WEBVTT - Pablo Escobar's Hostages

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<v Speaker 1>Diversion audio. This episode contains mature content and descriptions of

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<v Speaker 1>violence that may be disturbing for some listeners. Please take

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<v Speaker 1>care in listening. November seventh, nineteen ninety Bogota, Colombia, at

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<v Speaker 1>seven oh five pm, Maruja Pachon de Via Mizar and

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<v Speaker 1>Biatrice Via Misar de Guerrero slide into the backseat of

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<v Speaker 1>their Renault twenty one after work at Fox Scene, the

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<v Speaker 1>state run enterprise for the promotion of the film industry.

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<v Speaker 1>Maruja was an award winning journalist, and she attended to

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<v Speaker 1>all press matters. Since drug traffickers had started randomly kidnapping

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<v Speaker 1>journalists in August, she developed a habit of looking over

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<v Speaker 1>her shoulder wherever she went. As Moduha's sister in law

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<v Speaker 1>and personal assistant, Beatrice had even less reason to be

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<v Speaker 1>suspicious as their new chauffeur navigated through rush hour traffic

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<v Speaker 1>to bring them home for the day. But her intuition

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<v Speaker 1>was right. Eight men were following them. Twenty minutes later,

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<v Speaker 1>and less than two hundred meters from Maruja's family home,

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<v Speaker 1>a stolen yellow cab cut off Moduha's car and hemmed

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<v Speaker 1>it into the left hand curb. Their driver slammed the

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<v Speaker 1>brakes to avoid a wreck. At the same time, a

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<v Speaker 1>Mercedes pulled up behind the car, trapping them all. Three

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<v Speaker 1>armed men approached the car, then five more. Beatrice assumed

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<v Speaker 1>it was a hold up. She pulled two rings off

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<v Speaker 1>her right hand and threw them out the window, but

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<v Speaker 1>money was not what they were After two men opened

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<v Speaker 1>the back doors on each side, and the fifth shot

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<v Speaker 1>their driver in the head with an uzi through a silencer.

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<v Speaker 1>The men separated the women. Bea Trees went into a

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<v Speaker 1>third car, where they made her lie on the floor

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<v Speaker 1>with a filthy smelling jacket over her head. Maruha went

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<v Speaker 1>into the Mercedes in the middle of the back seat

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<v Speaker 1>with a man on either side. They forced her head

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<v Speaker 1>down against her knees so that it was hard to breathe.

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<v Speaker 1>We only want you to deliver a message. One of

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<v Speaker 1>them said, you'll be home in a couple of hours.

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<v Speaker 1>As the car wove through traffic, Maruha, the journalist asked,

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<v Speaker 1>who are you people? Welcome to the greatest true crime

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<v Speaker 1>stories ever told. I'm Mary Kay mcbraer. Today's episode, we're

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<v Speaker 1>calling Pablo Escobar's hostages not just bargaining chips. It's the

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<v Speaker 1>story of Pablo Escobar's eventual surrender, but not how you've

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<v Speaker 1>heard it before. To negotiate his terms, Escobar kidnapped and

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<v Speaker 1>held hostage ten journalists and their teams. In this episode,

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<v Speaker 1>we're following two women's stories, Marujampachon and Diana Torbai. Gabriel

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<v Speaker 1>Garcia Marquez is one of my favorite authors. If you

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<v Speaker 1>know his name, you probably know him from his magical

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<v Speaker 1>realist fiction titles like one Hundred Years of Solitude or

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<v Speaker 1>Love in the Time of Cholera, or my personal favorite

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<v Speaker 1>of Love and Other Demons. Until I got to visit

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<v Speaker 1>Cartagena de Indias in Colombia, I actually didn't know that

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<v Speaker 1>he was a journalist. First, Gabriel or Gabo is the

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<v Speaker 1>name most associated with magical realism, but at the same time,

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<v Speaker 1>starting around nineteen forty eight, when he left Bilgotav for

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<v Speaker 1>Cartagena because of political unrest, he cut his teeth on

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<v Speaker 1>journalism more importantly, or at least more relevantly. I had

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<v Speaker 1>never heard of his book News of a Kidnapping. This

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<v Speaker 1>is one of his significant works of creative nonfiction, and

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<v Speaker 1>it's the one from which this episode takes the bulk

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<v Speaker 1>of its research. I don't think news of a kidnapping

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<v Speaker 1>is super ubiquitous in English translation, at least I've never

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<v Speaker 1>seen it before, so it's unlikely that you'll happen upon

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<v Speaker 1>it on a shelf next to The General and his Labyrinth,

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<v Speaker 1>or The Autumn of the Patriarch, or even his posthumous

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<v Speaker 1>novel released just this year until August. But don't worry,

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<v Speaker 1>we will link to it in the show notes. And

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<v Speaker 1>if you're translator loyal like me, then you can rest

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<v Speaker 1>easy because this book is also translated by the inimitable

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<v Speaker 1>Edith Grossman. I also want to thank you in advance

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<v Speaker 1>for affording me grace when I'm pronouncing these names. I'm

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<v Speaker 1>doing my best and I have practiced, but I'm not

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<v Speaker 1>fluent in Spanish, so thank you for understanding. Frankly, it's

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<v Speaker 1>just like me to pick up a serious work of

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<v Speaker 1>true crime to read on vacation. Most people on a

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<v Speaker 1>rooftop slurping the monata concocos, chit chat with other expats,

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<v Speaker 1>or dance to the throbbing music that you'd have to

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<v Speaker 1>shout over regardless, but you know who you can find

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<v Speaker 1>in the far corner of the pool behind black sunglasses

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<v Speaker 1>and under a sun hat and a bikini too small

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<v Speaker 1>for this advanced stage of pregnancy me and probably since

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<v Speaker 1>you're listening to this, you let me start by saying,

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<v Speaker 1>Colombia in nineteen ninety one is very different politically from

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<v Speaker 1>Colombia in twenty twenty four. In nineteen ninety one, Well,

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<v Speaker 1>that's the stereotypical Colombia you think of when you free associate.

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<v Speaker 1>I'm going to give a very truncated, extra dreamely generalized

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<v Speaker 1>political landscape of nineteen ninety one. If you're listening and

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<v Speaker 1>you're super familiar with the details of this time and place,

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<v Speaker 1>please have mercy, and when you write in to correct me,

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<v Speaker 1>do be nice about it. So when Maruja asked her

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<v Speaker 1>kidnappers in that Mercedes, who are you people, they said,

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<v Speaker 1>we're from M nineteen, I didn't know what that was,

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<v Speaker 1>quick and dirty. M nineteen in nineteen ninety one was

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<v Speaker 1>the former Gorilla Group. In nineteen ninety one, they were legal,

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<v Speaker 1>they were campaigning for seats in the Constituent Assembly and

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<v Speaker 1>had been pardoned in the late nineteen eighties. Very very generally,

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<v Speaker 1>here's how I understand the trajectory of M nineteen. They

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<v Speaker 1>were a gorilla group who rebelled against dictatorship and fraudulent elections.

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<v Speaker 1>When they agreed to demobilize and instead affect changed through

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<v Speaker 1>legal politics, the remaining members were formally pardoned and they

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<v Speaker 1>created a legitimate political party. All that to say, when

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<v Speaker 1>these kidnappers told Maduha, a journalist that they were part

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<v Speaker 1>of M nineteen, she immediately knew they were bullshitting her

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<v Speaker 1>and Maruja again, a journalist, pressed for the truth. She said, seriously,

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<v Speaker 1>are your dealers or gorillas? They said they were gorillas.

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<v Speaker 1>They were lying dealers, coppos or captains. Pretty much everyone

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<v Speaker 1>really who worked for Pablo Escobar was at this time

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<v Speaker 1>part of a group called the extraditibles. So what is

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<v Speaker 1>an extraditible? Bottom line, At the time in nineteen ninety one,

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<v Speaker 1>not anymore. The government was still so full of corruption

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<v Speaker 1>that the drug dealers wanted to be tried in their

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<v Speaker 1>home country. What they didn't want was to be extradited,

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<v Speaker 1>specifically to the United States for crimes committed here, because

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<v Speaker 1>the US was having no mercy. In fact, sentences were

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<v Speaker 1>extraordinarily harsh. One Colombian drug dealer who was extradited in

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<v Speaker 1>nineteen eighty seven received life imprisonment plus one hundred and

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<v Speaker 1>thirty years. The so called extraditibles hid behind the peril

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<v Speaker 1>that their families would face once the actual criminals were

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<v Speaker 1>behind bars. Naturally, the Colombian government was reluctant to grant

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<v Speaker 1>the huge acquiescence of guaranteeing non extradition. They thought Pablo

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<v Speaker 1>Escobar essentially wanted to continue carrying out business as usual,

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<v Speaker 1>but this time with physical protection from the government. The

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<v Speaker 1>new nineteen ninety one Colombian government was knocked down with

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<v Speaker 1>being complicit in grand crimes against humanity, so Pablo started

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<v Speaker 1>taking hostages to get what he wanted. I should mention

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<v Speaker 1>here that extradition to the US was possible at all

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<v Speaker 1>because of a treaty signed under President Julio Cesar Torbai.

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<v Speaker 1>He was in office from nineteen seventy eight to nineteen

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<v Speaker 1>eighty two. Two subsequent presidents continued that treaty. The presidential

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<v Speaker 1>candidate of the New Liberalism Party had Torbain's full support,

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<v Speaker 1>Luis Carlos Galan was leading with sixty percent approval in

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<v Speaker 1>the polls, and then Pablo Escobar tried to take power

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<v Speaker 1>of the New Liberalism party, Galan denounced him in a

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<v Speaker 1>rally and declared a staunch position against drug cartels. The

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<v Speaker 1>cartels assassinated Galan before the end of the presidential race. Okay,

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<v Speaker 1>technically his murder is still unsolved, but I mean they

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<v Speaker 1>all but confessed to his killing. In nineteen eighty nine,

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<v Speaker 1>Goalan's campaign director, Seesar Gaviria came into office. Gavidia defended

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<v Speaker 1>extradition as quote an indispensable tool for strengthening the penal

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<v Speaker 1>system and announced an unprecedented strategy against the drug traffickers

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<v Speaker 1>who surrendered and confessed and they could obtain non extradition

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<v Speaker 1>in return. Sounds fair, right generous even to me. Yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>it wasn't good enough for the extraditibles. Gavidia is the

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<v Speaker 1>president during our story, but I thought it was relevant

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<v Speaker 1>to give you more background slash history on the presidential

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<v Speaker 1>office because when Pablo Escob didn't get his way with

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<v Speaker 1>the extradition clause, he started taking hostages. The first hostage

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<v Speaker 1>was seized on August thirtieth, nineteen ninety. Diana Torbai was

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<v Speaker 1>also an award winning journalist, director of the television news

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<v Speaker 1>program Krypton and of the Boco Ta magazine Oi Oi.

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<v Speaker 1>Diana was also the daughter of former president and leader

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<v Speaker 1>of the Liberal Party, Julio Cesar Torbai. They got Diana

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<v Speaker 1>on a bait and switch. Dianna was supposed to interview

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<v Speaker 1>the former Spanish priest and guerrilla fighter, Yes, priest turned

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<v Speaker 1>guerrilla fighter, Manuel Perez. Her team had their suspicions, but

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<v Speaker 1>nothing could have stopped Diana from trying to engage in

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<v Speaker 1>a dialogue about peace with the leader of the Colombian

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<v Speaker 1>National Liberation Army or the eal IN. He was the

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<v Speaker 1>leader of the second largest gorilla group at the time.

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<v Speaker 1>She and her team of five all drove from Bogota

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<v Speaker 1>to Onda. There, they got in two vehicles and rode

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<v Speaker 1>with the stated guerrillas overnight. Then they waited for a

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<v Speaker 1>landslide to be cleared. The next four hours, Diana and

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<v Speaker 1>the lone woman on the crew rode on horses while

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<v Speaker 1>the men walked through forests. People knew Diana's face even

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<v Speaker 1>in the coffee groves and peaceful valleys. They called out

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<v Speaker 1>to her as she passed. That evening, they dismounted near

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<v Speaker 1>a city that had to be Mediine. It was not

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<v Speaker 1>Yalen territory. The crew continued to Copacabana and entered a

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<v Speaker 1>little house. A masked man told her that the priest

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<v Speaker 1>was waiting, but the women to go first for safety.

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<v Speaker 1>Her cameraman was wary. This supposed guerrilla fighter was wearing

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<v Speaker 1>a rolex and these guys weapons were not gorilla weapons.

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<v Speaker 1>He warned Diana against it, and we all know the

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<v Speaker 1>first role of horror movies is you never split up

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<v Speaker 1>the group. But she couldn't prevent it. After a two

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<v Speaker 1>hour forced march during a storm, she Asusenna Leavanon, who

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<v Speaker 1>was editor in chief and director, and Tuan Vida, who

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<v Speaker 1>was an editor, arrived at the first house, where they

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<v Speaker 1>would be held hostage. By the end of nineteen ninety,

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<v Speaker 1>Escobar and the extra didivals had abducted ten people to

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<v Speaker 1>use his bargaining chips. What the hell was he thinking?

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<v Speaker 1>We'll get into that and much more when we come

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<v Speaker 1>back to recap. The three people were following most closely

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<v Speaker 1>have all been kidnapped. First Diana Torbai, the news show

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<v Speaker 1>and magazine reporter, also the daughter of the former president,

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<v Speaker 1>both a powerful woman in her own right and powerful

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<v Speaker 1>by proxy. Second Maruja, kidnapped three months later, journalist and

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<v Speaker 1>director of press. She was married to Alberto via Meissar,

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<v Speaker 1>campaigning for the Constituent Assembly and writing at the newspaper

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<v Speaker 1>El de'empo. Alberto was a famously tenacious, if not aggressive,

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<v Speaker 1>politician and diplomat. He was a chief ally to President

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<v Speaker 1>Luis Carlos Galan in seeking to limit the power of

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<v Speaker 1>Pablo Escobar. Maruha, too, was both powerful in her own

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<v Speaker 1>right and by proxy. Beatrice via Mussar was Maduha's assistant.

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<v Speaker 1>They'd actually kidnapped her on accident. At the same time,

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<v Speaker 1>Maduha assumed the kidnappers had already let her go because

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<v Speaker 1>she wasn't involved in any press, not really. But when

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<v Speaker 1>they reunited within hours of being abducted, they embraced like

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<v Speaker 1>they had not seen each other in years. They arrived

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<v Speaker 1>to a squalid room with one mattress on the floor

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<v Speaker 1>and two masked guards, and then the main guard, the

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<v Speaker 1>one who was in charge, said he was letting Beatrice go.

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<v Speaker 1>He said, we took you along by mistake. Beatrice said immediately, oh, no,

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<v Speaker 1>I'm staying with Maruha. The guards were genuinely impressed with

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<v Speaker 1>her loyalty. When she asked to use the bathroom, they

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<v Speaker 1>took her down a hallway with a torn nasty cloth

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<v Speaker 1>over her head. The lavatory was tiny and disgusting. When

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<v Speaker 1>she returned, her circumstances had changed. The guards had heard

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<v Speaker 1>on the radio that Beatrice was the sister of Maduha's husband,

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<v Speaker 1>Alberto via Missar, so she too had become a powerful

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<v Speaker 1>hostage to them. We know who you are now, the

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<v Speaker 1>guard said, and we can use you too. The radio

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<v Speaker 1>had also revealed that the police knew their escape route,

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<v Speaker 1>which made the current house dangerous for all of them.

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<v Speaker 1>The kidnappers relocated Maruha and Beatrice in the trunk of

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<v Speaker 1>a third car. They led the women into another small,

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<v Speaker 1>dimly lit room with a mattress on the floor, two guards,

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<v Speaker 1>and a bed in the corner. On the bed was

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<v Speaker 1>Marina Montoya. Maruja and Beatrice knew Marina, and they knew

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<v Speaker 1>she had been kidnapped three months earlier, just after Diana.

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<v Speaker 1>She was thought to be dead, since by all deduction,

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<v Speaker 1>her abduction was a form of vengeance. The unconfirmed story

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<v Speaker 1>was that Marina's brother, the Secretary General, had agreed to

0:18:25.119 --> 0:18:29.920
<v Speaker 1>negotiate terms that the government had not fulfilled. In other words,

0:18:30.400 --> 0:18:35.520
<v Speaker 1>Marina was not a bargaining chip. The common theory was

0:18:35.520 --> 0:18:41.280
<v Speaker 1>that she had been kidnapped only to execute. Marina was

0:18:41.320 --> 0:18:44.359
<v Speaker 1>in a bad condition. She was a skeleton and her

0:18:44.400 --> 0:18:47.080
<v Speaker 1>white hair hung limp where she lay on the bed.

0:18:47.960 --> 0:18:52.240
<v Speaker 1>She was alive, she did not move. Marina was sixty

0:18:52.280 --> 0:18:55.000
<v Speaker 1>four years old, and she was renowned for her beauty,

0:18:55.560 --> 0:19:00.840
<v Speaker 1>especially her beautifully groomed hands and fingernails. This person was

0:19:00.880 --> 0:19:05.159
<v Speaker 1>not how they remembered her. It didn't take long for

0:19:05.280 --> 0:19:10.760
<v Speaker 1>Maruha and Beatrice to understand what sent Marina into decline.

0:19:10.800 --> 0:19:13.680
<v Speaker 1>The rules of the captivity were harsher than those of

0:19:13.760 --> 0:19:17.920
<v Speaker 1>a prison. They could only speak if urgent, and even

0:19:18.000 --> 0:19:20.800
<v Speaker 1>then only in a whisper. They could not get off

0:19:20.880 --> 0:19:24.000
<v Speaker 1>the mattress they had to share. The room was hardly

0:19:24.040 --> 0:19:27.320
<v Speaker 1>lit at all, and it had no ventilation, so it

0:19:27.359 --> 0:19:30.480
<v Speaker 1>was hard to breathe in the heat and stench. In

0:19:30.560 --> 0:19:34.440
<v Speaker 1>the night, the room turned freezing and the walls dripped water.

0:19:35.280 --> 0:19:39.640
<v Speaker 1>Their clothes were confiscated and replaced with two sweatsuits. They

0:19:39.680 --> 0:19:42.480
<v Speaker 1>had to ask permission from the two guards for everything

0:19:42.520 --> 0:19:47.400
<v Speaker 1>they needed, from sitting up to speaking to smoking. Maruha

0:19:47.480 --> 0:19:51.200
<v Speaker 1>even got death threats for snoring in her sleep. They

0:19:51.240 --> 0:19:54.720
<v Speaker 1>did however, have a television and it was always set

0:19:54.760 --> 0:19:58.480
<v Speaker 1>to one new station or another. Alberta Villa. Mussar was

0:19:58.560 --> 0:20:01.840
<v Speaker 1>on news shows eight times in the first two days,

0:20:02.560 --> 0:20:06.560
<v Speaker 1>hoping Maruha and Viatrice would hear him. Plus nearly all

0:20:06.600 --> 0:20:09.920
<v Speaker 1>of Maruja's six children worked in the media, and they

0:20:10.000 --> 0:20:20.360
<v Speaker 1>used their resources to communicate to her. It was unquestionably

0:20:20.520 --> 0:20:24.240
<v Speaker 1>awful for all the hostages, but I was surprised to

0:20:24.320 --> 0:20:28.639
<v Speaker 1>learn that after weeks of captivity, the hostages realized that

0:20:28.680 --> 0:20:34.480
<v Speaker 1>their guards were also kind of hostages. The guards were

0:20:34.480 --> 0:20:40.440
<v Speaker 1>the worst part of the captivity. They were boys, young, uneducated, brutal,

0:20:40.520 --> 0:20:44.160
<v Speaker 1>and volatile. They worked in pairs for twelve hour shifts

0:20:44.480 --> 0:20:49.639
<v Speaker 1>with their submachine guns ready. Marquez says in News of

0:20:49.680 --> 0:20:55.680
<v Speaker 1>a kidnapping quote, the boy's common condition was absolute fatalism.

0:20:55.920 --> 0:20:58.960
<v Speaker 1>They knew they were going to die young. They accepted

0:20:59.320 --> 0:21:03.200
<v Speaker 1>and cared only about living for the moment. They made

0:21:03.240 --> 0:21:07.520
<v Speaker 1>excuses to themselves for their reprehensible work. It meant helping

0:21:07.560 --> 0:21:12.679
<v Speaker 1>the family, buying nice clothes, having motorcycles, and insuring the

0:21:12.720 --> 0:21:16.040
<v Speaker 1>happiness of their mothers, whom they adored above all else

0:21:16.080 --> 0:21:18.840
<v Speaker 1>in the world, and for whose sakes they were willing

0:21:18.920 --> 0:21:23.680
<v Speaker 1>to die, never mind that a mother would never ever

0:21:24.080 --> 0:21:27.600
<v Speaker 1>make that decision for her child. It didn't seem much

0:21:27.680 --> 0:21:36.760
<v Speaker 1>like any of them had choices, though the guards had

0:21:36.840 --> 0:21:42.879
<v Speaker 1>names that suited their personalities, Monk Spots or the scariest one,

0:21:43.000 --> 0:21:47.000
<v Speaker 1>the one who flirted with Marina and hated Maruja. Barabas

0:21:48.280 --> 0:21:50.720
<v Speaker 1>One was afraid the Extra Didivils would kill him when

0:21:50.720 --> 0:21:54.600
<v Speaker 1>they no longer needed him, just as a precaution in

0:21:54.640 --> 0:21:58.840
<v Speaker 1>case he wanted to tell some of their secrets. Between

0:21:58.920 --> 0:22:02.800
<v Speaker 1>late November and December seventeenth, the government worked hard and

0:22:02.880 --> 0:22:06.480
<v Speaker 1>in secret to revise the extradition treaty and get the

0:22:06.520 --> 0:22:11.439
<v Speaker 1>hostages freed. During that time, I think as a gesture

0:22:11.480 --> 0:22:15.879
<v Speaker 1>of good faith, the Extra Diitibles released four hostages. That

0:22:16.080 --> 0:22:20.919
<v Speaker 1>meant they still held six. Three were together, Maruja, Beatrice

0:22:21.040 --> 0:22:24.679
<v Speaker 1>and Marina. Maruja thought the Extra Diitibles were burning all

0:22:24.720 --> 0:22:28.240
<v Speaker 1>the low cards. Only the bargaining chips were still being

0:22:28.280 --> 0:22:34.400
<v Speaker 1>held and Marina, and then in a different location there

0:22:34.520 --> 0:22:41.040
<v Speaker 1>was Diana Torbai and Richard Basseera. The last detained alone

0:22:41.520 --> 0:22:47.119
<v Speaker 1>was Paco Santos. Christmas came and went. Their spirits sank

0:22:47.640 --> 0:22:51.320
<v Speaker 1>when the captors of Maruja, Beatrice, and Marina, including the

0:22:51.400 --> 0:22:54.639
<v Speaker 1>family whose house they were held in, insisted on a

0:22:54.680 --> 0:22:58.480
<v Speaker 1>big New Year's Eve celebration. The hostages didn't really know

0:22:58.520 --> 0:23:02.320
<v Speaker 1>what to do with that. Then, sometime in January, one

0:23:02.359 --> 0:23:05.520
<v Speaker 1>of the guards burst into Pacho Santo's room and said,

0:23:05.920 --> 0:23:08.399
<v Speaker 1>it's all fucked up. They're going to kill the hostages.

0:23:09.680 --> 0:23:13.840
<v Speaker 1>He explained that first they would kill Mariina Montoya every

0:23:13.880 --> 0:23:20.640
<v Speaker 1>three days, another in this order, Richard Bassea, Beatrice, Maruja,

0:23:20.960 --> 0:23:24.800
<v Speaker 1>and then Diana. The guard told Pacho he would be last.

0:23:25.720 --> 0:23:29.399
<v Speaker 1>He said, but don't worry. This government can't stomach more

0:23:29.440 --> 0:23:34.639
<v Speaker 1>than two dead bodies. In reality, Pacho was the first

0:23:34.680 --> 0:23:38.119
<v Speaker 1>on the list for some reason, though his sentence was

0:23:38.160 --> 0:23:55.720
<v Speaker 1>not carried out. January twenty third, Madina's favorite guard, Monk,

0:23:56.200 --> 0:23:59.040
<v Speaker 1>came into the room. We came to take Granny to

0:23:59.160 --> 0:24:03.520
<v Speaker 1>another house, said Maduha asked, outright, are you going to

0:24:03.600 --> 0:24:07.000
<v Speaker 1>kill her? Monk was so upset by the question that

0:24:07.040 --> 0:24:13.200
<v Speaker 1>he disconnected the TV and radio and confiscated them. Medina said,

0:24:13.600 --> 0:24:18.280
<v Speaker 1>who knows, maybe they're going to release me. Maduha and

0:24:18.280 --> 0:24:22.160
<v Speaker 1>Beatrice decided the kindest thing to do was to agree

0:24:22.440 --> 0:24:27.080
<v Speaker 1>but they knew better. After they took Manina away, they

0:24:27.119 --> 0:24:30.880
<v Speaker 1>realized the TV and radio had been taken to keep

0:24:30.920 --> 0:24:34.960
<v Speaker 1>them from knowing how the night ended. This part of

0:24:35.000 --> 0:24:40.280
<v Speaker 1>the story is the saddest part of the story. Medina's

0:24:40.280 --> 0:24:43.480
<v Speaker 1>body was found the next morning in an empty lot

0:24:43.760 --> 0:24:47.879
<v Speaker 1>north of Bokotah. The corpse wore a hood that obscured

0:24:47.880 --> 0:24:51.639
<v Speaker 1>her vision, and there were six entrance and exit wounds

0:24:51.680 --> 0:25:10.600
<v Speaker 1>in her skull, which she never saw coming. Because of

0:25:10.640 --> 0:25:14.440
<v Speaker 1>the crazy number of unidentified bodies in Bogota at the time,

0:25:15.160 --> 0:25:18.120
<v Speaker 1>the Jane Doe was dumped in a common grave after

0:25:18.160 --> 0:25:22.360
<v Speaker 1>the autopsy, but one of the pathologists who had performed

0:25:22.359 --> 0:25:26.399
<v Speaker 1>the autopsy believed quote the corpse of the lady with

0:25:26.480 --> 0:25:29.960
<v Speaker 1>the fine clothes and the impeccable nails was in fact

0:25:30.080 --> 0:25:34.360
<v Speaker 1>Marina Montoya. He was correct as soon as her identity

0:25:34.400 --> 0:25:38.000
<v Speaker 1>was established. However, someone claiming to be from the Justice

0:25:38.040 --> 0:25:42.679
<v Speaker 1>Ministry called the Institute of Forensic Medicine, urging them not

0:25:42.800 --> 0:25:45.480
<v Speaker 1>to reveal that the body was in a mass grave.

0:25:46.520 --> 0:25:50.639
<v Speaker 1>It was bad. Pr officials had a hard time locating

0:25:50.680 --> 0:25:55.040
<v Speaker 1>the body when Mariina's son came to identify her. When

0:25:55.080 --> 0:25:59.040
<v Speaker 1>they did, she was difficult to recognize because the wounds

0:25:59.160 --> 0:26:04.240
<v Speaker 1>had so disfigured her face. Several days had passed between

0:26:04.280 --> 0:26:09.320
<v Speaker 1>Manina's death and the public awareness of her death. On

0:26:09.440 --> 0:26:15.280
<v Speaker 1>January twenty fifth, two days after Manina's death but before

0:26:15.720 --> 0:26:19.560
<v Speaker 1>its discovery, a guard burst into the house where Diana

0:26:19.560 --> 0:26:24.199
<v Speaker 1>Torbay and Richard Berrera were held hostage. He shouted the

0:26:24.320 --> 0:26:29.040
<v Speaker 1>law is all over us. Dianna and Richard started getting

0:26:29.080 --> 0:26:32.919
<v Speaker 1>ready to leave. The kidnappers gave them white hats so

0:26:32.960 --> 0:26:35.840
<v Speaker 1>that from the helicopters above they would look like innocent

0:26:35.880 --> 0:26:40.680
<v Speaker 1>composinos or local farmers. They further disguised the hostages by

0:26:40.680 --> 0:26:43.960
<v Speaker 1>throwing a black shawl over Dianna and putting Richard in

0:26:44.000 --> 0:26:48.600
<v Speaker 1>a leather jacket. Then the guards literally told them to

0:26:48.720 --> 0:26:57.359
<v Speaker 1>run for the hills. This is the shootout. Remember, current

0:26:57.440 --> 0:27:02.200
<v Speaker 1>President Gavida promised that no armed rescue mission would take place,

0:27:02.760 --> 0:27:07.760
<v Speaker 1>and definitely not without permission from the families. Dianna and

0:27:07.840 --> 0:27:10.879
<v Speaker 1>Richard tried to sprint up the hill, but after months

0:27:10.880 --> 0:27:14.840
<v Speaker 1>in captivity, they both gave out fast nearly as soon

0:27:14.880 --> 0:27:18.359
<v Speaker 1>as the helicopters were in sight. Richard threw himself to

0:27:18.400 --> 0:27:21.840
<v Speaker 1>the ground at the first sound of gunfire, and then

0:27:21.920 --> 0:27:27.040
<v Speaker 1>Dianna fell face down beside him. They killed me. She screamed,

0:27:27.359 --> 0:27:31.160
<v Speaker 1>I can't move my legs. She asked Richard to look

0:27:31.160 --> 0:27:33.600
<v Speaker 1>at her back because she had felt something like an

0:27:33.600 --> 0:27:37.800
<v Speaker 1>electric shock before she fell. He saw just above her

0:27:37.880 --> 0:28:01.160
<v Speaker 1>left hip bone a clean, tiny hole with no blood.

0:28:02.560 --> 0:28:05.399
<v Speaker 1>The Elite Corps was approaching, though they didn't know that

0:28:05.520 --> 0:28:08.320
<v Speaker 1>at the time. They were the front line troops in

0:28:08.359 --> 0:28:12.439
<v Speaker 1>the battle against drug trafficking two years earlier, two members

0:28:12.440 --> 0:28:15.399
<v Speaker 1>of the Elite Corps approached Richard and Diana lying on

0:28:15.440 --> 0:28:22.360
<v Speaker 1>the hillside. Guns raised. Where's Pablo, they asked. Richard explained

0:28:22.359 --> 0:28:25.680
<v Speaker 1>who they were, showed his id and with the help

0:28:25.720 --> 0:28:28.800
<v Speaker 1>of some actual compass, he knows the local farmers who

0:28:28.800 --> 0:28:31.600
<v Speaker 1>had taken cover in the underbrush. They got Diana to

0:28:31.640 --> 0:28:37.879
<v Speaker 1>a helicopter. A military source called former President Torbai and

0:28:37.960 --> 0:28:41.160
<v Speaker 1>told him that Diana had been rescued in Mediyanne. He

0:28:41.320 --> 0:28:44.960
<v Speaker 1>was overjoyed, and he tried to contact Diana's mother, Nitia

0:28:45.240 --> 0:28:50.080
<v Speaker 1>to inform her as well. Nydia, by the way, was

0:28:50.200 --> 0:28:53.480
<v Speaker 1>also a hot shot reporter with her own television show

0:28:53.760 --> 0:28:59.560
<v Speaker 1>who was also extremely connected. President Torbay dispatched his chief

0:28:59.560 --> 0:29:03.000
<v Speaker 1>bodyguard to drive to Nydia to tell her the good news,

0:29:03.840 --> 0:29:07.480
<v Speaker 1>but she was having none of it. The latest report

0:29:07.560 --> 0:29:11.160
<v Speaker 1>said that Diana was in intensive care, but she believed

0:29:11.200 --> 0:29:14.040
<v Speaker 1>her own instincts over the news, and she called the

0:29:14.080 --> 0:29:18.760
<v Speaker 1>President straightway. They killed Diana, she told him, and it's

0:29:18.800 --> 0:29:22.040
<v Speaker 1>your doing, it's your fault, and it's what comes of

0:29:22.120 --> 0:29:26.400
<v Speaker 1>having a soul of stone. He corrected her that Diana

0:29:26.480 --> 0:29:33.200
<v Speaker 1>was alive. She rejected his news. He asked, how do

0:29:33.240 --> 0:29:37.880
<v Speaker 1>you know that, She said, because I'm her mother and

0:29:37.960 --> 0:29:55.680
<v Speaker 1>my heart tells me so. An hour later, news arrived

0:29:55.680 --> 0:29:59.480
<v Speaker 1>that Diana had bled to death despite hours of medical intervention.

0:30:01.160 --> 0:30:06.200
<v Speaker 1>It was a hopeless case. A high velocity, medium caliber

0:30:06.280 --> 0:30:10.240
<v Speaker 1>explosive bullet had shattered her spinal column at the waist.

0:30:11.600 --> 0:30:15.560
<v Speaker 1>As I mentioned before, her mother, Nydia, was also a

0:30:15.600 --> 0:30:19.120
<v Speaker 1>formidable woman. She went to see Diana at the hospital,

0:30:19.600 --> 0:30:22.600
<v Speaker 1>and even in her grief and despair, she held a

0:30:22.640 --> 0:30:27.360
<v Speaker 1>press conference right outside the operating room. She told the

0:30:27.440 --> 0:30:30.840
<v Speaker 1>press a detailed account of the appeals that she and

0:30:30.880 --> 0:30:34.360
<v Speaker 1>the Torbis had made to the President about not attempting

0:30:34.400 --> 0:30:38.200
<v Speaker 1>a rescue. When the criminals panicked from being under attack,

0:30:38.760 --> 0:30:44.040
<v Speaker 1>they might do anything, even on accident. Many of Escobar's

0:30:44.040 --> 0:30:49.160
<v Speaker 1>recruits were kids, after all, and she blamed both the

0:30:49.200 --> 0:30:53.560
<v Speaker 1>stupidity and criminality of the extra diibles. She also said

0:30:53.680 --> 0:30:57.120
<v Speaker 1>that the government and the president were equally culpable for

0:30:57.240 --> 0:31:01.600
<v Speaker 1>ignoring their requests for the safety of the hostages. The

0:31:01.680 --> 0:31:06.280
<v Speaker 1>media quoted her a verbatim, public opinions solidified in her support,

0:31:06.680 --> 0:31:18.640
<v Speaker 1>and the public became indignant with the government. President Gavidia

0:31:18.760 --> 0:31:22.320
<v Speaker 1>wanted to issue a denial of Lydia's statement, but then

0:31:22.320 --> 0:31:25.440
<v Speaker 1>he thought better of it. You cannot argue with the

0:31:25.480 --> 0:31:29.720
<v Speaker 1>mother's grief. He said instead that they would go to

0:31:29.760 --> 0:31:35.120
<v Speaker 1>the funeral, the president and the entire government. They did,

0:31:35.800 --> 0:31:38.680
<v Speaker 1>and after the morning, Nydia went to his office and

0:31:38.720 --> 0:31:41.360
<v Speaker 1>got straight to the point. She said that she was

0:31:41.360 --> 0:31:46.280
<v Speaker 1>wrong for accusing him because now she knew he had

0:31:46.320 --> 0:31:56.240
<v Speaker 1>not been aware of it. In case you missed it,

0:31:56.760 --> 0:32:01.360
<v Speaker 1>this woman, this journalist grieving her murdered daughter. Her both

0:32:01.880 --> 0:32:05.400
<v Speaker 1>apologized to the president for accusing him of her daughter's death,

0:32:05.920 --> 0:32:09.680
<v Speaker 1>and then said she wasn't mad at him anymore because he,

0:32:10.280 --> 0:32:15.000
<v Speaker 1>the president, didn't know what his own military was doing.

0:32:16.080 --> 0:32:21.239
<v Speaker 1>Just incredible. Nydia had learned that the mission's purpose had

0:32:21.280 --> 0:32:25.360
<v Speaker 1>been to liberate the hostages, not to find Pablo Escobar,

0:32:26.080 --> 0:32:29.800
<v Speaker 1>which is what the president had been told. The military

0:32:29.880 --> 0:32:33.840
<v Speaker 1>had tortured a captive guard until he revealed the hostage's location.

0:32:35.080 --> 0:32:38.959
<v Speaker 1>Nydia told President Gavinia all of this, in addition to

0:32:39.000 --> 0:32:42.040
<v Speaker 1>the fact that the guard had been killed in the operation.

0:32:43.160 --> 0:32:46.840
<v Speaker 1>I'm not sure how she knew this honestly, but sometimes

0:32:46.920 --> 0:32:49.600
<v Speaker 1>journalists are able to procure a fuller picture of an

0:32:49.600 --> 0:32:54.320
<v Speaker 1>objective truth, at least more able than a powerful political figure,

0:32:54.480 --> 0:32:56.880
<v Speaker 1>if only for the reason that journalists can get straight

0:32:56.880 --> 0:33:08.520
<v Speaker 1>answers from more people without them fearing blowback. It's also

0:33:08.640 --> 0:33:13.400
<v Speaker 1>unsurprising that the official version of events was directly contradicted

0:33:13.480 --> 0:33:18.800
<v Speaker 1>by the extra didibles. Although Gavidia launched a full investigation

0:33:19.000 --> 0:33:22.880
<v Speaker 1>into the mission that ended in Diana Torbay's death, there

0:33:22.960 --> 0:33:27.640
<v Speaker 1>was no undoing it. The official statement given by police

0:33:27.720 --> 0:33:31.560
<v Speaker 1>almost immediately after, which seems to be consistent with Richard

0:33:31.600 --> 0:33:35.200
<v Speaker 1>Beretta's testimony, is that Diana was shot by one of

0:33:35.240 --> 0:33:44.960
<v Speaker 1>the kidnappers as they were fleeing. Escobar spun that story.

0:33:45.640 --> 0:33:48.120
<v Speaker 1>He actually agreed with the points that Nydia made to

0:33:48.160 --> 0:33:52.080
<v Speaker 1>the president. Escobar said that police had carried out the

0:33:52.160 --> 0:33:55.920
<v Speaker 1>raid knowing that the hostages were there, and they knew

0:33:55.960 --> 0:33:59.480
<v Speaker 1>that because they had arrested and tortured two of his men,

0:34:00.080 --> 0:34:02.560
<v Speaker 1>one of whom had guided the officers to the location

0:34:02.720 --> 0:34:07.840
<v Speaker 1>from a helicopter. He said that Diana was killed when

0:34:07.880 --> 0:34:11.040
<v Speaker 1>she had already been released, and that she'd been shot

0:34:11.040 --> 0:34:16.239
<v Speaker 1>by police. He also said that three bystanding compasinos had

0:34:16.280 --> 0:34:21.319
<v Speaker 1>been killed, while police identified the dead as criminals. It

0:34:21.440 --> 0:34:24.719
<v Speaker 1>makes perfect sense that each side would pin the culpability

0:34:24.760 --> 0:34:33.760
<v Speaker 1>on the other, but there are a couple other things

0:34:33.800 --> 0:34:42.680
<v Speaker 1>to consider. Richard Bassetta was there for all of it.

0:34:43.400 --> 0:34:47.760
<v Speaker 1>His statement said that Diana's death was accidental, accidental, of course,

0:34:47.800 --> 0:34:50.840
<v Speaker 1>with the full full knowledge that a bunch of dudes

0:34:50.920 --> 0:34:54.160
<v Speaker 1>armed with submachine guns running up a hill had clear

0:34:54.200 --> 0:34:58.400
<v Speaker 1>intention of firing them at someone. What's not clear is

0:34:58.480 --> 0:35:02.160
<v Speaker 1>who shot Diana or whether they meant to shoot her.

0:35:03.080 --> 0:35:06.400
<v Speaker 1>At least there was no conclusive evidence to prove that

0:35:06.480 --> 0:35:14.880
<v Speaker 1>it was intentional. Most people supported this soul eyewitness testimony,

0:35:15.480 --> 0:35:18.760
<v Speaker 1>but listener, you and I know that he was also

0:35:19.040 --> 0:35:24.520
<v Speaker 1>under extreme stress at the time. I would never say

0:35:24.640 --> 0:35:28.640
<v Speaker 1>that he was outright lying, but is it possible that

0:35:28.719 --> 0:35:33.640
<v Speaker 1>he misremembered some details. Sure could he have been paying

0:35:33.640 --> 0:35:37.600
<v Speaker 1>more attention to his critically injured colleague than trying to

0:35:37.640 --> 0:35:42.560
<v Speaker 1>identify where the shots originated? I think so. He also

0:35:42.600 --> 0:35:44.680
<v Speaker 1>said that the members of the Elite Corps who came

0:35:44.800 --> 0:35:48.799
<v Speaker 1>upon him and Deanna asked him where's Pablo? They did

0:35:48.800 --> 0:35:53.000
<v Speaker 1>not ask, are you Richard Bessea? So the intent of

0:35:53.040 --> 0:36:10.839
<v Speaker 1>the mission that's unclear too. Not long after Marina Montoya's

0:36:10.880 --> 0:36:16.239
<v Speaker 1>body was identified, it surprised everyone. The public thought she

0:36:16.320 --> 0:36:21.000
<v Speaker 1>had been executed long ago. And not long after that,

0:36:21.760 --> 0:36:26.160
<v Speaker 1>on January twenty ninth, Decree three to three was issued.

0:36:27.239 --> 0:36:30.560
<v Speaker 1>It cleared all the obstacles that had interfered with the

0:36:30.640 --> 0:36:36.560
<v Speaker 1>drug traffickers surrender. Extradition was not granted for political crimes,

0:36:37.080 --> 0:36:41.919
<v Speaker 1>not for any native born Colombians. The government was never

0:36:41.960 --> 0:36:45.239
<v Speaker 1>able to shake the public belief that the issuance was

0:36:45.320 --> 0:36:51.040
<v Speaker 1>quote an active contrition of Dianna's death. I tend to agree,

0:36:51.200 --> 0:36:55.960
<v Speaker 1>since extradition was re established in a constitutional amendment in

0:36:56.040 --> 0:37:10.360
<v Speaker 1>nineteen ninety seven for the Torbai family, Dianna's parents, her siblings,

0:37:10.600 --> 0:37:15.200
<v Speaker 1>her husband, and her children, that decree was too little

0:37:15.280 --> 0:37:19.239
<v Speaker 1>and too late, but it made a huge difference for

0:37:19.280 --> 0:37:24.840
<v Speaker 1>their remaining hostages. The extraditibles immediately released a statement announcing

0:37:24.880 --> 0:37:30.840
<v Speaker 1>that they canceled the remaining executions. Maruja and Beatrice knew

0:37:30.840 --> 0:37:34.520
<v Speaker 1>nothing about any of those news breaks. They hadn't had

0:37:34.560 --> 0:37:37.840
<v Speaker 1>access to any form of news. They had no idea

0:37:37.960 --> 0:37:41.040
<v Speaker 1>that some hostages had been released, and they had no

0:37:41.120 --> 0:37:44.640
<v Speaker 1>idea that some of them, including their friend Marina, had

0:37:44.680 --> 0:37:50.040
<v Speaker 1>been killed. Once they even had an opportunity to escape,

0:37:50.640 --> 0:37:52.880
<v Speaker 1>one of the guards had a heart attack and dropped

0:37:52.880 --> 0:37:58.040
<v Speaker 1>his weapon. Both Maruja and Beatrice had military training. Beatrice

0:37:58.080 --> 0:38:02.400
<v Speaker 1>had even taken special Artillery Corps, but they had everything

0:38:02.480 --> 0:38:07.279
<v Speaker 1>to lose. On February second, the woman who kept the

0:38:07.280 --> 0:38:10.759
<v Speaker 1>house where they were captive told them that two hostages

0:38:10.800 --> 0:38:15.799
<v Speaker 1>would be released. Maruja and Beatrice were wary. They had

0:38:15.840 --> 0:38:19.439
<v Speaker 1>heard this before, but the woman was so sure she'd

0:38:19.480 --> 0:38:22.520
<v Speaker 1>already bought them new makeup and razors in preparation for

0:38:22.560 --> 0:38:28.160
<v Speaker 1>their release. It happened on February seventh, but only Beatrice

0:38:28.280 --> 0:38:31.319
<v Speaker 1>was released. The guards told Maruja she would have to

0:38:31.320 --> 0:38:36.719
<v Speaker 1>wait another week, and Maruja was pissed. Happy for her

0:38:36.760 --> 0:38:39.720
<v Speaker 1>sister in law, of course, but angry at her husband.

0:38:40.280 --> 0:38:44.080
<v Speaker 1>Why had he not negotiated for her release too. She

0:38:44.160 --> 0:38:45.840
<v Speaker 1>knew he would have to be a part of the

0:38:45.880 --> 0:38:49.920
<v Speaker 1>hostage negotiation, not only because of his professional position as

0:38:50.000 --> 0:38:54.120
<v Speaker 1>political diplomat with the Mediine cartel even before they were kidnapped,

0:38:54.440 --> 0:38:57.640
<v Speaker 1>but also because he was very closely related to both

0:38:57.680 --> 0:39:02.040
<v Speaker 1>of them. They discussed the story via Trice would need

0:39:02.080 --> 0:39:06.840
<v Speaker 1>to tell Alberto, specifically how to navigate the details around

0:39:06.880 --> 0:39:24.719
<v Speaker 1>Alberto's impulsive nature so that they protected everyone's safety. The

0:39:24.760 --> 0:39:28.960
<v Speaker 1>bosses gave Beatrice ten minutes to get ready. Maduha helped her.

0:39:29.600 --> 0:39:32.600
<v Speaker 1>It had been three months since either of them had

0:39:32.600 --> 0:39:39.239
<v Speaker 1>seen their own reflections, and they were appalled they were ashen, underweight,

0:39:39.520 --> 0:39:43.879
<v Speaker 1>with limp untinded hair. Beatrice tried to make herself up,

0:39:44.000 --> 0:39:47.120
<v Speaker 1>and Maruja stopped her, saying, as pale as you are,

0:39:47.200 --> 0:39:49.920
<v Speaker 1>you'll look awful if you put that on. That is

0:39:49.960 --> 0:39:54.680
<v Speaker 1>a real friend notifying you about a wardrobe malfunction. Before

0:39:54.920 --> 0:39:59.279
<v Speaker 1>you get out of the house. The bosses blindfolded Beatrice

0:39:59.360 --> 0:40:01.440
<v Speaker 1>and had her life down on the floor of a jeep.

0:40:02.040 --> 0:40:05.480
<v Speaker 1>They dropped her off in Normandya with a bill in

0:40:05.520 --> 0:40:08.600
<v Speaker 1>her hand. For the first cab she saw. If you

0:40:08.719 --> 0:40:12.560
<v Speaker 1>tell the press. You are with Donia Marina Montoya. We'll

0:40:12.680 --> 0:40:18.400
<v Speaker 1>kill Maruja, they said. A cab pulled up immediately, and

0:40:18.440 --> 0:40:21.400
<v Speaker 1>she realized later that this driver was also a plant.

0:40:22.320 --> 0:40:24.560
<v Speaker 1>He asked where she was going, and she had to

0:40:24.600 --> 0:40:28.040
<v Speaker 1>repeat her address for him three times. That's when she

0:40:28.120 --> 0:40:32.520
<v Speaker 1>realized she was whispering. It would be a symptom of

0:40:32.560 --> 0:40:35.680
<v Speaker 1>her captivity that took her a long time to shake.

0:40:37.239 --> 0:40:40.040
<v Speaker 1>When they arrived at her house, Beatrice had to go

0:40:40.080 --> 0:40:43.560
<v Speaker 1>inside to get change for the cabby. The old porter

0:40:43.640 --> 0:40:46.520
<v Speaker 1>shouted when he recognized her, gave her a big hug

0:40:46.600 --> 0:40:49.960
<v Speaker 1>and took her up to the flat. After reuniting with

0:40:50.040 --> 0:40:54.160
<v Speaker 1>her husband and children, she called her brother Alberto. He

0:40:54.280 --> 0:41:01.880
<v Speaker 1>was at her house in ten minutes. Meanwhile, Maduha became

0:41:01.960 --> 0:41:06.080
<v Speaker 1>convinced that they had murdered Beatrice, despite the repeated refrain

0:41:06.800 --> 0:41:11.839
<v Speaker 1>a dead hostage has no value. They finally allowed her

0:41:11.880 --> 0:41:15.440
<v Speaker 1>to watch the midday news on TV, where Beatrice was

0:41:15.480 --> 0:41:19.400
<v Speaker 1>surrounded by her family, and that's when Madoha discovered that

0:41:19.440 --> 0:41:23.160
<v Speaker 1>her husband had redecorated their apartment. He had done it

0:41:23.200 --> 0:41:26.319
<v Speaker 1>to keep her spirits up. He'd tried to follow the

0:41:26.400 --> 0:41:29.840
<v Speaker 1>design plan she'd mentioned to him before her kidnapping, but

0:41:29.920 --> 0:41:35.080
<v Speaker 1>the colors were wrong and her favorite antique was improperly curated.

0:41:35.920 --> 0:41:39.920
<v Speaker 1>Maduha was irate. She yelled at the TV. It's just

0:41:40.040 --> 0:41:44.840
<v Speaker 1>the opposite of what I said. I loved this moment

0:41:44.880 --> 0:41:47.120
<v Speaker 1>of reading their story, just like I loved the moment

0:41:47.160 --> 0:41:50.120
<v Speaker 1>of Beatrice making up her face. I guess because it

0:41:50.120 --> 0:41:53.040
<v Speaker 1>feels so human, It feels so much like what I

0:41:53.080 --> 0:41:56.280
<v Speaker 1>would do. I mean, how relieving for just a moment

0:41:56.400 --> 0:41:59.360
<v Speaker 1>to concentrate on how that orange toned lipstick makes my

0:41:59.400 --> 0:42:02.400
<v Speaker 1>teeth look, or how they put the library in the

0:42:02.400 --> 0:42:05.279
<v Speaker 1>wrong room of my apartment, rather than whether or not

0:42:05.320 --> 0:42:15.640
<v Speaker 1>I will be executed by submachine gun that afternoon. But

0:42:15.719 --> 0:42:20.440
<v Speaker 1>it wasn't long before Maruja grew depressed. The bosses had

0:42:20.440 --> 0:42:23.440
<v Speaker 1>a changing of the guard. These new guards were nicer,

0:42:23.760 --> 0:42:27.239
<v Speaker 1>more educated, talked to her like a person, and her

0:42:27.239 --> 0:42:30.919
<v Speaker 1>spirits lifted a bit. And then the old guard came back,

0:42:31.719 --> 0:42:35.560
<v Speaker 1>and so did her depression. One of the bosses called

0:42:35.600 --> 0:42:39.960
<v Speaker 1>the newly freed Miatrice more than once, screaming medicine because

0:42:39.960 --> 0:42:44.440
<v Speaker 1>he couldn't remember the heart medication Maduha required. In the end,

0:42:44.880 --> 0:42:48.320
<v Speaker 1>Francisco Santo's the other journalist held in a different house

0:42:48.360 --> 0:42:52.840
<v Speaker 1>near Bogota, and Maruja Pachon were not released until Monday,

0:42:53.160 --> 0:43:19.640
<v Speaker 1>May twentieth. That's almost seven months of living as a hostage.

0:43:20.920 --> 0:43:25.319
<v Speaker 1>In line with Pablo Escobar's need for publicity, Maduha would

0:43:25.360 --> 0:43:28.520
<v Speaker 1>be released in time for the seven o'clock news, and

0:43:28.640 --> 0:43:31.319
<v Speaker 1>Francisco would be released in time for the news at

0:43:31.400 --> 0:43:35.800
<v Speaker 1>nine point thirty. The woman who kept the house offered

0:43:35.840 --> 0:43:39.759
<v Speaker 1>to buy Maduha anything she needed. Maduha just asked for

0:43:39.800 --> 0:43:45.680
<v Speaker 1>the essentials mascara, lipstick and eyebrow pencil, and, because this

0:43:45.840 --> 0:43:49.240
<v Speaker 1>was nineteen ninety one, a pair of stockings to replace

0:43:49.280 --> 0:43:53.240
<v Speaker 1>the ones that kidnappers tore during her abduction. She also

0:43:53.360 --> 0:43:56.160
<v Speaker 1>asked them to return the emerald ring they had taken

0:43:56.200 --> 0:44:00.759
<v Speaker 1>at her initial abduction, but they couldn't find it. Her

0:44:00.840 --> 0:44:04.360
<v Speaker 1>drive to freedom was fast and uneventful. They put a

0:44:04.400 --> 0:44:06.600
<v Speaker 1>hood over her head and had her lie on the

0:44:06.600 --> 0:44:10.200
<v Speaker 1>floor of the car, just as Beatrice had, and after

0:44:10.280 --> 0:44:13.080
<v Speaker 1>forty or so minutes, they pushed her out of the car.

0:44:15.040 --> 0:44:18.279
<v Speaker 1>She did as they had instructed both women take the

0:44:18.320 --> 0:44:22.839
<v Speaker 1>first cab. The first driver she saw recognized her immediately.

0:44:23.360 --> 0:44:25.399
<v Speaker 1>He took her to the nearest house to call her

0:44:25.400 --> 0:44:29.239
<v Speaker 1>family using their phone, and everyone there recognized her and

0:44:29.280 --> 0:44:33.120
<v Speaker 1>embraced her as well. Alberto and their son were in

0:44:33.160 --> 0:44:35.680
<v Speaker 1>their cars on the way to her as soon as

0:44:35.680 --> 0:44:39.560
<v Speaker 1>they could take down the address. The reporters were waiting

0:44:39.640 --> 0:44:44.640
<v Speaker 1>outside her home. She knew them. She said, take it easy, guys,

0:44:45.040 --> 0:45:05.279
<v Speaker 1>it'll be easier to talk in the apartment. I don't

0:45:05.280 --> 0:45:08.400
<v Speaker 1>want to detract from our focus here. Telling the story

0:45:08.400 --> 0:45:10.880
<v Speaker 1>of the journalists who were held hostage is the point

0:45:10.920 --> 0:45:14.959
<v Speaker 1>of this episode. Pablo saw them as bargaining chips. That's

0:45:14.960 --> 0:45:18.720
<v Speaker 1>how he used people in this instance, as bargaining chips.

0:45:19.520 --> 0:45:23.320
<v Speaker 1>But the psychopathy runs so deep that nowadays it's pretty

0:45:23.320 --> 0:45:28.680
<v Speaker 1>clear that he saw most people as expendable. It's important

0:45:28.719 --> 0:45:32.600
<v Speaker 1>to this show that we illustrate they were not expendable.

0:45:33.280 --> 0:45:38.480
<v Speaker 1>Pablo's hostages were people, mothers of journalists, wives to ambassadors,

0:45:38.840 --> 0:45:44.000
<v Speaker 1>sisters to politicians, daughters of presidents. Yes, they were powerful people,

0:45:44.880 --> 0:45:49.319
<v Speaker 1>both by their associations to decision makers who could be

0:45:49.360 --> 0:45:53.520
<v Speaker 1>manipulated to a criminal's needs. But they were also powerful

0:45:53.560 --> 0:45:59.319
<v Speaker 1>in themselves. They were journalists and television news crews, survivors,

0:46:00.280 --> 0:46:03.600
<v Speaker 1>women who talked back to their child guards, and demanded

0:46:03.640 --> 0:46:08.360
<v Speaker 1>basic accommodations, even at gunpoint, who traveled for days and

0:46:08.480 --> 0:46:11.640
<v Speaker 1>hours at the promise of talking peace with a violent radical.

0:46:12.560 --> 0:46:16.760
<v Speaker 1>But they were people first, people who had very distinct

0:46:16.880 --> 0:46:20.200
<v Speaker 1>visions of how their living room should be decorated. People

0:46:20.280 --> 0:46:23.520
<v Speaker 1>who ran the neighborhood cafe, the ones who might remember

0:46:23.560 --> 0:46:25.600
<v Speaker 1>your order and your name as soon as you walked

0:46:25.600 --> 0:46:28.680
<v Speaker 1>in the door. But I don't want to leave you

0:46:28.719 --> 0:46:32.640
<v Speaker 1>hanging either. Because they were abducted for essentially one reason,

0:46:33.320 --> 0:46:36.640
<v Speaker 1>Pablo Escobar didn't want to be tried for his crimes

0:46:36.680 --> 0:46:41.279
<v Speaker 1>in the United States, their time spent as hostages was

0:46:41.360 --> 0:46:46.440
<v Speaker 1>not in vain. Within a week, President Gavidia had negotiated

0:46:46.480 --> 0:46:51.680
<v Speaker 1>surrender terms with Escobar. They actually negotiated through a televangelist priest,

0:46:52.239 --> 0:46:56.880
<v Speaker 1>Father Garcia Edreros, which is just wild to me. The

0:46:56.960 --> 0:47:00.640
<v Speaker 1>actual surrender was done via helicopter in the pucker field

0:47:00.719 --> 0:47:04.720
<v Speaker 1>on the estate of Pablo's mansion, surrounded by beautiful tropical

0:47:04.760 --> 0:47:09.400
<v Speaker 1>flowers and heavily armed guards. Pablo hugged each one of

0:47:09.440 --> 0:47:12.640
<v Speaker 1>them and then climbed into the helicopter, which took them

0:47:12.680 --> 0:47:15.840
<v Speaker 1>from Pablo's soccer field to the soccer field at the

0:47:15.880 --> 0:47:22.320
<v Speaker 1>local prison. In the helicopter, Alberto Villa, Mussar, Maruja's husband

0:47:22.480 --> 0:47:27.399
<v Speaker 1>and Beatrice's brother asked Pablo why he had abducted them.

0:47:28.440 --> 0:47:32.400
<v Speaker 1>Pablo's response is going to repulse you. It sounds like

0:47:32.520 --> 0:47:37.200
<v Speaker 1>something a spoiled child would say. He said, I was

0:47:37.320 --> 0:47:40.440
<v Speaker 1>kidnapping people to get something, and I didn't get it.

0:47:41.280 --> 0:47:45.560
<v Speaker 1>Nobody was talking to me, nobody was paying attention. So

0:47:45.600 --> 0:47:48.600
<v Speaker 1>I went after Donia Maruja to see if that would work.

0:48:16.440 --> 0:48:20.680
<v Speaker 1>I didn't know anything of Pablo's ultimate fate. I probably

0:48:20.680 --> 0:48:24.279
<v Speaker 1>should have, But in case you're like me, here's the real,

0:48:24.400 --> 0:48:28.399
<v Speaker 1>quick and dirty end of Pablo Escobar. So remember how

0:48:28.400 --> 0:48:31.280
<v Speaker 1>the government thought he'd basically use them as a shield

0:48:31.440 --> 0:48:35.239
<v Speaker 1>and continue running his drug cartel from prison. Well, they

0:48:35.239 --> 0:48:40.280
<v Speaker 1>weren't far off. He bribed the guards and he smuggled

0:48:40.280 --> 0:48:43.600
<v Speaker 1>in enough shit to make his personal private prison a

0:48:43.719 --> 0:48:48.080
<v Speaker 1>high end acienda. The government realized what he was doing

0:48:48.719 --> 0:48:51.320
<v Speaker 1>and they planned to move him to another prison without warning.

0:48:52.640 --> 0:48:55.800
<v Speaker 1>When Pablo got wind of the change through his numerous bribes,

0:48:55.880 --> 0:49:00.799
<v Speaker 1>as paranoid people tend to do, he broke out. This

0:49:01.000 --> 0:49:03.759
<v Speaker 1>was two hundred and ninety nine days, so less than

0:49:03.800 --> 0:49:07.800
<v Speaker 1>a year after his initial surrender, he bounced from safe

0:49:07.800 --> 0:49:10.920
<v Speaker 1>house to safe house, leaving a huge body count of

0:49:11.000 --> 0:49:15.520
<v Speaker 1>bodyguard's innocence and his own thugs in his wake. Eighteen

0:49:15.560 --> 0:49:20.480
<v Speaker 1>months later, Plain closed, police barricaded his hideout, and Pablo

0:49:20.640 --> 0:49:38.520
<v Speaker 1>was killed during the gunfire. Soon after her release, Maduha's

0:49:38.520 --> 0:49:41.440
<v Speaker 1>emerald ring was returned to her in a package tied

0:49:41.480 --> 0:49:45.080
<v Speaker 1>with a ribbon. There was a diamond chip missing, but

0:49:45.160 --> 0:49:48.000
<v Speaker 1>it was her ring, and she was regaining her health

0:49:48.080 --> 0:49:52.360
<v Speaker 1>so fast that it almost fit. It definitely fit again

0:49:52.880 --> 0:49:55.720
<v Speaker 1>by the time two years later when she was elected

0:49:55.800 --> 0:50:19.600
<v Speaker 1>Columbia's Minister of Education. Join me next week on the

0:50:19.640 --> 0:50:23.000
<v Speaker 1>greatest true crime Stories ever told for our episode on

0:50:23.080 --> 0:50:27.160
<v Speaker 1>Linda Taylor, or at least we think that was her name.

0:50:28.440 --> 0:50:32.080
<v Speaker 1>We're talking about the first ever welfare queen and the

0:50:32.160 --> 0:50:37.600
<v Speaker 1>ultimate scam artist. Maybe I'd like to shout out a

0:50:37.640 --> 0:50:39.840
<v Speaker 1>few key sources that made it possible for me to

0:50:39.880 --> 0:50:45.200
<v Speaker 1>tell this week's story, especially Gabriel Garcia Marquez's nonfiction work

0:50:45.400 --> 0:50:48.799
<v Speaker 1>entitled News of a Kidnapping. We will link to it

0:50:48.840 --> 0:50:53.600
<v Speaker 1>in our show notes. For more information about this case

0:50:53.719 --> 0:50:59.359
<v Speaker 1>and others we cover on the show, visit Diversionaudio dot com.

0:50:59.480 --> 0:51:02.520
<v Speaker 1>One more thing before I go. If you haven't already,

0:51:02.800 --> 0:51:05.360
<v Speaker 1>I'll love you forever. If you pre order my forthcoming

0:51:05.400 --> 0:51:08.920
<v Speaker 1>true crime book, Madam Queen, The Life and Crimes of

0:51:08.960 --> 0:51:13.120
<v Speaker 1>Harlem's underground racketeer Stephanie Sinclair, there's a link to do

0:51:13.160 --> 0:51:17.080
<v Speaker 1>it at your favorite retailer. In our show's notes, The

0:51:17.120 --> 0:51:20.120
<v Speaker 1>Greatest True Crime Stories Ever Told is a production of

0:51:20.200 --> 0:51:24.920
<v Speaker 1>Diversion Audio. I'm Mary Kay mcbraer, and I hosted this episode.

0:51:25.360 --> 0:51:28.560
<v Speaker 1>I also wrote this episode, and if you like my writing,

0:51:28.640 --> 0:51:32.600
<v Speaker 1>you should check out my book, America's First Female serial Killer,

0:51:33.000 --> 0:51:36.839
<v Speaker 1>Jane Toppin and the Making of a Monster. Our show

0:51:36.960 --> 0:51:41.759
<v Speaker 1>was edited by Antonio Enriquez. Theme music by Tyler Cash,

0:51:42.080 --> 0:51:46.360
<v Speaker 1>produced by Emma Demuth. Executive produced by Scott Waxman.