Pubdate: Tue, 12 Dec 2000 Source: Inquirer (PA) Copyright: 2000 Philadelphia Newspapers Inc. Contact: 400 N. Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19101 Website: http://inq.philly.com/content/inquirer/home/ Forum: http://interactive.phillynews.com/talk-show/ Author: Mark Bowden, Inquirer Staff Writer Note: A list of the chapters published to date is at the end of this item. Bookmark: Reports about Colombia: http://www.mapinc.org/area/Colombia DENIED ESCAPE, ESCOBAR'S FAMILY RETURNS HOME New Threats By Los Pepes Prompt A Bitter Response From The Fugitive. Chapter 31 of a continuing serial When the Lufthansa plane carrying the family of Pablo Escobar finally landed in Frankfurt, Germany, on a Sunday afternoon in November 1993, it was forced to taxi to a remote spot on an alternate runway, out of the view of press waiting in the terminal. Colombian President Cesar Gaviria had been on the phone to officials in Spain and Germany, urging them to refuse the Escobars. He explained that if the family was safely removed from Colombia, there would be another vicious bombing campaign by Pablo Escobar. It was not the kind of request from a head of state that other nations were likely to ignore. There was nothing to be gained by Spain, Germany or any other country in allowing entry to the family of such a notorious outlaw. German Interior Ministry officials drove out to the plane to process the other passengers' passports and immigration documents, including those of DEA Special Agent Kenny Magee and the Colombian police colonel flying with him. A bus took them to the terminal. The Escobars were taken by another bus to an office in the international section. Maria Victoria, Escobar's wife, who was carrying $80,000 and large amounts of gold and jewelry, asked for a lawyer and was provided one. The family immediately petitioned for political asylum, then waited through another long night for a ruling. Magee was met in the main terminal by two DEA colleagues based in Germany and they, too, waited through the night. Early the next morning, the Escobars' petition was denied. The family was escorted by heavily armed German police back out to a Bogota-bound plane that had been kept waiting for two hours. Also escorted to the plane were three men believed to be personal family bodyguards, whom the German authorities described as "thugs." Magee boarded the plane with four German immigration officers assigned to escort the family back to Colombia. He sat two rows in front of the family and across the aisle. At some point during this long flight home, the DEA agent sat down with the German immigration officers in the smoking section of the plane. They had seized the Escobars' passports and had agreed to allow Magee to photograph them. He took the passports into one of the plane's lavatories, laid them out on the narrow counter and snapped a photo of each. As he pulled the door open, sticking the passports in his back pocket, he was startled to encounter Escobar's son, Juan Pablo, standing in the doorway. The teenager was just waiting to use the toilet. Juan Pablo and the rest of the family looked exhausted. They had been on planes or in airports since Saturday afternoon, and all they had managed was to fly in one enormous circle. When the Lufthansa flight landed again at El Dorado airport in Bogota, the weary Escobars were escorted off the plane and turned over once again to Colombian authorities. Magee inspected the seats where the family had been sitting. He found several large empty envelopes with large dollar amounts written on them, two credit cards, and a discarded note that read in English: "We have a friend in Frankfurt. He says he will be looking for us so he can help us. . . . Tell him to call Gustavo de Greiff" - Colombia's top federal prosecutor. Magee assumed it was a note they had hoped to pass to someone at the airport in Frankfurt, but they had never reached the terminal. After the family was taken into custody at the airport, Colombia's defense minister ordered de Greiff to drop his office's official protection of them. The Escobars were escorted by the National Police to the Tequendama Hotel in Bogota, a large modern complex that included retail shops and an apartment tower. Guests of the hotel and residents of the apartment tower began fleeing when word spread that Escobar's family was staying there, much to the dismay of the hotel's management and nearby shop owners. Exhausted and frightened, Maria Victoria told government officials that she did not wish to return to Medellin, and pleaded to be sent anywhere in the world outside Colombia. She said she was tired of living with her husband's problems, and just wanted to live in peace with her children. Escobar phoned the hotel not long after the family arrived, conveying a brief message to Juan Pablo. "Stay put there," he said. "Put pressure on the authorities to leave for another country, call Human Rights, the United Nations." As if to tighten the screws on Escobar, Los Pepes chose this day of his family's return to Colombia to issue another public pronouncement. In a communique to the press, the vigilantes said they could no longer respect the government's wish that they desist and were going to resume actions against Escobar. Escobar responded bitterly. On Nov. 30, he wrote a letter to the men he suspected of leading the vigilante group. Among those he listed were Col. Hugo Martinez, commander of the police Search Bloc hunting Escobar; the "DIJIN Members in Antioquia" (the Search Bloc); Miguel and Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela, purported leaders of the rival Cali drug cartel; and Fidel and Carlos Castano, the paramilitary leaders who secretly had been cooperating with the Search Bloc. He sealed the letter with his thumbprint, and forwarded it to his few remaining front men for public release: Mister Pepes: The communique you produced today is full of lies, deceit and falsities, like all the previous ones. You promise to reappear but the truth is that you have always been active because just a few days ago you perpetrated kidnappings, murders and dynamite bombings. . . . You say in your lying communique that you have never attacked my family and I ask you: Why did you bomb the building where my mother lived? Why did you kidnap my nephew Nicolas? Why did you torture and strangle my brother in law Carlos Henao? Why did you try to kidnap my sister Gloria? You have always characterized yourselves by being hypocrites and liars . . . The prosecutor's office has a lot of evidence against you. . . . The government knows that [the Search Bloc] is the Pepes' military branch, the same one that massacres innocent young men at street corners. I have been raided 10,000 times. You haven't been at all. Everything is confiscated from me. Nothing is taken away from you. The government will never offer a warrant for you. The government will never apply faceless justice to criminal and terrorist policemen. What credibility can Colonel Martinez have . . . if he himself planted a revolver and dynamite in my lawyer's car so he would appear to be a terrorist? The same colonel who tortured and murdered lawyers is now promoted to brigadier. What can be expected of people like you, who don't even show respect for honor and truth? Regards Pepes. Pablo Escobar Copy to national and foreign media, the President, Minister of Defense, Prosecutor . . . The Colombian police finally had members of Escobar's family exactly where they wanted them. Now that they were out from under the official protection of Fiscal General de Greiff, Escobar's wife and children were in the hands of Los Pepes as far as the fugitive was concerned. The police knew Escobar would be frantic. Police at the hotel reported hearing Escobar's little girl, Manuela, singing a Christmas carol to herself as she wandered the empty complex. She had substituted the traditional chorus with one of her own that went, in part, "Los Pepes want to kill my father, my family, and me." - ------------------------------ 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 - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake