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If the US hadn’t been a huge consumer of cocaine during the 1970’s, would the cartels have been so successful in Colombia? Catchy Intro. – get your listener/viewer’s attention

SIXTY MILLION DOLLARS A DAY

Main Idea The true story of the kidnapping, captivity, and murder or release of a handful of important individuals in Colombia in the early 1990s by the Medellín Cartel. Why? Who was involved? How did it happen? Perspective?

Diana Turbay and four members of her news crew and Hero Buss (German journalist) Mariana Montoya – The Players in the Story Father Rafael García Herreros President César Gaviria Maruja Pachon and Alberto Villamizar General Miguel Maza Márquez Beatriz Villamizar de Guerrero Francisco Santos Calderón, Pablo Escobar The Ochoa brothers El tiempo editor

“ Easy Money, a narcotic more harmful that the ill-named heroic drugs, was injected into the national culture. The idea prospered: The law is the greatest obstacle to happiness; it is a waste of time learning to read and write; you can live a better, more secure life as a criminal than as a law-abiding citizen.” Use quotes from the story

“…a single collective abduction of ten carefully chosen individuals, which had been carried out by the same group and for only one purpose.” Escobar Alberto Villamizar Marta Nieves Nadia Quintero Guido Parra The Ochoas Hernando Santos

The Military Players FARC M-19s los Pepes Paramilitary Delta Force/US Questions to think about: How far are you willing to go to succeed? Who will you get in bed with? Can you always play by the rules or do the rules change? Extraditables Motto : "We prefer a grave in Colombia to a prison the US.“ Their goal: Change the Colombian constitutional law to ban extradition Leaders of the Medellin Cartel: Pablo Escobar Gaviria (“el doctor”) Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha Fabio Ochoa Vásquez “The government wasn’t credible while Escobar had the people believing the lies of the Extraditables more than the truths told by the government.”

In the first two months of 1991, there had been 1200 murders – 20 a day – a massacre every four days. Escobar’s rise to infamy cost the lives of three Colombian presidential candidates, an attorney general, a justice minister, more than 200 judges, dozens of journalists and more than 1,000 police officers. 111 people on an Avianca flight. 2,000 people working in the slums for Escobar hunting down the police. For each dead policeman, 5 million pesos, for each agent 1.5 milllion, and 800,000 for each wounded. Escobar said the violence was the only way to hold the police accountable The people of Medellin knew that not all the Extraditables claims of murder were unfounded because they had seen the evidence on the streets Had to get more control – raids – official of the Prosecutor’s Generals office present Human rights just a smoke screen for a greater plan The city and economy overall seemed to survive the urban terrorism. Innocents were killed, explosions, but many were complacent to the goings on of the drug world; just a part of life in Colombia Noteworthy Facts

1.Victims all released after nine months, two killed 2.Escobar not extradited to the US in Turn himself in, own prison, five year sentence 4.Escobar had negotiated the right to select his own “guards.” He ran his empire from inside La Catedral 5.Order tortures and killings in the “prison”. 6.Plans to move to a real prison 7.Escobar runs – on the run until killed in Dec In the End… Themes: What goes around comes around. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. It all comes down to choices. What I learned in a nutshell: