José Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha
Encyclopedia
José Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha (May 1947 – December 15, 1989), also known by the nickname El Mexicano, was a Colombian
drug lord
who was one of the leaders of the notorious Medellín Cartel
along with the Ochoa brothers and Pablo Escobar
. At the height of his criminal career Rodríguez was acknowledged as one of the world's most successful drug dealers. In 1988, Forbes Magazine included him in their annual list of the world's billionaires.
, Cundinamarca Department
. He came from a poor family of modest pig farmers, and it is said that his formal education did not extend beyond grade school. As a youth he developed a fearsome reputation while employed as a hired killer for a gangster trying to gain control of Colombia's lucrative emerald
mines. In the early 1970s,Rodríguez migrated to Bogotá
and linked up with Verónica Rivera de Vargas, a pioneering drug trafficker who became the first queen of cocaine by murdering the family of her main rival.
in 1976, Rodríguez joined with the Ochoa
family, Pablo Escobar, and Carlos Lehder
in establishing an alliance that eventually strengthened into what would become known as the Medellín Cartel
. The traffickers cooperated in the manufacturing, distribution and marketing of cocaine. During the late 1970s, Rodríguez advanced in the organizational hierarchy, pioneering new trafficking routes through Mexico
and into the United States
, primarily Los Angeles, California
and Houston, Texas
. This, coupled with his infatuation with Mexican popular culture, and his fondness for foul language, earned him the nickname El Mexicano (the Mexican
). He owned a string of ranches in the Pacho area with Mexican inspired names such as Cuernavaca
, Chihuahua, Sonora
and Mazatlán
. When he was an owner of the Bogotá
Football
Club the Millonarios
, he hired a Mexican mariachi
band to perform for the crowd. According to the US Justice Department
, Rodríguez directed cocaine trafficking operations through Panama
and the West Coast (California
) of the United States. It is claimed that he helped design a Nicaraguan
trafficking operation that employed pilot Barry Seal
(who was murdered on February 19, 1986 after agreeing to testify against the Medellín cartel). Rodríguez based much of his operations from Bogotá and other areas in the Cundinamarca region. It was Gacha who first set up Tranquilandia, one of the largest and best known of the jungle laboratories where more than two thousand people lived and worked making and packaging cocaine. ["The Accountant's Story," by Roberto Escobar]
, who had crusaded against the Medellin cartel, was assassinated by a gang of motorcycle thugs. In response, President Belisario Betancur
, who had previously opposed extradition, makes an announcement that "we will extradite Colombians". Carlos Lehder is the first to be put on the list. The crackdown forces the Ochoas, Escobar and Rodríguez to flee to Panama
for several months. A few months later, Escobar is indicted for Lara's murder and Rodríguez is named as a material witness
. In an attempt to handle the situation, Escobar, Rodríguez and the Ochoa brothers met with the former Colombian president Alfonso López
in the Hotel Marriott in Panama City
. The negotiation failed after news of it leaked to the press, provoking the open opposition of the United States to any impunity deal.
groups (or self-defense groups, autodefensas as they are frequently referred to in Colombia), were created with the support of landowners and cattle ranchers who had been under pressure from the guerrillas as well as from groups affiliated with narcotics traffickers such as the Muerte a Secuestradores
movement (MAS – Death to Kidnappers). As made clear in a 2004 judgment of the Inter-American court of Human Rights, numerous independent reports and from what the paramilitaries themselves have said, in at least some cases they were given support by the state itself. The top leaders of the Medellín cartel created private armies to guarantee their own security and protect the property they had acquired. According to The Washington Post, in the mid-1980s, Rodríguez and Pablo Escobar
bought huge tracts of land the Magdalena Department
(as well as Puerto Boyacá
, Rionegro and the Llanos
) which they used to transform their self-defense groups from poorly trained peasant militias into sophisticated fighting forces. By the late 1980s Medellin traffickers controlled 40 percent of the land in the Middle Magdalena, according to a Colombian military estimate, and also funded most of the paramilitary operations in the region.
Throughout the 1980s Rodríguez helped catalyze the Medellín cartel's explosive rise to power by financing the importation and adoption of expensive foreign technology and expertise. According to the report by the Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad
(Colombia's Administrative Security Department), between December 1987 and May 1988 Rodríguez hired Israel
i and British
mercenaries to train teams of assassins at remote training camps in Colombia. Yair Klein, a retired Israeli lieutenant colonel, acknowledged having led a team of instructors in Puerto Boyacá
in early 1988. It is not clear whether Klein’s mercenary activities in Colombia coincided with those of a group of British mercenaries who had allegedly trained paramlitary squads for the cocaine cartels.
(DEA
) estimated that 80 percent of cocaine
consumed in the United States
was imported from Colombia by the Medellín cartel and its rival, the Cali Cartel
. The newly elected administration of President George H.W. Bush was under considerable pressure to combat the increasing drug usage and drug-related violence plaguing scores of American cities. Much of the government strategy concentrated on restricting drug supply by extraditing Colombian cartel leaders to the United States for prosecution. On August 21, 1989, Attorney General
Dick Thornburgh
released a list of the twelve Colombian drug kingpins (commonly referred to as the "dirty dozen") most wanted by the United States and said the names would be shared with the Colombian government and Interpol
. The list included Pablo Escobar, Jorge Luis Ochoa, and José Gonzalo Rodríguez,, the leading members of the Medellín cartel.
a critical target in the war on drugs, allocating $15 million to launch a counteroffensive. Only hours after Bush unveiled his antidrug offensive in September 1989, a federal task force began taking shape. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FINCEN) was designed to zero in on money launderers with computer programs capable of spotting suspicious movements of electronic money. On December 6, 1989, Attorney General Dick Thornburgh announced that authorities had frozen accounts in five countries holding $61.8 million belonging to Rodriguez Gacha. According to the Justice Department
, the money represented long-term high-yield stocks
and investments and was held in bank accounts in England
, Switzerland
, Austria
, Luxembourg
and the United States
. An additional $20 million of Gacha’s drug money was suddenly transferred to Panama, where it was protected from American authorities.
mines, which are considered some of the richest in the world. On February 27, 1989, Rodríguez directed a group of 25 gunmen to kill emerald magnate Gilberto Molina
, who was previously considered among his close associates, along with sixteen other individuals at a party in Molina's home. El Mexicano was later charged in Colombia
and the United States for his involvement in a number of killings, including the assassination of the president of the leftist Patriotic Union
party, Jaime Pardo Leal
on October 12, 1988 in retaliation for guerrilla attacks on drug traffickers in the eastern plains area known as the "llanos orientales." Both Pablo Escobar and Rodríguez were implicated in the slaying of popular presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galán
on August 18, 1989, who was considered likely to be elected Colombia's next president.
Virgilio Barco launched an all-out offensive on the cocaine cartels and re-established extraditions with the United States. At first, the Colombian public overwhelmingly backed Barco's crackdown, which was announced hours after the assassination of Galán on August 19. The government made quick and unprecedented strides against the traffickers - seizing expensive homes, ranches, airfields, cocaine processing labs and large amounts of cash and drugs. Authorities conducted raids throughout the country and made thousands of arrests. The Medellin cartel responded by declaring "war" on the government,, and over the next four months, bombings became an almost daily occurrence and scores of people died.
By October 1989, public support for the crackdown was beginning to wane and the government decided to focus its attention on capturing either Pablo Escobar or Rodríguez. However, both men managed to stay one step ahead of law enforcement and continued to finance a campaign of retaliatory terrorism
which claimed the lives of hundreds of politicians, judges and civilians. Colombian authorities said that Rodriguez Gacha and Pablo Escobar
planned the December 8, 1989 bombing of the federal investigative police headquarters
in Bogotá which killed 63 people and injured an estimated 1,000. The two men were also accused of involvement in the November 27, 1989 bombing of a Avianca Flight 203
outside Bogotá that killed all 107 people aboard.
and Colombian Marines to his father. Fredy was arrested during an army raid of one of Rodriguez Gacha's ranches north of Bogotá. His alleged crime, possession of illegal weapons, was relatively minor, but police held Fredy longer than most unindicted prisoners, hoping to put pressure on Rodríguez.
When no signs of fatherly concern emerged, the police released Fredy and waited. Just as they anticipated, Fredy eventually headed for his father, unaware that police were tailing him. Police spotted José Gonzalo Rodríguez in Cartagena
and followed the fleeing drug lord to a small ranch in Tolu
. On Friday, December 15, 1989, Fredy, Gilberto Rendon (the alleged No. 8 man in the Medellín cartel) and a bodyguard were killed in a bloody shootout with Colombian police. José Gonzalo Rodríguez and three others died as they attempted to escape into the fields between Tolú and nearby Coveñas.
for Rodriguez Gacha's funeral on Sunday, December 17, 1989. Residents of Pacho said he donated money to renovate buildings, and some viewed him as a public benefactor. About 3,000 people surrounded the cemetery
because access to the funeral was limited to relatives. A newspaper estimated the number of mourners as high as 15,000.
Colombian people
Colombian people are from a multiethnic Spanish speaking nation in South America called Colombia. Colombians are predominantly Roman Catholic and are a mixture of Europeans, Africans, and Amerindians.-Demography:...
drug lord
Drug lord
A drug lord, drug baron or kingpin is the term used to describe a person who controls a sizable network of persons involved in the illegal drugs trade. Such figures are often difficult to bring to justice, as they might never be directly in possession of something illegal, but are insulated from...
who was one of the leaders of the notorious Medellín Cartel
Medellín Cartel
The Medellín Cartel was an organized network of "drug suppliers and smugglers" originating in the city of Medellín, Colombia. The drug cartel operated in Colombia, Bolivia, Peru, Central America, the United States, as well as Canada and Europe throughout the 1970s and 1980s. It was founded and...
along with the Ochoa brothers and Pablo Escobar
Pablo Escobar
Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria was a Colombian drug lord. He was an elusive cocaine trafficker and rich and successful criminal. He owned numerous luxury residences, automobiles, and even airplanes...
. At the height of his criminal career Rodríguez was acknowledged as one of the world's most successful drug dealers. In 1988, Forbes Magazine included him in their annual list of the world's billionaires.
Early years
José Gonzalo Rodríguez was born in May 1947 in the small Colombian town of PachoPacho
Pacho is a municipality and town of Colombia in the department of Cundinamarca.-External links:...
, Cundinamarca Department
Cundinamarca Department
- Origin of the name :The name of Cundinamarca comes from Kundur marqa, an indigenous expression, probably derived from Quechua. Meaning "Condor's Nest", it was used in pre-Columbian times by the natives of the Magdalena Valley to refer to the nearby highlands....
. He came from a poor family of modest pig farmers, and it is said that his formal education did not extend beyond grade school. As a youth he developed a fearsome reputation while employed as a hired killer for a gangster trying to gain control of Colombia's lucrative emerald
Emerald
Emerald is a variety of the mineral beryl colored green by trace amounts of chromium and sometimes vanadium. Beryl has a hardness of 7.5–8 on the 10 point Mohs scale of mineral hardness...
mines. In the early 1970s,Rodríguez migrated to Bogotá
Bogotá
Bogotá, Distrito Capital , from 1991 to 2000 called Santa Fé de Bogotá, is the capital, and largest city, of Colombia. It is also designated by the national constitution as the capital of the department of Cundinamarca, even though the city of Bogotá now comprises an independent Capital district...
and linked up with Verónica Rivera de Vargas, a pioneering drug trafficker who became the first queen of cocaine by murdering the family of her main rival.
Rise of the Medellín cartel
After moving to MedellínMedellín
Medellín , officially the Municipio de Medellín or Municipality of Medellín, is the second largest city in Colombia. It is in the Aburrá Valley, one of the more northerly of the Andes in South America. It has a population of 2.3 million...
in 1976, Rodríguez joined with the Ochoa
Ochoa
-Surname origins:Ochoa was originally a given name in medieval Spain. It originated in the Basque Country and means 'wolf' . There was also a female given name Ochanda -Surname origins:Ochoa was originally a given name in medieval Spain. It originated in the Basque Country and means 'wolf' (spelled...
family, Pablo Escobar, and Carlos Lehder
Carlos Lehder
Carlos Enrique Lehder Rivas or simply Carlos Lehder is a German-Colombian drug dealer currently imprisoned in the United States, having been co-founder of the Medellín Cartel....
in establishing an alliance that eventually strengthened into what would become known as the Medellín Cartel
Medellín Cartel
The Medellín Cartel was an organized network of "drug suppliers and smugglers" originating in the city of Medellín, Colombia. The drug cartel operated in Colombia, Bolivia, Peru, Central America, the United States, as well as Canada and Europe throughout the 1970s and 1980s. It was founded and...
. The traffickers cooperated in the manufacturing, distribution and marketing of cocaine. During the late 1970s, Rodríguez advanced in the organizational hierarchy, pioneering new trafficking routes through Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
and into the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, primarily Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
and Houston, Texas
Houston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...
. This, coupled with his infatuation with Mexican popular culture, and his fondness for foul language, earned him the nickname El Mexicano (the Mexican
Mexican people
Mexican people refers to all persons from Mexico, a multiethnic country in North America, and/or who identify with the Mexican cultural and/or national identity....
). He owned a string of ranches in the Pacho area with Mexican inspired names such as Cuernavaca
Cuernavaca
Cuernavaca is the capital and largest city of the state of Morelos in Mexico. It was established at the archeological site of Gualupita I by the Olmec, "the mother culture" of Mesoamerica, approximately 3200 years ago...
, Chihuahua, Sonora
Sonora
Sonora officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 72 municipalities; the capital city is Hermosillo....
and Mazatlán
Mazatlán
Mazatlán is a city in the Mexican state of Sinaloa; the surrounding municipio for which the city serves as the municipal seat is Mazatlán Municipality. It is located at on the Pacific coast, across from the southernmost tip of the Baja California peninsula.Mazatlán is a Nahuatl word meaning...
. When he was an owner of the Bogotá
Bogotá
Bogotá, Distrito Capital , from 1991 to 2000 called Santa Fé de Bogotá, is the capital, and largest city, of Colombia. It is also designated by the national constitution as the capital of the department of Cundinamarca, even though the city of Bogotá now comprises an independent Capital district...
Football
Football (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...
Club the Millonarios
Millonarios
Millonarios Fútbol Club is a Colombian football club based in Bogotá. As of 2011, Millonarios shares with rivals América de Cali the most Fútbol Profesional Colombiano championships, 13 in total, although Millonarios haven't won this tournament since 1988. They are also the third Colombian team to...
, he hired a Mexican mariachi
Mariachi
Mariachi is a genre of music that originated in the State of Jalisco, in Mexico. It is an integration of stringed instruments highly influenced by the cultural impacts of the historical development of Western Mexico. Throughout the history of mariachi, musicians have experimented with brass, wind,...
band to perform for the crowd. According to the US Justice Department
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...
, Rodríguez directed cocaine trafficking operations through Panama
Panama
Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...
and the West Coast (California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
) of the United States. It is claimed that he helped design a Nicaraguan
Nicaraguan
Nicaraguans are people inhabiting in, originating or having significant heritage from Nicaragua. Most Nicaraguans live in Nicaragua, although there is also a significant Nicaraguan diaspora, particularly in Costa Rica and the United States with smaller communities in other countries around the world...
trafficking operation that employed pilot Barry Seal
Barry Seal
Adler Berriman Seal , better known as Barry Seal, was a United States drug smuggler and aircraft pilot who flew covert flights for the Central Intelligence Agency and the Medellín Cartel.-Early life:...
(who was murdered on February 19, 1986 after agreeing to testify against the Medellín cartel). Rodríguez based much of his operations from Bogotá and other areas in the Cundinamarca region. It was Gacha who first set up Tranquilandia, one of the largest and best known of the jungle laboratories where more than two thousand people lived and worked making and packaging cocaine. ["The Accountant's Story," by Roberto Escobar]
Assassination of Colombian Minister of Justice Fuels the Extradition Controversy
On April 30, 1984, Colombian Minister of Justice Rodrigo LaraRodrigo Lara Bonilla
Rodrigo Lara Bonilla was a Colombian lawyer and politician, who served as Minister of Justice under President Belisario Betancur, and was assassinated by orders of Pablo Escobar because of his work as Minister in prosecuting cocaine traffickers mainly belonging to the Medellín Cartel.Lara's death...
, who had crusaded against the Medellin cartel, was assassinated by a gang of motorcycle thugs. In response, President Belisario Betancur
Belisario Betancur
Belisario Betancur Cuartas is a Colombian statesman, who as a member of the Colombian Conservative Party was President of Colombia from 1982 to 1986.- Biographic data :...
, who had previously opposed extradition, makes an announcement that "we will extradite Colombians". Carlos Lehder is the first to be put on the list. The crackdown forces the Ochoas, Escobar and Rodríguez to flee to Panama
Panama
Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...
for several months. A few months later, Escobar is indicted for Lara's murder and Rodríguez is named as a material witness
Material witness
A material witness is a person with information alleged to be material concerning a criminal proceeding. The authority to detain material witnesses dates to the First Judiciary Act of 1789, but the Bail Reform Act of 1984 most recently amended the text of the statute, and it is now codified at...
. In an attempt to handle the situation, Escobar, Rodríguez and the Ochoa brothers met with the former Colombian president Alfonso López
Alfonso López Michelsen
Alfonso López Michelsen was a Colombian politician, lawyer and journalist. Lopez Michelsen was President of Colombia from 1974 to 1978. He was the son of Alfonso López Pumarejo, who was also president of Colombia from 1934 to 1938, and once again from 1942 to 1945...
in the Hotel Marriott in Panama City
Panama City
Panama is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Panama. It has a population of 880,691, with a total metro population of 1,272,672, and it is located at the Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal, in the province of the same name. The city is the political and administrative center of the...
. The negotiation failed after news of it leaked to the press, provoking the open opposition of the United States to any impunity deal.
Cartel Linked Paramilitary Groups
ParamilitaryParamilitary
A paramilitary is a force whose function and organization are similar to those of a professional military, but which is not considered part of a state's formal armed forces....
groups (or self-defense groups, autodefensas as they are frequently referred to in Colombia), were created with the support of landowners and cattle ranchers who had been under pressure from the guerrillas as well as from groups affiliated with narcotics traffickers such as the Muerte a Secuestradores
Muerte a Secuestradores
Muerte a Secuestradores or MAS, was a Colombian paramilitary group supported by drug cartels, U.S. corporations, Colombian politicians, and wealthy landowners during the 1980s, in order to protect their economic interests, assassinate political opponents and community organizers, and wage...
movement (MAS – Death to Kidnappers). As made clear in a 2004 judgment of the Inter-American court of Human Rights, numerous independent reports and from what the paramilitaries themselves have said, in at least some cases they were given support by the state itself. The top leaders of the Medellín cartel created private armies to guarantee their own security and protect the property they had acquired. According to The Washington Post, in the mid-1980s, Rodríguez and Pablo Escobar
Pablo Escobar
Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria was a Colombian drug lord. He was an elusive cocaine trafficker and rich and successful criminal. He owned numerous luxury residences, automobiles, and even airplanes...
bought huge tracts of land the Magdalena Department
Magdalena Department
Magdalena is a department of Colombia, located to the north of the country by the Caribbean Sea. The capital of the Magdalena Department is Santa Marta and was named after the Magdalena River...
(as well as Puerto Boyacá
Puerto Boyacá
Puerto Boyacá is a Colombian river-port town and municipality by the Magdalena River in the Boyacá Department, where is also considered a Special Handling Zone due to its port status. Its main industries are oil exploration and processing...
, Rionegro and the Llanos
Llanos
The Llanos is a vast tropical grassland plain situated to the east of the Andes in Colombia and Venezuela, in northwestern South America. It is an ecoregion of the Flooded grasslands and savannas Biome....
) which they used to transform their self-defense groups from poorly trained peasant militias into sophisticated fighting forces. By the late 1980s Medellin traffickers controlled 40 percent of the land in the Middle Magdalena, according to a Colombian military estimate, and also funded most of the paramilitary operations in the region.
Throughout the 1980s Rodríguez helped catalyze the Medellín cartel's explosive rise to power by financing the importation and adoption of expensive foreign technology and expertise. According to the report by the Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad
Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad
The Administrative Department of Security was the Security Service agency of Colombia, also responsible for the immigration services. It was dissolved on 31 October 2011 as part of a wider Executive Reform, and it was superseded by the National Directorate of Intelligence, DNI.- Activities :Its...
(Colombia's Administrative Security Department), between December 1987 and May 1988 Rodríguez hired Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i and British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
mercenaries to train teams of assassins at remote training camps in Colombia. Yair Klein, a retired Israeli lieutenant colonel, acknowledged having led a team of instructors in Puerto Boyacá
Puerto Boyacá
Puerto Boyacá is a Colombian river-port town and municipality by the Magdalena River in the Boyacá Department, where is also considered a Special Handling Zone due to its port status. Its main industries are oil exploration and processing...
in early 1988. It is not clear whether Klein’s mercenary activities in Colombia coincided with those of a group of British mercenaries who had allegedly trained paramlitary squads for the cocaine cartels.
The United States and the War on Drugs
By 1989, the Drug Enforcement AgencyDrug Enforcement Administration
The Drug Enforcement Administration is a federal law enforcement agency under the United States Department of Justice, tasked with combating drug smuggling and use within the United States...
(DEA
Drug Enforcement Administration
The Drug Enforcement Administration is a federal law enforcement agency under the United States Department of Justice, tasked with combating drug smuggling and use within the United States...
) estimated that 80 percent of cocaine
Cocaine
Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system, an appetite suppressant, and a topical anesthetic...
consumed in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
was imported from Colombia by the Medellín cartel and its rival, the Cali Cartel
Cali Cartel
The Cali Cartel was a drug cartel based in southern Colombia, around the city of Cali and the Valle del Cauca Department. The Cali Cartel was founded by the Rodríguez Orejuela brothers, Gilberto and Miguel, as well as associate José Santacruz Londoño...
. The newly elected administration of President George H.W. Bush was under considerable pressure to combat the increasing drug usage and drug-related violence plaguing scores of American cities. Much of the government strategy concentrated on restricting drug supply by extraditing Colombian cartel leaders to the United States for prosecution. On August 21, 1989, Attorney General
Attorney General
In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general, or attorney-general, is the main legal advisor to the government, and in some jurisdictions he or she may also have executive responsibility for law enforcement or responsibility for public prosecutions.The term is used to refer to any person...
Dick Thornburgh
Dick Thornburgh
Richard Lewis "Dick" Thornburgh is an American lawyer and Republican politician who served as the 41st Governor of Pennsylvania from 1979 to 1987, and then as the U.S...
released a list of the twelve Colombian drug kingpins (commonly referred to as the "dirty dozen") most wanted by the United States and said the names would be shared with the Colombian government and Interpol
Interpol
Interpol, whose full name is the International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL, is an organization facilitating international police cooperation...
. The list included Pablo Escobar, Jorge Luis Ochoa, and José Gonzalo Rodríguez,, the leading members of the Medellín cartel.
Financial Crackdown
President Bush declared money launderingMoney laundering
Money laundering is the process of disguising illegal sources of money so that it looks like it came from legal sources. The methods by which money may be laundered are varied and can range in sophistication. Many regulatory and governmental authorities quote estimates each year for the amount...
a critical target in the war on drugs, allocating $15 million to launch a counteroffensive. Only hours after Bush unveiled his antidrug offensive in September 1989, a federal task force began taking shape. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FINCEN) was designed to zero in on money launderers with computer programs capable of spotting suspicious movements of electronic money. On December 6, 1989, Attorney General Dick Thornburgh announced that authorities had frozen accounts in five countries holding $61.8 million belonging to Rodriguez Gacha. According to the Justice Department
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...
, the money represented long-term high-yield stocks
Stocks
Stocks are devices used in the medieval and colonial American times as a form of physical punishment involving public humiliation. The stocks partially immobilized its victims and they were often exposed in a public place such as the site of a market to the scorn of those who passed by...
and investments and was held in bank accounts in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, Luxembourg
Luxembourg
Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...
and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. An additional $20 million of Gacha’s drug money was suddenly transferred to Panama, where it was protected from American authorities.
Rodríguez Gacha's Final Years
During 1989, Rodríguez became involved in an intense and violent power struggle over control of Colombia’s emeraldEmerald
Emerald is a variety of the mineral beryl colored green by trace amounts of chromium and sometimes vanadium. Beryl has a hardness of 7.5–8 on the 10 point Mohs scale of mineral hardness...
mines, which are considered some of the richest in the world. On February 27, 1989, Rodríguez directed a group of 25 gunmen to kill emerald magnate Gilberto Molina
Gilberto Molina
Gilberto Molina was a major Colombian emerald magnate who was intimately connected to the notorious Medellín cartel and widely suspected of involvement in drug trafficking during the 1980s....
, who was previously considered among his close associates, along with sixteen other individuals at a party in Molina's home. El Mexicano was later charged in Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
and the United States for his involvement in a number of killings, including the assassination of the president of the leftist Patriotic Union
Patriotic Union (Colombia)
The Patriotic Union or UP , was a leftist Colombian political party founded by the FARC and the Colombian Communist Party in 1985, as part of the peace negotiations that the guerrillas held with the Conservative Belisario Betancur administration...
party, Jaime Pardo Leal
Jaime Pardo Leal
Jaime Pardo Leal was the candidate of the Patriotic Union for the presidency of Colombia in the 1986 elections.Members of the Patriotic Union became the target of multiple death threats and assassination attempts...
on October 12, 1988 in retaliation for guerrilla attacks on drug traffickers in the eastern plains area known as the "llanos orientales." Both Pablo Escobar and Rodríguez were implicated in the slaying of popular presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galán
Luis Carlos Galán
Luis Carlos Galán Sarmiento was a Colombian journalist and liberal politician who ran for the presidency of Colombia on two occasions, the first time representing the Liberal Party in 1982 which he lost to Belisario Betancur...
on August 18, 1989, who was considered likely to be elected Colombia's next president.
Government Crackdown and Narcoterrorism
In response to a wave of drug-related assassinations, Colombian PresidentPresident
A president is a leader of an organization, company, trade union, university, or country.Etymologically, a president is one who presides, who sits in leadership...
Virgilio Barco launched an all-out offensive on the cocaine cartels and re-established extraditions with the United States. At first, the Colombian public overwhelmingly backed Barco's crackdown, which was announced hours after the assassination of Galán on August 19. The government made quick and unprecedented strides against the traffickers - seizing expensive homes, ranches, airfields, cocaine processing labs and large amounts of cash and drugs. Authorities conducted raids throughout the country and made thousands of arrests. The Medellin cartel responded by declaring "war" on the government,, and over the next four months, bombings became an almost daily occurrence and scores of people died.
By October 1989, public support for the crackdown was beginning to wane and the government decided to focus its attention on capturing either Pablo Escobar or Rodríguez. However, both men managed to stay one step ahead of law enforcement and continued to finance a campaign of retaliatory terrorism
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
which claimed the lives of hundreds of politicians, judges and civilians. Colombian authorities said that Rodriguez Gacha and Pablo Escobar
Pablo Escobar
Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria was a Colombian drug lord. He was an elusive cocaine trafficker and rich and successful criminal. He owned numerous luxury residences, automobiles, and even airplanes...
planned the December 8, 1989 bombing of the federal investigative police headquarters
DAS Building bombing
The DAS Building bombing was a truck bomb attack in Bogotá, Colombia, at 7:30 am on December 6, 1989. The bomb targeted the Administrative Department of Security headquarters....
in Bogotá which killed 63 people and injured an estimated 1,000. The two men were also accused of involvement in the November 27, 1989 bombing of a Avianca Flight 203
Avianca Flight 203
Avianca Airlines Flight 203 was a Colombian domestic passenger flight from El Dorado International Airport in Bogotá to Alfonso Bonilla Aragón International Airport in Cali. It was destroyed by a bomb over the municipality of Soacha on November 27, 1989....
outside Bogotá that killed all 107 people aboard.
Death
The Colombian Government finally caught a break from an unlikely source when Rodríguez Gacha's son Fredy Rodriguez Celades (b. 1972) unwillingly led more than 1,000 Colombian National PoliceColombian National Police
The National Police of Colombia is the national police force of Colombia. Although the National Police is not part of the Military of Colombia , it constitutes along with them the "Public Force" and is also controlled by the Ministry of Defense. They are the largest police force in Colombia...
and Colombian Marines to his father. Fredy was arrested during an army raid of one of Rodriguez Gacha's ranches north of Bogotá. His alleged crime, possession of illegal weapons, was relatively minor, but police held Fredy longer than most unindicted prisoners, hoping to put pressure on Rodríguez.
When no signs of fatherly concern emerged, the police released Fredy and waited. Just as they anticipated, Fredy eventually headed for his father, unaware that police were tailing him. Police spotted José Gonzalo Rodríguez in Cartagena
Cartagena, Colombia
Cartagena de Indias , is a large Caribbean beach resort city on the northern coast of Colombia in the Caribbean Coast Region and capital of Bolívar Department...
and followed the fleeing drug lord to a small ranch in Tolu
Tolú
Tolú is a small town and municipality in Sucre Department, northern Colombia by the Caribbean sea. The municipality has an area of 500 km². The name of Tolú comes from a tree called the Balsam of Tolú....
. On Friday, December 15, 1989, Fredy, Gilberto Rendon (the alleged No. 8 man in the Medellín cartel) and a bodyguard were killed in a bloody shootout with Colombian police. José Gonzalo Rodríguez and three others died as they attempted to escape into the fields between Tolú and nearby Coveñas.
Funeral
Thousands of mourners thronged the streets of the town of PachoPacho
Pacho is a municipality and town of Colombia in the department of Cundinamarca.-External links:...
for Rodriguez Gacha's funeral on Sunday, December 17, 1989. Residents of Pacho said he donated money to renovate buildings, and some viewed him as a public benefactor. About 3,000 people surrounded the cemetery
Cemetery
A cemetery is a place in which dead bodies and cremated remains are buried. The term "cemetery" implies that the land is specifically designated as a burying ground. Cemeteries in the Western world are where the final ceremonies of death are observed...
because access to the funeral was limited to relatives. A newspaper estimated the number of mourners as high as 15,000.