The Extraditables designed their seal, which pictured Hernán Botero,25 head down, with two chained prisoners at his left and right. They claimed their message to be both pacifist and toothless, but still an effective mechanism by which to abolish extradition in Colombia. Simultaneously, a pacifist offensive was started, spreading through the streets the slogan, “Say No to Extradition.” Nevertheless, Alberto Santofimio advised Pablo that the only way to stop extradition was to hit the political class.
Starting the Extraditable’s military activity through selective murders, Escobar spread out his tentacles and went after Barry Seal, the traitor who cut short the negotiations in Panama and turned in the evidence that the U.S. government used to issue a warrant for Pablo and The Mexican’s extradition. El Patrón sent for Guillermo Zuluaga, alias Cuchilla, a fine and intelligent bandit from the school of Elkin Correa, and Jorge González, El Mico. Cuchilla, born in La Estrella, was a young man with good looks and a talent for careful jobs inside the mafia. He was the opposite of a district killer. Cuchilla was in charge of Barry Seal’s assassination. Locating him was easy—killing him, not so easy. But such was Cuchilla’s specialty. The trial was highly publicized and Barry Seal stood confined at a military base in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; this was no secret to anyone. Cuchilla knew how to move around the United States and he knew the language. He traveled to Louisiana and studied Seal’s routine. Seal moved with no apprehension, feeling safe in his country, miles from his new archenemy, Pablo Escobar. As a prosecution witness, he had his privileges and he could leave the base during the day, but he had to return at night—a sort of semi-freedom. Cuchilla knew that Seal parked his car at an apartment building opposite the base before returning at night.
Cuchilla went back to the United States with one of Captain Roberto Striedinger’s men, who knew Barry Seal in Nicaragua and identified the traitor. Everything was ready. The weapons would be bought in the United States and the informant would be executed outside the apartment complex where he parked his car.
Cuchilla enlisted the help of three men who didn’t know about Pablo’s involvement in the mission. He then rented a car with fake documents. He went to Baton Rouge and revealed the target and the plan to his men. The weapons from Miami arrived on schedule.
Cuchilla, under Pablo’s orders, was to get out of the United States before the assassination. He arranged everything so his three men could get out of Louisiana by land, changing automobiles (rented by Cumbamba) once. Everything was ready. Cuchilla returned to Colombia. His three men went after the traitor and gunned him down as planned. He died on his own country’s soil. The killers escaped from the parking lot without any problems, but fifteen minutes later they committed a traffic violation and were pulled over by the police. As the officer asked for the driver’s documents, a report of Barry Seal’s death came over the radio. The policeman looked at the three Colombians, put two and two together, and raised his gun. He asked for reinforcements, and when the three men were searched, the cops found their firearms. Cuchilla’s men were detained, processed, and rapidly convicted to life sentences. The police ran a trace on the two guns and identified the two Colombians who bought them in Miami. Their suspicions were directed toward Pablo Escobar but there was no proof. The enemies of El Patrón and the supporters of extradition trembled with fear. The Americans took a blow to their pride. For the Chief, there were no borders.
Without once easing up on his attack, Pablo next ordered Pabón to go after Supreme Court Justice Hernando Baquero Borda. On July 31, 1986, Pabón and six of his men accomplished his second task and assassinated Borda north of Bogotá. The echo of the assassination was heard across the nation—a new low blow for justice. El Espectador and Vanguardia Liberal (both popular newspapers) as well as journalist Jorge Enrique Pulido covered Pablo’s story and called for his extradition. Meanwhile, the Chief was calm. He was not afraid of the authorities’ counterattack; he knew how to operate underground and under pressure.
…On Thursday, November 6, 1985, around 11:30 a.m., in two buses and another vehicle, the group of twenty-eight M-19 guerrillas, under commanders Luis Otero, Andrés Almarales, Alfonso Jacquin, and Guillermo Elvecio Ruíz, occupied the Palace of Justice in the Colombian capital, facing Bolívar Plaza, a few meters away from the Congress building and the Presidential Palace.
The interior of the imposing, hallowed venue housing the offices of more than three hundred people, including all the members of the Supreme Court of Justice and the State Council. The guerilla commando seized the building and soon tracked down the President of the Court, Alfonso Reyes Echandía, so he would announce their demands to the government.
The President of Colombia, Belisario Betancur Cuartas, refused to speak with Reyes Echandía and ordered the army to surround the Palace. From a telephone in his office, the President of the Court called for a negotiated solution via radio. Betancur insisted the army retake the Palace of Justice ruthlessly by force, ignoring Reyes Echandía’s pleas. The judge’s words went unheeded and their echo never touched the heart of the Colombian president.
More than a hundred individuals died, including guerrillas, lawyers, visitors, judges, and employees of the Supreme Court of Justice. Eleven judges, including their president, Alfonso Reyes Echandía, were executed . . .
Chapter VII
The Altar of the Holocausts
I always wondered why El Patrón publicly accepted the burden of responsibility for his men infiltrating government offices, burning files, and assassinating the president of the court and other magistrates.
I remember clearly the day El Patrón told me how, after asking him for an interview, the leaders of the M-19, Iván Marino Ospina and Álvaro Fayad, came to the Nápoles Hacienda. In a long meeting, they told him about an ambitious project of theirs: attacking the Palace of Justice.26
They wanted a spectacular operation in front of the whole world in the middle of Bolívar Square to denounce the president of Colombia, Belisario Betancur, for failing to fulfill the agreed cease-fire with the insurgents signed on August 24, 1984. It was in 1983 in Madrid when they started the long talks aimed at drawing up the agreement between the guerrilla leaders and then Colombian ambassador, presidential candidate Belisario Betancur.
“Belisario is mocking us,” said Iván Marino.
“No, he isn’t mocking you. In this country the military owns the president and they are not willing to support the peace process anymore,” Pablo responded.
“Pablo, if we don’t do this, we won’t have any respect at the negotiation table.”
El Patrón asked them to explain the details of the operation. Immediately Alvaro Fayad started speaking with great enthusiasm, “We are going to name the operation Antonio Nariño, for the rights of man. We will need fifty men. Twenty-eight guerrilleros will enter by the basement, where we already have a man who will give us access. Six of our men will already be inside the palace, posing as lawyers, and around the exterior we will have ten more of our men ready for backup.”
After several hours discussing the operation, Pablo Escobar stood up and asked them, “Okay, very well. Everything sounds perfect, but what do you need from me?”
“Pablo, we want you to finance the whole operation for us. If the operation’s successful, it can help with your fight against extradition. That’s why we sought you out,” explained Iván Marino Ospina.
“We estimate we’ll need about a million dollars. We’ll need rifles and C-4 from Nicaragua,” added Álvaro Fayad.
Pablo considered the idea for a moment, and then said, “I will lend you a plane that can land on the Nápoles Hacienda in order to