Only two days had passed since Pablo Escobar’s death when his wife, Victoria Eugenia Henao, and his son learned that together with Manuela, the youngest of the family, they were sentenced to death. An old acquaintance of theirs, Don Fabio Ochoa Restrepo, dedicated to the horse business, arrived at the Tequendama Residences where they lived in Bogotá to tell them the disastrous news: “Fidel Castaño, leader of the Pepes (Persecuted by Pablo Escobar, a paramilitary group formed by the enemies of the most feared Colombian drug trafficker) “He has the order to murder all three of them.”he detailed to them as a warning after having lunch with a banquet of arepas, chorizo beans, chicharrón, egg and ground beef that he brought to share as a treat from his restaurant La Margarita del 8.
Before saying goodbye, as a reflection he added because he knew the character in question well: “Fidel recognizes Pablo as a warrior, but says he made a mistake, having a family”. What in the drug world usually becomes payment when someone believes that they have been betrayed or simply places them on the opposite side of the same business where blood usually flows.
The scene described occurred on December 5, 1993 and was recounted by Juan Pablo Escobar, the son of the man who knew how to terrorize Colombia in the 80s and early 90s in one of his books, “Pablo Escobar My Father, the stories we should not know”, by Editorial Planeta, a work as detailed as it is impressive, where obtained by visiting places, visiting people and collecting data, details that not even he himself knew.
Juan Pablo was barely seventeen years old at the time and he says that faced with such a scenario, he and his mother decided to send a letter to Castaño in which they asked him for their lives, the widow also making it clear that she always asked her husband to He will seek peace with his enemies.
She knew Fidel because at one time he was a friend of her husband and he was also passionate about art like her, capable of traveling to Paris where he had a comfortable apartment where he used to show off works by the most famous artists. It was not unusual for her to travel to Europe only to return the next day just to acquire the painting she had dreamed about the night before.
Victoria was also and continues to be an exquisite and faithful collector. In the famous Monaco Building where she lived and then suffered a cowardly attack with a “car bomb” in which her and her children’s lives were in danger, Pablo’s wife was able to exhibit works by Fernando Botero, Darío Morales, Enrique Grau, Francisco Cano, Claudio Bravo, Salvador Dalí and Auguste Rodin, among other notables.
Castaño, who could be as violent as a gentleman, responded to Victoria Eugenia that he did not hold a grudge against them, and that he had even ordered that paintings be returned to him that the Pepes had opportunely stolen from them, such as Rock and Roll by the Spanish Dalí.
At the same time, while the wives of those who worked for her husband and had been imprisoned asked her for help, enemies continued to appear on her path in search of peace and the survival of herself and her children. Barely had he achieved Fidel Castaño’s forgiveness, another heavy name appeared on his list, that of another powerful drug trafficker, a certain Iván Urdinola, who sent him a message to visit him in the Bogotá Model Prison through Popeye’s girlfriend, Escobar’s faithful lieutenant.
Victoria went alone on the first visit. Then Urdinola wanted Juan Pablo to also attend. And he transmitted a message to them from the members of the Cali Cartel, Pablo’s arch enemies. When he had Escobar’s son face to face, Urdinola expressed to him with an unfriendly face: “You already know who won this war. Now the new boss of bosses is Don Gilberto Rodríguez Orejuela. “He’s going to have to go to Cali even if he doesn’t like it and is panicked, and sit with him and the rest of his people.”
Juan Pablo, still a teenager, with his head bowed and with utmost respect, suggested that doing so would cause him fear: “I fear returning in a bag, I am Pablo’s son”. The drug trafficker did not mess around: “Who do you think you are not to go?” Do you know that the security people assigned to him by the government and justice are waiting for us to give them the order to turn around and kill him? So do yourself a favor and go already if he wants to grow old.”
Shortly after, they received a message from an emissary, for a change another enemy of Pablo Escobar, who told mother and son: “Surviving will have a very high value because each drug capomafia wants to recover more than what they invested in the war to liquidate their father.” . Oh and it will be by hook or by crook, we choose”.
The Rodríguez Orejuelas, Cali bosses, also connected with Alfredo Astado, a relative of Escobar’s widow. Astado wanted to take mother and son to the meeting. Gilberto Rodríguez Orejuela warned him not to bring Juan Pablo to this call: “The young man eats like a duck, walks like a duck, he looks just like Pablo, he should be under his mother’s skirts,” he remarked with contempt.
Miguel Rodríguez Orejuela himself picked up Astado and Victoria Eugenia Henao at one of the hotels where they stayed in Cali. At the meeting there were almost fifty people, the heaviest part of Colombian drug trafficking that could be imagined, all members of the famous Pepes: Miguel and Gilberto Rodríguez Orejuela, Pacho Herrera, Chepe Santacruz, Carlos Castaño, and henchmen of Kiko Moncada and Fernando Galeano, murdered by order of Pablo Escobar.
The widow was told to say what she had to say. And he expressed that he was there looking for peace to save his own life and that of his children because he knew that they wanted to kill them. Miguel Rodríguez Orejuela, who was looking at her with fury, replied very clearly that they wanted to know if she really longed for peace, after having been the wife of that “son of a bitch.” Then she went on to detail what each person present had invested to defend themselves against Pablo and to remove him from this world.
Furthermore, all those present had lost relatives by order of her husband, she knew it, and she had to endure having them loudly review who Paul had ordered killed and how, which turned the meeting into a true hell.
When Carlos Castaño spoke, he was lapidary: “I want you to know, madam, that we were looking for you and your daughter Manuela like a needle in a haystack because we were going to chop them up and send them to Pablo in a sack.” Gilberto Rodríguez Orejuela upped the ante: “Madam, the situation is like this. We can make peace with you and Manuela, not with her son.”
Victoria Eugenia Henao trembled, but he dared to say that if his son was not included that did not mean peace. And she stressed that she vouched for him with her life if that was proof enough for them. Gilberto was not intimidated: “We have a justified fear that her son with money will start to want to take revenge on us. So it is decided, there will be peace, but we are going to kill his son.” Without blinking, Miguel Rodríguez Orejuela immediately billed him for what they considered he owed them: “It’s about 120 million dollars, he has to pay us in cash, so think about how you do it and quickly.”
Pablo’s widow returned to Bogota dejected, emotionally destroyed. Together with his son, they made an inventory of assets, properties, works of art, cars, helicopters, planes, motorcycles, everything that appeared to try to pay so that they would trust his good attitude, and that would allow him to later negotiate. the life of Juan Pablo.
The meetings in Cali followed one another, until one was definitively attended by Juan Pablo Escobar at the age of seventeen, while his mother handed over titles and assets to the enemy drug traffickers.
In his book, Juan Pablo Escobar describes more experiences that are as atrocious as they are moving. And he confesses that he even thought that when he appeared before them they were going to pull out his teeth, eyes and nails and dismember his body into pieces. He already felt like a corpse. He went to Cali with his mother and his uncle, Fernando Henao. He also felt a certain relief because that day, for better or worse, everything would end.
At the meeting, to his surprise, his paternal family appeared, including Pablo’s mother, Doña Hermilda. Miguel Rodríguez Orejuela let mother and son know that their own relatives had betrayed them, that he wanted them to know and suggested that they not give them more money because they were disloyal people.
Brave Juan Pablo felt the impact of the betrayal, but asked to talk about the most important thing, his life, which was at stake and was going to be decided at that moment: “I want to tell you that I have no intention of avenging my father’s death. I just want to leave the country and study. I don’t want to bother anyone here in Colombia. I am very clear that if I want to live I must leave. I learned the lesson that drug trafficking is a curse, that made me lose my father, family, friends, my freedom, my peace of mind, that of my mother and my sister, all our assets. “I am not going to generate violence, I know that revenge is not going to bring my dad back,” she said firmly.
There was a long silence in the large room and then Miguel Rodríguez Orejuela broke the prevailing ice climate by addressing Victoria Eugenia Henao: “We decided that we are going to give your son a chance. We understand that he is a child and should remain one. But you answer with your life for your actions from now on. You have to promise not to let him get off the road.” Pacho Herrera added: “As long as you don’t get involved in drug trafficking, nothing is going to happen to you, your life depends on you.”
The task was not finished, mother and son had saved their lives and those of Manuela, but from then on they had to come face to face with other drug trafficking heavyweights such as Diego Murillo Bejarano alias Berna, and the so-called commander Chaparro, ruthless. paramilitary chief, among others.
They were also forced to endure another torture: listening to Carlos Castaño, another implacable and cruel member of the Pepes who participated in the operation that involved her husband, who told them with viciousness and great detail how they mercilessly massacred him. But that will be another next story.
