Word: medellins
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When the elite force that had been hunting Colombia's most notorious drug trafficker for more than 16 months stormed a two-story house last Thursday afternoon in Medellin and shot Pablo Escobar Gaviria dead, the wave of jubilation that swept much of the country began with the raiders themselves. "We won!" they shouted, as they raised their guns over the drug lord's body. Amid all the commotion, few remarked that at the moment he was killed, the man who had spent a year and a half running from the world's largest manhunt wasn't wearing any shoes...
...farcical incarceration near his hometown of Envigado, in a custom-built prison complete with king-size bed, private bath and Jacuzzi. Over the next year, he succeeded dozens of times in eluding the 1,500-man Search Block unit that pursued him by moving clandestinely among his supporters in Medellin and the surrounding countryside. His hiding places included secret rooms carved out between walls, under stairs and underground. Often he cloaked himself in artful guises, dressing as a woman or riding in coffins as a corpse. At least four times, moments before the trap sprang shut, the wily farmer...
...eight members of the Search Block broke into a remote farmhouse two hours outside Medellin. "We were sure we had him surrounded," a police official told the press. But the kingpin melted away at the last minute. His trackers were so close that Escobar was forced to leave behind two briefcases filled with soap, T shirts, blue jeans and dark glasses. There were also letters from his nine-year-old daughter Manuela -- "Dear Papa, I miss you a lot and wish I could see you" -- and his son Juan Pablo, 16. And there was a letter in Escobar's handwriting...
That led Escobar to two fatal mistakes. First, he called a Medellin radio station to complain about the "lack of solidarity by the German government." On Thursday, he dared to phone his family at Room 2908 in the Residencias Tequendama to say, "I'm fine," and advise them to "stay in Bogota for the time being." His wife, Maria Victoria Henao de Escobar, wished him a happy birthday and urged him to be careful. Within 90 minutes the calls had been traced through a scanning operation set up outside Medellin with U.S.-donated equipment. The high-tech equipment pinpointed...
...business trips but also as a base of operations that offers a security they can't find in their own countries. (Even Miami's violent-crime rate pales by comparison with the kidnappings, terrorism and guerrilla warfare that many Latins face in cities like Rio de Janeiro, Medellin or Lima.) "Venezuelans, Brazilians and increasing numbers of Argentines are investing in Miami, developing hotels and purchasing malls," says Suquet. "They are setting up businesses here, buying homes in Coral Gables or Cocoplum, sending their kids to Gulliver Academy or Belen Jesuit Preparatory School...