Word: colombia
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...either case, Rodriguez Gacha's much told tale of rags to riches ended in gore. Born in Pacho, in central Colombia, the future kingpin ran away from home at ten to embark on a life of street crime. Eventually he was tapped by the then reigning force in Colombia's underworld, the Emerald mob, to serve as bodyguard to its godfather, Gilberto Molina. Recently Rodriguez Gacha tried to elbow Molina out of the profession; that failed, and Rodriguez Gacha had his former employer killed last February...
...many people would be strong enough to just say no? To reject immediate wealth and accept a relentless shadow of violent death? Yet the major did say no, and turned over the data to his superiors. His bravery is only one unsung ballad of honor in Colombia's crusade against its cocaine cowboys. It is also the exception, not the rule...
...country's top narcos -- Gacha, Pablo Escobar Gaviria and the three brothers of Medellin's Ochoa family -- has not gone as well as he or the nation had hoped. Since Mob hit men assassinated presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galan in August and ignited Barco's offensive, the leaders of Colombia's coke cartels have gone into hiding, forfeiting posh estates and bank accounts; some law- enforcement officials believe that the drug princes have even undergone plastic surgery. Nevertheless, Gacha and company remain immensely powerful, with their pipeline to the U.S. merely dented and their profits still enormous...
...Bush Administration professes to be pleased with Bogota's resolve, though officials are studying whether it will be safe enough for the President to attend a drug summit in Colombia early next year. "Barco is an engineer, and so he took a while to make up his mind," says a U.S. official. "But now that he's taken a decision to fight these guys, he's unshakable." But if Barco's campaign is lauded by the politicians in Washington, it has more than its share of deserters among the politicians in Colombia. Aware that the specter of an American jail...
East Germany is faced with the dissolution of party leadership, Czechoslovakia with government paralysis. The turmoil reaches even into the Soviet Union, as Lithuania legalizes political pluralism against Gorbachev's wishes. A TIME symposium explores the future of Europe. The coup's lessons for Corazon Aquino. Colombia's scorecard in its fight against drugs...