartel. Any public dismay over the
killings was far outweighed by anger over Escobar's deadly car bomb in Bogota.
In a statement issued by Los Pepes to the press, the vigilantes referred to
Escobar's "demented attitude" and concluded, "We challenge Pablo Escobar
and all his people to fight a frontal war which only affects the parties
involved and doesn't incur the vile assassination of Colombians, under the
false pretense that with these actions he will convince the last hopefuls
of the power of his extinct organization; otherwise we will be forced to
fight a frontal war against him and his close ones."
Los Pepes saw themselves as a military organization. They called for the
war to be fought without involving "civilians," but evidently Escobar's
"close ones" and innocents such as the son of Guido Parra did not qualify.
Los Pepes also spread the word that the drug boss had been condemned to
death, whether or not he surrendered.
The killings of Escobar's lawyers prompted three of the drug lord's
best-known attorneys, Santiago Uribe, Jose Lozano and Reynaldo Suarez, to
publicly resign from his service. In June, Lozano, who continued to
represent Escobar despite his public resignation, was shot 25 times in
downtown Medellin as he walked with his brother, who was badly injured. In
July, seven other lawyers who had worked for Escobar or his cartel resigned
(Uribe for the second time) after Los Pepes publicly threatened "potential
harm or murder."
As this lawlessness accelerated through the spring, no one from Washington
questioned it or noted America's possible links to it. No one from Colombia
was complaining, or explaining.
The only voice of complaint came from Pablo Escobar. On April 29, he wrote
a letter to Colombia's chief prosecutor, Gustavo de Greiff, who had
recently indicted him for murder and other crimes. Escobar named Fidel
Castano, a paramilitary leader who had secretly been providing information
to the Americans, as the head of Los Pepes:
"Los Pepes have their headquarters and their torture chambers in Fidel
Castano's house, located . . . scarcely 40 yards from an incinerated house
which belonged to a relative of mine. There they torture trade unionists
and lawyers. No one has searched the house or confiscated their assets."
Escobar went on to complain that the murders and kidnappings he attributed
to Los Pepes were not investigated by the government. The government, he
said, offered rewards for information on the leaders of his cartel and
leftist guerrilla commanders, but nothing for Los Pepes members.
The letter ended with yet another indication that the killings of his
associates, the attacks on the homes of his loved ones, the relentless
pursuit by the Search Bloc - all of it - were starting to wear on Escobar.
He was ready to surrender.
"I remain disposed to turn myself in . . ." he wrote. And as always, he
listed his conditions: ". . . if given written and public guarantees."
Articles in this series with links:
Chapter 1: Escobar's Rise To Power
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1692/a04.html
Chapter 1 (continued): A Deadly Manhunt Guided By The US
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1690/a07.html
Chapter 2: A Top-Secret Electronic Tracking Unit Rejoins The Hunt
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1696/a07.html
Chapter 3: With Escobar Eluding Capture, Americans Summon Delta Force
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1702/a01.html
Chapter 4: Delta Force, In Bogota, Gets The Lay Of A Confusing Land
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1704/a08.html
Chapter 5: Raring To Get Started, Delta Learns Its Limits
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1712/a10.html
Chapter 6: Delta, Colombians Get Off To Bad Start
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1715/a05.html
Chapter 7: Incorruptible Colonel Rejoins Escobar Pursuit
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1729/a05.html
Chapter 8: Escobar's Nemesis Hones His Troops For The Hunt
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1727/a04.html
Chapter 9: Luxury 'Prison' Affords A Rare Look At Escobar
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00.n1741.a07.html
Chapter 10: A Conditional Offer To Surrender
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1733/a06.html
Chapter 11: Frustrating Hunt Gives Rise To Vigilantism
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00.n1741.a08.html
Chapter 12: Homegrown Escobar Enemy Joins Fight
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00.n1743.a06.html
Chapter 13: Escobar's Powerful Foes Ally Against Him
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00.n1746.a08.html
Chapter 14: Angry Widow Aids Pursuit Of Escobar
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1752/a09.html
Chapter 15: A Former Ally Offers A Profile Of Escobar
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1757/a04.html
Chapter 16: A Rivalry Grows Between Spy Units
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1779/a06.html
Chapter 17: A Traitor Within The Search Bloc
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1776/a01.html
Chapter 18: Los Pepes' Killings Put Heat On Escobar
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1781/a01.html
Bookmark: Reports about Colombia: http://www.mapinc.org/area/Colombia
ESCOBAR COMPLAINS OF UNFAIR TREATMENT
Chapter 19 of a continuing serial
If Pablo Escobar had ever doubted that the United States was hot on his
trail, those doubts vanished after the U.S. Embassy in Bogota refused to
issue visas for his wife and children to flee to the United States in
February 1993.
Escobar had always tried to avoid picking a fight with America, but now the
Americans' latest moves clearly distressed him. Ambassador Morris Busby
received by mail a newspaper clipping in an envelope that appeared to have
been hand-addressed by the fugitive. The clipping was about the decision to
turn back his family, and in a quotation from one of Escobar's defenders,
one line was circled: ". . . is it valid to cancel the visas of children
because one is persecuting the father?"
On March 2, Busby received a handwritten letter from Escobar, with his
signature and thumbprint at the bottom. The letter mentioned a comment by a
prosecutor in New York, in reference to the World Trade Center bombing
earlier that year, that no enemy of the United States could be ruled out in
investigating the attack. Included on the enemies list was Escobar's
Medellin cartel.
Escobar wrote that he wasn't at war with the United States "because in your
country the government has not been participating in bombings, kidnappings,
torture and massacre of my people and my allies."
If he had carried out the World Trade Center bombing, he added, "I would be
saying why I did it and what I want."
The bloodbath continued in Colombia, with Escobar's random car bombs
increasingly answered with chilling precision by the vigilantes from Los
Pepes. The day after Luis Londono - described by the DEA as one of
Escobar's primary money-laundering experts - was killed, his brother Diego
Londono, an architect, turned himself in, claiming Los Pepes had also tried
to kill him.
Diego Londono told the National Police where to find a young man named
Lisandro Ospina, who had been kidnapped the previous December. When the
Bogota apartment was raided, Ospina, chained to a bed, was executed by his
kidnappers, all of whom were then killed by the police. Escobar had ordered
Ospina kidnapped in an effort to find his sister, Dolly Moncada, who was in
hiding and cooperating with the Americans.
The day Londono surrendered, Escobar's brother-in-law, Hernan Henao, known
as "HH," was killed by Search Bloc members as they raided his apartment in
Medellin.
Dolly Moncada had urged her new American allies to go after not just
Escobar's gunmen, but his infrastructure, his family and his legal teams.
In the spring of 1993, that's what started happening.
For surveillance purposes, the Drug Enforcement Administration had compiled
elaborate lists of Escobar's relatives, with many of the names provided by
Dolly Moncada. A list given in February by Joe Toft, the DEA country chief,
to John Craig, the CIA deputy station chief, listed names and phone numbers
for Escobar's father, mother, wife, brothers, sisters, brothers-in-law,
sisters-in-law, mother-in-law, and children.
On March 4, an attorney who had worked for Escobar, Raoul Zapata, was found
murdered. The next day another attorney, Maria Munoz, was murdered. After
another of Escobar's car bombs exploded in Bogota on April 15, killing 11
and injuring more than 200, Los Pepes exacted swift revenge, blowing up two
fincas, or estates, owned by Escobar's key associates.
The same day, two more of Escobar's lawyers, Juan Castano and Guida Parra,
were killed. Parra was murdered along with his 18-year-old son, Guido
Andres Parra. They had been abducted from their apartment in Medellin by 15
heavily armed men.
Their bodies were found, hands tied with plastic tape and bullet wounds to
the head, stuffed in the trunk of a taxi. A hand-lettered sign in the trunk
read, "Through their profession, they initiated abductions for Pablo
Escobar." It was signed, "Los Pepes," with a postscript: "What do you think
of the exchange for the bombs in Bogota, Pablo?"
The body of the taxi driver was found about a mile away, with a sign that
accused him of working for the Medellin cartel. Any public dismay over the
killings was far outweighed by anger over Escobar's deadly car bomb in Bogota.
In a statement issued by Los Pepes to the press, the vigilantes referred to
Escobar's "demented attitude" and concluded, "We challenge Pablo Escobar
and all his people to fight a frontal war which only affects the parties
involved and doesn't incur the vile assassination of Colombians, under the
false pretense that with these actions he will convince the last hopefuls
of the power of his extinct organization; otherwise we will be forced to
fight a frontal war against him and his close ones."
Los Pepes saw themselves as a military organization. They called for the
war to be fought without involving "civilians," but evidently Escobar's
"close ones" and innocents such as the son of Guido Parra did not qualify.
Los Pepes also spread the word that the drug boss had been condemned to
death, whether or not he surrendered.
The killings of Escobar's lawyers prompted three of the drug lord's
best-known attorneys, Santiago Uribe, Jose Lozano and Reynaldo Suarez, to
publicly resign from his service. In June, Lozano, who continued to
represent Escobar despite his public resignation, was shot 25 times in
downtown Medellin as he walked with his brother, who was badly injured. In
July, seven other lawyers who had worked for Escobar or his cartel resigned
(Uribe for the second time) after Los Pepes publicly threatened "potential
harm or murder."
As this lawlessness accelerated through the spring, no one from Washington
questioned it or noted America's possible links to it. No one from Colombia
was complaining, or explaining.
The only voice of complaint came from Pablo Escobar. On April 29, he wrote
a letter to Colombia's chief prosecutor, Gustavo de Greiff, who had
recently indicted him for murder and other crimes. Escobar named Fidel
Castano, a paramilitary leader who had secretly been providing information
to the Americans, as the head of Los Pepes:
"Los Pepes have their headquarters and their torture chambers in Fidel
Castano's house, located . . . scarcely 40 yards from an incinerated house
which belonged to a relative of mine. There they torture trade unionists
and lawyers. No one has searched the house or confiscated their assets."
Escobar went on to complain that the murders and kidnappings he attributed
to Los Pepes were not investigated by the government. The government, he
said, offered rewards for information on the leaders of his cartel and
leftist guerrilla commanders, but nothing for Los Pepes members.
The letter ended with yet another indication that the killings of his
associates, the attacks on the homes of his loved ones, the relentless
pursuit by the Search Bloc - all of it - were starting to wear on Escobar.
He was ready to surrender.
"I remain disposed to turn myself in . . ." he wrote. And as always, he
listed his conditions: ". . . if given written and public guarantees."
Articles in this series with links:
Chapter 1: Escobar's Rise To Power
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1692/a04.html
Chapter 1 (continued): A Deadly Manhunt Guided By The US
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1690/a07.html
Chapter 2: A Top-Secret Electronic Tracking Unit Rejoins The Hunt
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1696/a07.html
Chapter 3: With Escobar Eluding Capture, Americans Summon Delta Force
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1702/a01.html
Chapter 4: Delta Force, In Bogota, Gets The Lay Of A Confusing Land
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1704/a08.html
Chapter 5: Raring To Get Started, Delta Learns Its Limits
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1712/a10.html
Chapter 6: Delta, Colombians Get Off To Bad Start
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1715/a05.html
Chapter 7: Incorruptible Colonel Rejoins Escobar Pursuit
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1729/a05.html
Chapter 8: Escobar's Nemesis Hones His Troops For The Hunt
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1727/a04.html
Chapter 9: Luxury 'Prison' Affords A Rare Look At Escobar
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00.n1741.a07.html
Chapter 10: A Conditional Offer To Surrender
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1733/a06.html
Chapter 11: Frustrating Hunt Gives Rise To Vigilantism
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00.n1741.a08.html
Chapter 12: Homegrown Escobar Enemy Joins Fight
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00.n1743.a06.html
Chapter 13: Escobar's Powerful Foes Ally Against Him
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00.n1746.a08.html
Chapter 14: Angry Widow Aids Pursuit Of Escobar
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1752/a09.html
Chapter 15: A Former Ally Offers A Profile Of Escobar
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1757/a04.html
Chapter 16: A Rivalry Grows Between Spy Units
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1779/a06.html
Chapter 17: A Traitor Within The Search Bloc
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1776/a01.html
Chapter 18: Los Pepes' Killings Put Heat On Escobar
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1781/a01.html
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