News (Media Awareness Project) - Colombia: Killing Pablo - Quietly, Search Bloc Pins Escobar Down |
| Title: | Colombia: Killing Pablo - Quietly, Search Bloc Pins Escobar Down |
| Published On: | 2000-12-14 |
| Source: | Inquirer (PA) |
| Fetched On: | 2008-09-02 08:59:07 |
QUIETLY, SEARCH BLOC PINS ESCOBAR DOWN
Surveillance Had Pinpointed His Location. This Time, No Dragnet Would Tip
Him Off.
Chapter 33 of a continuing serial
Hugo Martinez got an incorrect fix on the source of the first call
Pablo Escobar made to his family at the Tequendama Hotel in Bogota on
a Tuesday in late November 1993.
But by the next day, the American surveillance experts at Centra Spike
and the Search Bloc's own fixed surveillance teams in the hills over
Medellin had pinpointed Escobar's location in the neighborhood called
Los Olivos.
Hugo's father, Col. Hugo Martinez, knew they were very close. At
first, he asked permission to cordon off the entire 15-block
neighborhood and begin going door-to-door, but that was rejected - in
part because a Delta Force commander and others at the U.S. Embassy in
Bogota advised against it.
Escobar was an expert at escaping such dragnets. Closing down the
neighborhood would just let him know they were on to him. Instead, the
colonel began quietly infiltrating hundreds of his men into Los
Olivos. His son, Hugo, stayed with a group of 35 in a parking lot
enclosed by high walls, where the men and vehicles could not be seen
from the street.
Similar squads of men were sequestered at other lots in the
neighborhood. They stayed through Tuesday night until Wednesday, the
first day of December. Food was brought in. There was only one
portable toilet for all the men.
Hugo spent virtually all this time in his car, waiting for Escobar's
voice to come up on his mobile surveillance equipment. He ate and
slept in the car.
Later on Wednesday, Escobar spoke on the phone with his son, wife and
daughter as they wished him a happy birthday. He was 44 years old that
day. He celebrated with marijuana, a birthday cake and some wine.
Hugo raced out of the lot in pursuit of this signal, tracing it to a
spot in the middle of the street near a traffic circle just after the
conversation ended. No one was there. Hugo was convinced his scanner
was right. Escobar evidently had been speaking from a moving car. Hugo
returned to the parking lot discouraged, and the men camped out there
were again disappointed.
Hugo waited until about 8 on Thursday morning before Col. Martinez
gave the men permission to come back to base, clean up and rest. Hugo
drove back to his apartment in Medellin, took a shower, and then fell
asleep.
On this day, Thursday, Dec. 2, 1992, Pablo Escobar awakened shortly
before noon, as was his habit, and ate a plate of spaghetti before
easing his widening bulk back into bed with his wireless phone. Always
a heavy man, he had put on about 20 pounds while living on the run,
most of it in his belly.
"On the run" was a misnomer, for Escobar did not do much running. He
spent most of his time lying low, eating, sleeping, talking on the
radio. He hired prostitutes, mostly teenage girls, to help him while
away the hours. It wasn't the same as the lavish orgies he had
arranged in years past, but his money and notoriety still allowed for
some indulgences.
Escobar had trouble finding jeans that would fit. To get a waist size
to accommodate his girth, he had to wear pants that were a good six
inches too long. The light blue pair he wore on this day were turned
up twice in a wide cuff. He wore flip-flops and had pulled on a loose
blue polo shirt.
Prone to intestinal discomfort, he may have been feeling the effects
of his birthday revelry the night before. On this afternoon, the only
other person in the house was Alvero de Jesus Agudelo, known as Limon,
who served as Escobar's valet, driver and bodyguard. The two others
staying with them, his courier, Jaime Alberto Rua-Restrepo, and his
aunt and cook, Luz Mila Restrepo, had gone out after fixing breakfast.
At 1 o'clock, Escobar tried several times to phone his family, posing
as a radio journalist, but the switchboard operator at the Tequendama
Hotel told him the staff had been instructed to block all calls from
journalists. He was put on hold, then asked to call back, but finally
he got through on the third attempt, speaking briefly to his daughter,
Manuela, and then to his wife, Maria Victoria, and his son, Juan Pablo.
Maria Victoria sobbed on the phone. She was depressed and
fatalistic.
"Honey, what a hangover," Pablo said sympathetically. She continued
crying. "These things are a drag. So, what are you going to do?"
"I don't know."
"What does your mother say?"
"It was as if my mother fainted," she said, explaining they had last
seen her as they left the airport Friday in Medellin during the
family's failed attempt to flee Colombia for Frankfurt, Germany. "I
did not call her. She told me bye, and then- "
"And you have not spoken to her?"
"No. My mother is so nervous. My mother will die because she made me
crazy," Maria Victoria said, explaining how all the family deaths in
the previous year - most at the hands of the vigilantes from Los Pepes
- - had just about killed her with sorrow.
At his apartment, Hugo was awakened by a phone call from his
father.
"Pablo's talking!" the colonel said. Hugo dressed quickly and hurried
back out to the parking lot, where the other officers were assembling.
Escobar was still on the phone.
"So, what are you going to do?" he asked his wife gently.
"I don't know. I mean, wait and see where we are going to go and I
believe that will be the end of us."
"No!"
"So?" Maria Victoria asked flatly.
"Don't you give me this coldness! Holy Mary!"
"And you?"
"Ahhh."
"And you?"
"What about me?"
"What are you going to do?"
"Nothing. . . . What do you need?" Pablo asked. He did not want to
talk about himself.
"Nothing," his wife said.
"What do you want?"
"What would I want?" she asked glumly.
"If you need something, call me, OK?"
"OK."
"You call me now, quickly. There is nothing more I can tell you. What
else can I say? I have remained right on track, right?"
"But how are you? Oh, my God, I don't know!"
"We must go on. Think about it. Now that I am so close, right?" Pablo
said, in what appears to be a suggestion that he was about to surrender.
"Yes," his wife said, with no enthusiasm.
"Think about your boy, too, and everything else, and don't make any
decisions too quickly, OK?"
"Yes."
"Call your mother again and ask her if she wants you to go there or
what."
"OK."
"Remember that you can reach me by beeper."
"OK."
"OK."
"Ciao," said Maria Victoria.
"So long," her husband said.
Chapters 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
Chapter 19: Escobar Complains Of Unfair Treatment
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1788/a03.html
Chapter 20: U.S. Spy Data, Vigilante Killings Start To Coincide
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00.n1818.a09.html
Chapter 21: 'Tacit Support' For Tough Tactics
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00.n1816.a07.html
Chapter 22: Martinez Pushes Ahead With The Hunt
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1819/a02.html
Chapter 23: Search Bloc Leader Tries To Keep His Son From Joining The
Manhunt http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00.n1816.a07.html
Chapter 24: Pressure Mounts On Escobar Family
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1821/a01.html
Chapter 25: A Father And Son's High-Tech Connection
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1826/a01.html
Chapter 26: Mission Stirs Concern Back Home
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1836/a07.html
Chapter 27: Trackers Get A Line On Elusive Escobar
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1843/a05.html
Chapter 28: As The Hunters Close In, A Narrow Escape
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1849/a05.html
Chapter 29: Escobar's Wife, Children Become The Bait
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1853/a04.html
Chapter 30: Escobar Employs A Ruse As His Family Takes Flight
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00.n1856.a04.html
Chapter 31: Denied Escape, Escobar's Family Returns Home
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00.n1864.a03.html
Chapter 32: Ever Elusive Escobar Still Intent On Settling Scores
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00.n1869.a05.html
Surveillance Had Pinpointed His Location. This Time, No Dragnet Would Tip
Him Off.
Chapter 33 of a continuing serial
Hugo Martinez got an incorrect fix on the source of the first call
Pablo Escobar made to his family at the Tequendama Hotel in Bogota on
a Tuesday in late November 1993.
But by the next day, the American surveillance experts at Centra Spike
and the Search Bloc's own fixed surveillance teams in the hills over
Medellin had pinpointed Escobar's location in the neighborhood called
Los Olivos.
Hugo's father, Col. Hugo Martinez, knew they were very close. At
first, he asked permission to cordon off the entire 15-block
neighborhood and begin going door-to-door, but that was rejected - in
part because a Delta Force commander and others at the U.S. Embassy in
Bogota advised against it.
Escobar was an expert at escaping such dragnets. Closing down the
neighborhood would just let him know they were on to him. Instead, the
colonel began quietly infiltrating hundreds of his men into Los
Olivos. His son, Hugo, stayed with a group of 35 in a parking lot
enclosed by high walls, where the men and vehicles could not be seen
from the street.
Similar squads of men were sequestered at other lots in the
neighborhood. They stayed through Tuesday night until Wednesday, the
first day of December. Food was brought in. There was only one
portable toilet for all the men.
Hugo spent virtually all this time in his car, waiting for Escobar's
voice to come up on his mobile surveillance equipment. He ate and
slept in the car.
Later on Wednesday, Escobar spoke on the phone with his son, wife and
daughter as they wished him a happy birthday. He was 44 years old that
day. He celebrated with marijuana, a birthday cake and some wine.
Hugo raced out of the lot in pursuit of this signal, tracing it to a
spot in the middle of the street near a traffic circle just after the
conversation ended. No one was there. Hugo was convinced his scanner
was right. Escobar evidently had been speaking from a moving car. Hugo
returned to the parking lot discouraged, and the men camped out there
were again disappointed.
Hugo waited until about 8 on Thursday morning before Col. Martinez
gave the men permission to come back to base, clean up and rest. Hugo
drove back to his apartment in Medellin, took a shower, and then fell
asleep.
On this day, Thursday, Dec. 2, 1992, Pablo Escobar awakened shortly
before noon, as was his habit, and ate a plate of spaghetti before
easing his widening bulk back into bed with his wireless phone. Always
a heavy man, he had put on about 20 pounds while living on the run,
most of it in his belly.
"On the run" was a misnomer, for Escobar did not do much running. He
spent most of his time lying low, eating, sleeping, talking on the
radio. He hired prostitutes, mostly teenage girls, to help him while
away the hours. It wasn't the same as the lavish orgies he had
arranged in years past, but his money and notoriety still allowed for
some indulgences.
Escobar had trouble finding jeans that would fit. To get a waist size
to accommodate his girth, he had to wear pants that were a good six
inches too long. The light blue pair he wore on this day were turned
up twice in a wide cuff. He wore flip-flops and had pulled on a loose
blue polo shirt.
Prone to intestinal discomfort, he may have been feeling the effects
of his birthday revelry the night before. On this afternoon, the only
other person in the house was Alvero de Jesus Agudelo, known as Limon,
who served as Escobar's valet, driver and bodyguard. The two others
staying with them, his courier, Jaime Alberto Rua-Restrepo, and his
aunt and cook, Luz Mila Restrepo, had gone out after fixing breakfast.
At 1 o'clock, Escobar tried several times to phone his family, posing
as a radio journalist, but the switchboard operator at the Tequendama
Hotel told him the staff had been instructed to block all calls from
journalists. He was put on hold, then asked to call back, but finally
he got through on the third attempt, speaking briefly to his daughter,
Manuela, and then to his wife, Maria Victoria, and his son, Juan Pablo.
Maria Victoria sobbed on the phone. She was depressed and
fatalistic.
"Honey, what a hangover," Pablo said sympathetically. She continued
crying. "These things are a drag. So, what are you going to do?"
"I don't know."
"What does your mother say?"
"It was as if my mother fainted," she said, explaining they had last
seen her as they left the airport Friday in Medellin during the
family's failed attempt to flee Colombia for Frankfurt, Germany. "I
did not call her. She told me bye, and then- "
"And you have not spoken to her?"
"No. My mother is so nervous. My mother will die because she made me
crazy," Maria Victoria said, explaining how all the family deaths in
the previous year - most at the hands of the vigilantes from Los Pepes
- - had just about killed her with sorrow.
At his apartment, Hugo was awakened by a phone call from his
father.
"Pablo's talking!" the colonel said. Hugo dressed quickly and hurried
back out to the parking lot, where the other officers were assembling.
Escobar was still on the phone.
"So, what are you going to do?" he asked his wife gently.
"I don't know. I mean, wait and see where we are going to go and I
believe that will be the end of us."
"No!"
"So?" Maria Victoria asked flatly.
"Don't you give me this coldness! Holy Mary!"
"And you?"
"Ahhh."
"And you?"
"What about me?"
"What are you going to do?"
"Nothing. . . . What do you need?" Pablo asked. He did not want to
talk about himself.
"Nothing," his wife said.
"What do you want?"
"What would I want?" she asked glumly.
"If you need something, call me, OK?"
"OK."
"You call me now, quickly. There is nothing more I can tell you. What
else can I say? I have remained right on track, right?"
"But how are you? Oh, my God, I don't know!"
"We must go on. Think about it. Now that I am so close, right?" Pablo
said, in what appears to be a suggestion that he was about to surrender.
"Yes," his wife said, with no enthusiasm.
"Think about your boy, too, and everything else, and don't make any
decisions too quickly, OK?"
"Yes."
"Call your mother again and ask her if she wants you to go there or
what."
"OK."
"Remember that you can reach me by beeper."
"OK."
"OK."
"Ciao," said Maria Victoria.
"So long," her husband said.
Chapters 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
Chapter 19: Escobar Complains Of Unfair Treatment
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1788/a03.html
Chapter 20: U.S. Spy Data, Vigilante Killings Start To Coincide
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00.n1818.a09.html
Chapter 21: 'Tacit Support' For Tough Tactics
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00.n1816.a07.html
Chapter 22: Martinez Pushes Ahead With The Hunt
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1819/a02.html
Chapter 23: Search Bloc Leader Tries To Keep His Son From Joining The
Manhunt http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00.n1816.a07.html
Chapter 24: Pressure Mounts On Escobar Family
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1821/a01.html
Chapter 25: A Father And Son's High-Tech Connection
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1826/a01.html
Chapter 26: Mission Stirs Concern Back Home
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1836/a07.html
Chapter 27: Trackers Get A Line On Elusive Escobar
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1843/a05.html
Chapter 28: As The Hunters Close In, A Narrow Escape
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1849/a05.html
Chapter 29: Escobar's Wife, Children Become The Bait
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1853/a04.html
Chapter 30: Escobar Employs A Ruse As His Family Takes Flight
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00.n1856.a04.html
Chapter 31: Denied Escape, Escobar's Family Returns Home
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00.n1864.a03.html
Chapter 32: Ever Elusive Escobar Still Intent On Settling Scores
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00.n1869.a05.html
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