El Patrón moved around covertly, but did not hide. In his retirement he tried to amend the great mistake he had made by entering the dangerous field of politics, and sought asylum in the United States.
On March 8, 1984, the anti-narcotics police discovered two complex laboratories that processed cocaine paste. These were the Tranquilandia and Villacoca facilities located in the Yari Jungle. The police, under Colonel Jaime Ramírez’s command and under Minister of Justice Rodrigo Lara Bonilla’s control, proudly revealed the extraordinary discovery to the world. The giant facilities were proof of the drug empire in Colombia. They had two airplane runways, a large staff, abundant coke paste, and, finally, cocaine ready for use. From there, the mafia planes filled with drugs took off towards the United States.
Authorities destroyed forty more laboratories and detained forty-four people. Approximately two hundred and fifty workers ran for the jungle, looking for the Yari River, taking around fifteen tons of cocaine with them. Seventeen tons of cocaine ready for export were seized. The camps were equipped with televisions, blenders, microwaves, air conditioning, bathrooms with filtered water, and a gas operated electric plant. Five planes were also seized. Photos of what was found at Tranquilandia and Villacoca made their way around the world. Everyone knew it was a U.S. satellite that had detected the complex and that the coke paste was brought from Peru and Ecuador.
Authorities accused Pablo Escobar and Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha of being the owners of the laboratories, or rather of the small fortress located in the heart of the jungle. The discovery was a great triumph for the Minister of Justice, the police, the DEA, and the U.S. government.
El Patrón thought about the strike at Tranquilandia and decided to kill the minister. He knew that the cure could be worse than the illness, but he also knew what he had to do. Pablo’s men thought of various ways to execute Lara Bonilla. One was to shoot him from an ambulance. Pinina went to the Campo Valdés District, and hired Byron Velásquez, alias Quesito, and Iván Darío Guisado. Quesito was a skilled motorcyclist, and Iván Darío an accomplished assassin.
With a DT175 Yamaha motorbike and a 45 caliber Atlanta machine gun, Pinina, Chopo, Oto, and La Yuca traveled to Bogotá. They decided to machinegun the minister down on his way from his home to the Ministry of Justice.
This time Lara Bonilla was in Pablo Escobar Gaviria’s territory—the streets. Escobar’s people finished their research and withdrew to the city. Although the minister was zealously watched over by the DAS, his official car was not armored. This was his one weakness. This mistake had already been detected by Pinina and the others.
Lara Bonilla’s family pressured him to leave the country and he was ready to seek refuge. Although he seriously feared for his life, he didn’t believe that Pablo would attack so soon. At the bottom of his heart, he had hoped that a minister of his power could not be attacked by the likes of Pablo; however, the discovery of Tranquilandia gave him a sample of the gangster’s power and diminished his hope.
Anyone who has thoroughly studied Pablo’s judicial past knows that the confiscation at Itagüí on January 16, 1976, was nothing compared to what was found at Tranquilandia on March 8, 1984. The heated debates on Pablo Escobar in the crowded Congress awoke further fears in Lara Bonilla for the safety of his family. He considered fleeing the country with all of them.
Meanwhile the Chief awaited the operation’s outcome at his hacienda. His paradise, once used for pleasure, was now a hideout. Sentry boxes for surveillance and lookouts gave him the time he would need, if ever necessary, to run and find protection amidst the trees. He was prepared.
On April 30, 1984, the country experienced the impossible: the hand of Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria reached the Minister of Justice Rodrigo Lara Bonilla. He was riding in a Mercedes Benz on Avenue 127 in north Bogotá when machine gun fire shot by Iván Darío Gusado burst into the car, putting an end to the dispute between the minister and Pablo Escobar and starting a cruel bloodbath in the country of Colombia.
The minister’s bodyguard reacted and shot Guisado. Byron was not able to control the motorcycle with his passenger dead and, taking a sharp turn, fell and was immediately seized by the minister’s bodyguards.
The news exploded like a bomb. The country could hardly believe it. The press reported the murder: “The Republic of Colombia’s Minister of Justice was murdered at 7 p.m. in Bogotá . . . ” The Colombian political class trembled. Luis Carlos Galán knew he was next, and that they were now in the hands of the Antioquian mafia.
Escobar received the news calmly. He remembered the minister’s arrogance in his attacks against him. He decided he must get out of the hacienda and head toward a hideout in Medellín. Escobar used multiple cars with radios to avoid police or army checkpoints. He knew it was better to get out of the hacienda because the government’s response could be strong and comprehensive.
Killing the minister had been easy; managing the consequences was a little more difficult. Pablo headed to Monte Loro, stopping at a little restaurant on the side of the road along the way. The news of the assassination was incessantly on the radio and television. Escobar ordered a soda and listened to the news. Suddenly, he heard the shop assistant in the restaurant comment, “That minister was very stupid indeed to meddle with Pablito.”
Rodrigo Lara Bonilla
(Photo courtesy of the newspaper El Espectador)
There the Chief realized the seriousness of his problem. If a simple shop assistant knew it was him, then it was safe to assume that government officials did too.
He went quickly to the hideout at El Paraíso20 in Envigado.21 As he suspected, the investigation was directed toward him.
President Belisario Betancur Cuartas faced the country in a televised speech, expressing his fury towards the mafia in general. He announced that by administrative means, although some Colombians had unsettled issues with the U.S. government, extradition of certain criminals to the U.S. would begin. He also announced a raid against the drug traffic organization and its infrastructure. He proclaimed a total war against the whole mafia.
Germán Alfonso Díaz Quintana, El Ronco, was detained and the authorities found the hotel where El Chopo had been staying. His registered calls were made to La Estrella, an Antioquian municipality, specifically to the house of El Chopo’s wife. Under torture, Quesito gave Pinina’s name as the person that hired him.
Over a thousand two hundred raids were conducted against the mafia. The most aggressive raids were carried out in Antioquia. The Nápoles Hacienda, along with every one of Escobar’s properties, didn’t escape the government’s desperate search. Airplanes, automobiles, motorcycles, boats, and yachts were seized.
The mobsters hid and moved only in secret. Meanwhile, Pablo Escobar sat in his hideout, watching the television in anticipation. He was enjoying the sweet flavor of revenge and planning for the future.
Chapter VI
The Sandinista Double Moral
The airplanes confiscated from the government’s offensive were taken to Panama, Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Peru by El Patrón. Pablo fled to Panama under the protection of the country’s strong man, Manuel Antonio Noriega. He rented a furnished house belonging to a general of the Panamanian guard and settled there. He was soon joined by Jorge Luis Ochoa and Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha.
The Colombian authorities completed the first phase of the investigation into the assassination of the Minister of Justice. The police gathered a group of suspects: Byron Velásquez, Iván Darío Guisado, Chopo, Pinina, and Ronco, the liaison in Bogotá. Everything lined up. The only piece missing was what linked Pablo Escobar to this group. The judges didn’t