The desperate truce that Pablo Escobar tried to keep all his fortune and why he failed

After the internal division of the Medellin cartel after its partners had turned their backs on the war against the state and in search of their enemies to kill him, the only viable way out for Pablo Escobar was a truce with the government. He tried to negotiate several times. And after trying it four years ago, in 1989, he promised to surrender for the last time in exchange for the preservation of his fortune, but the United States prevented it.

In May 1984, the narco-urban war led by Pablo Escobar in retaliation for the extradition treaties had already had the effect of subjecting the country to a wave of bloody violence in which a bomb exploded every week. On the 4th of this month, Corporal and his partner, Jorge Luis Ochoa, met with former Colombian President Alfonso López at the luxurious Marriott hotel in Panama to discuss a delivery with the government of President Belisario Betancur (1982 -1986). ).

Lopez was in this country as a verifier of the presidential election and gangsters hiding from the Colombian and American authorities. Days before, Escobar had sent to kill the Minister of Justice, Rodrigo Lara Bonilla, riddled when he mobilized in his car in the north of Bogotá, on April 30th. The crime that motivated Betancur to sign the Extradition Act. However, he left his hands free in López for the meeting. According to him, he would have confided years later in an interview to The weather.

Escobar has indicated the location of his laboratories, the lines of communication to the United States, the fleets and their delivery as well as that of their partners in exchange for not being extradited. tells Fabio Castillo in the book & # 39;The riders of cocaine& # 39; To this end, several other meetings have taken place. Betancur sought to solve Lara Bonilla's crime and put an end to the bombs, but the population was upset by all the violence in the cities. The possible truce was leaked in the press and the scandal was such that the government had to deny everything and not continue.

It was the first attempt failed, but the situation deteriorated much later, for Escobar and for all the country involved in his revenge. Four years later, in May 1988, the corporal attempted to reopen Panama's previous dialogue through his lawyer, Guido Parra, who contacted former minister Joaquin Vallejo Arbeláez. The meeting was held in June of the same year with the company of Germán Montoya, secretary of the presidency of Virgilio Barco at the time. This, according to journalist Jorge Retana published on the portal SDP News.

There began a new truce attempt.

The Medellín cartel was going through one of its worst periods. Escobar was dedicated to orchestrating the war in Colombia and drug trafficking had been set aside., what their partners did not like, who did not agree with the brutality of the violence. The state began an unrelenting quest to finish them off and the gangsters ended up turning their backs on him with fear. Some decided to surrender and others pursued drug trafficking independently.

The new government of George H: W. Bush (1989 – 1993) changed the anti-drug strategy. "Before intercepting drug-laden vessels and planes at the North American border, now they had decided to point to the South American root of the problem: the heads of narco", describes Mark Bowden in the book & # 39;Kill Pablo Escobar& # 39; Their mansions and properties in Florida had been seized. And the Colombian authorities have devoted themselves to the dismantling of their laboratories and their crops.

The population was increasingly furious with the constant bombardment and selective killings, and asked to end Escobar. With his enemies from the cartels of Cali and Valle del Cauca allied with the paramilitaries to attack him, his family and himself, supporting the so-called "block of research" of the Colombian police force and the FBI, the capo became a fugitive and the persecution eventually affected his health; According to some secret files of the FBI who knew the portal VerdadAbierta.com.

"His health is deteriorating, the kind and sociable person of the past has disappeared (…) Nervousness, weight gain, loss of concentration, anxiety and gastritis", he presented as described by the FBI in a confidential memorandum of June. In 1990, he knew only the information portal and reported on the new truce that Pablo Escobar was looking for.

Through the architect Santiago Londoño White – according VerdadAbierta.com-, Escobar approached the Barco government. He was ready to dismantle his entire organization, the Medellin Cartel. In return, he asked not to be extradited, as in previous occasions, but had a new condition: this allowed his family to keep his fortune. For the United States to accept this offer, he tried to appeal to a prestigious law firm headed by Henry Kissinger in that country, said Bowden in his book.

"Now he did not want to repatriate money from his accounts abroad and asked for a full amnesty for him and all those who were linked to the Medellín cartel., in addition to the presidential promise of non-extradition. In return, he promised to stop drug trafficking once and for all, "said Bowden in the book.

The badysis of the treatment was studied with caution, because the Colombian government did not want to compromise its relations with the United States. So Escobar even tried to call on a lawyer badociate of Jeb Bush, the youngest son of President Bushto intercede with his father; the details VerdadAbierta.com. And as a sign of commitment, he has managed to deliver some of his cocaine production "kitchens".

But After President Bush's visit to Cartagena, in February 1990, the Barco government decided not to pursue the deal.. In retaliation, Escobar kidnapped the son and sister of the state's negotiator, the presidential secretary, Germán Montoya. The first was released and the second was killed.

At that time, he also ordered the badbadination of the presidential candidate of the new liberalism, Luis Carlos Galán, shot dead during a public ceremony in Bogotá on August 18, 1989. The acts of revenge increased his brutality and, with it, the repression of the authorities it ended up accepting information from the Pepes (persecuted by Pablo Escobar), composed in particular of the Cali cartel and the paramilitaries of the Castaño brothers.

All this came to an end when the police fired on the caption while fleeing the roofs of some houses in Medellin on December 2, 1993.