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'S NEMESIS HONES HIS TROOPS FOR THE HUNT

Chapter Eight of a Continuing Serial

Two years later, in the summer of 1992, the Americans working with the
Colombian police search team were more impressed by its new commander's will
than his methods.

This tall, taciturn colonel nicknamed "Flaco" (Skinny) meant business.
Martinez had been the driving force behind the first hunt, which had hounded
Escobar to his surrender in 1991. He began this second, more intensive
search by rounding up top people from the first operation and recruiting
police and army veterans to create a new, elite Bloque de Busqueda, or
Search Bloc. It would eventually number 600 men.

One of Col. Martinez's first acts at the Holquin Academy headquarters in
Medellin was to line his lieutenants against a wall and tell them that if he
discovered any of them betraying their mission, "I will personally shoot you
in the head."

He locked down his men to prevent uncontrolled communication in and out of
the compound, and, perhaps most important, he showed genuine frustration and
anger when a mission failed. The Americans had worked with Colombian
officers who would joke about failed missions, who took them no more
seriously than getting the wrong order at a restaurant.

But the men of Delta Force and Centra Spike were appalled by the Search
Bloc's lack of tactical sophistication. One morning, approaching a suspected
Escobar hideout, the assault force lined up along a ridge and then simply
walked toward the target house. A Centra Spike man accompanying them on the
raid, helping to locate Escobar, suggested that the force drop down and
crawl.

"In the dirt?" a Colombian officer asked. "My guys don't crawl in the dirt
and mud."

The occupants of the target house easily spotted the slow-moving assault
force and escaped. They had fled in such haste that they hadn't completely
burned documents, so they had urinated and defecated on them.

When an American from Centra Spike began fishing papers out of the mess,
Col. Martinez himself had objected.

"I can't believe you'd do that," he said. "That's human waste!"

"Where I come from, we also low-crawl and get our uniforms dirty," the
Centra Spike man said.

After the documents were cleaned and dried, the unit found handwritten notes
from Escobar, sealed with his thumbprint. The notes promised financial
security for the caretaker of the farmhouse. Copies had been prepared for
several other fincas, or estates, indicating that Escobar kept a string of
such safe houses. The recovered documents provided valuable insights into
how he recruited and nurtured assistance in the hills.

After entering the finca, the assault force settled in front of the
television and began drinking Escobar's sodas and cooking his steaks. Two
men who had stayed behind in the farmhouse, the caretakers, were bound and
gagged. Martinez's men began beating them severely.

"What are your guys doing?" the Centra Spike man asked Martinez.

"We're interrogating them," the colonel said.

"If you want them to talk, why don't you take the gags out of their mouths?"

"No, no," Martinez said. "Leave it alone. You shouldn't be here." He ushered
the American away from the farmhouse.

After that, the colonel tried to keep Americans away from the action - not
to protect them, but to protect their eyes. Reports drifted back about
Martinez's tactics - beatings, electroshock torture, killings - and it was
evident to Americans working with the Search Bloc in Medellin that some of
these things went on, but always out of sight.

It was a smart move, one that some officials at the U.S. Embassy
appreciated. Human rights abuses were problematic. But as long as the
Americans didn't see them, they didn't feel obliged to report them.

If the Search Bloc was torturing people, American soldiers in Medellin did
not object. The fact that Martinez played rough with his fellow citizens was
seen as an advantage. Let the word go out to anyone who cooperated with
Escobar.

Another thing the Americans working with the Search Bloc liked about the
colonel was that he learned from his mistakes. His men did learn to
low-crawl, and to fish documents out of latrines. He was candid about his
unit's tactical shortcomings, and took steps to correct them.

Martinez was skeptical of American technology, but he learned fast. When he
overheard Escobar's voice on a portable radio monitor carried by one of the
Centra Spike men during a raid, the colonel asked for the same equipment the
next time out.

Later, when rumors began to circulate that Martinez was eager to nail
Escobar because he was secretly on the payroll of the rival Cali cartel -
rumors that some of the DEA men took seriously - the group in charge at the
U.S. Embassy discounted them. And Martinez himself vigorously denied them.

Ambassador Morris Busby and CIA station chief Bill Wagner were not about to
discard the colonel. As far as the embassy was concerned, Hugo Martinez was
exactly the kind of man to go up against Escobar. The drug boss had finally
met his match.