GOING TO FAR

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: STARGATE
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP96-00789R003501040009-0
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: November 4, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 12, 2000
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: September 4, 1989
• Content Type: NSPR

Going
Too,
Far
The drug thugs
trigger a backlash
in Colombia and
Kennebunkport
T ry to imagine drug gangsters
murdering both Attorney Gener-
al Dick Thornburgh and his s pre-
decessor, Edwin Meese. Next,
pretend that drug triggermen and guerril-
la allies rub out almost half the Supreme
Court-say. Justices William Brennan,
Byron White, Antonin Scalia and Sandra
Day O'Connor-along with hundreds of
lower-ranking but still prominent jurists.
Expand the list of victims to include
Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee and
Los Angeles police chief Daryl Gates,
both slain, and Amy Carter, kidnaped
and held briefly as a warning to authori-
ties who might get tough with the narco-
barons. And then the grand climax: the
1987 assassination of George Bush, mur-
dered at a campaign rally just as he had
become the favorite to be elected Presi-
dent the following year.
In the U.S. such carnage and terror
striking at the vitals of effective
government would be simply unbe-
lievable. Yet an almost precisely
equivalent list of crimes has been
committed in Colombia over the
past nine years. Since 1980, assassins
have gunned down 178 judges; elev-
en of the 24 members of the Su-
preme Court died in a 1986 shoot-
out between the army and leftist
guerrillas thought to have been paid
by the drug barons. Also hit were
two successive Justice Ministers
lone survived), an Attorney General. the
police chief of the nation's second largest
city, Medellin,
and the
editor of the news-
paper Ei Especrador in the capital city of
Bogota. The drug lords also kidnaped the
33-year-old son ofa former President.
Then, two weeks ago, a drug hit team
pumped five bullets into Luis Carlos
Galan. A Senator and protege of incum-
bent President Virgilio Barco Vargas.
Galan was the clear front runner to win
the presidency in next May's elections.
But by killing him the narrotrafrcantes
may have finally gone too far, Instead of
further intimidating the government, the
murder of Galan helped intensify a crack-
down that by last week had escalated to
what a drug lords' communique called i Even before the U.S. announced its
"absolute and total war." infusion of emergency assistance, Colom-
that followed presented the spectacle of a
country fighting for its life against crimi-
nal combines financed by America's drug
habit. The violence spurred the Adminis-
tration to jump-start its antidrug pro-
gram, scheduled to be unveiled next week
in George Bush's first major TV address
to the nation. From his vacation home in
Kennebunkport, Me., the President an-
nounced a $65 million package of emer-
gency military aid to Colombia, more
than 2h times the $25 million the nation
had been scheduled to receive. At the
same time, the State Department warned
that "Americans traveling to Colombia
could expose themselves to extraordinary
personal danger." Spokesman Richard
Boucher said that State "strongly urges
Americans to avoid visiting Medellin,
headquarters of the drug traffickers'
boa's government had scored some early
victories, confiscating in raids hundreds
of millions of dollars' worth of drug king-
pins' property. Included were 143 fixed-
wing planes and helicopters believed to be
"We declare absolute and total
war on the government...
and all those who have
prosecuted and attacked us."
pA--prover--ForReleas2
Drug violence strikes down the high and the lour, presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galan,
mourned by thousands, left, and an unidentified corpse burped by a Medellin roadside
used to smuggle drugs to the U.S., a num-
ber of yachts, and the mansions and
ranches of the most prominent lords of
the Medellin cartel: Pablo Escobar Ga-
viria and Jose Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha.
Colombian television showed viewers
some indications of the drug lords' ob-
scenely lavish life-styles. One of Rodri-
guez Gacha's spreads north of Bogota
boasts several swimming pools, an artifi-
cial lake and a two-acre flower garden.
Another Rodriguez Gacha mansion, in-
side Bogota, features a crystal staircase set
amid pink marble walls and bathrooms
equipped with gold-plated fixtures and
rolls of Italian toilet paper on which were
printed copies of classic artworks. Esco-
bar's prize possession, a 1.000-acre ranch
known as El Napoles. even had a private
zoo stocked with giraffes, dwarf ele-
phants, rhinoceroses and some 2,000 oth-
er exotic animals, many imported illegal-
ly from Africa. President Barco decreed
that the drug lords can get their property
back only if they claim it in person and
prove it was acquired with profits from le-
gitimate business, not drugs.
Most important, Barco proclaimed a
state of siege that will allow him to extra-
dite to the U.S. any of the 80 drug thugs
indicted by American prosecutors with-
out getting a judge's signature on the or-
der. That end-runs one of the biggest bar-
riers to punishment of the gangsters: an
intimidated Colombian Supreme Court in
1987 declared a U.S.-Colombia extradi-
tion treaty invalid on the flimsiest of tech-
nicalities. Both Washington and Bogota
officials declare that the drug lords fear
extradition more than anything else be-
cause they cannot terrorize judges and ju-
ries in the U.S. as readily as they can those
in Colombia. The gangsters agree. Their
communiques have been issued in the
name ofa group that calls itself, with defi-
ant sarcasm, the Extraditables. It has
adopted the slogan "Better a Tomb in Co-
lombia Than a Jail Cell in the U.S."
"We will not be cowed. We
shall prevail over the forces
that would destroy our democracy
and enslave our nation."
Though Colombian police initially
rounded up and arrested 11.000 people-
many many of whom were quickly released-
by Friday they had nabbed only six peo-
ple on the U.S Justice Department's 120-
name "long list" of those wanted for ques-
tioning, and not one of the suspects on a
most-wanted list of twelve supplied to the
Bogota government. The biggest catch:
Eduardo Martinez Romero, believed to be
a financial adviser to the Medellin cartel.
He is one of several people indicted in the
U.S. for involvement in an alleged $1.2
billion money-laundering scheme, in
which drug money was passed off as the
supposed profits of jewelry and gold-
trading businesses. Martinez is described
as only a middle-size fish. but he could
turn out to be highly important. If he is
extradited and decides to talk in return
for a light sentence, he m. ght point out
where his chiefs have hidden billions of
dollars in profits and investments. The
U.S. and friendly nations could then seize
those assets.
At week's end U.S. authorities.
long out of practice in extradition
cases involving Colombia, were rac-
ing against a Monday deadline to
complete a small mountain of paper-
work needed for Martinez's extradi-
tion. If they could not meet that dead-
line, Martinez would have to be
turned loose. Since he had not been
-Colombia President Virgilio Barcos Vargas charged with any crime in Colombia,
he could be held only seven days after
his arrest, even during a state of siege.
 Wanted in America: Colombia 's biggest narcobarons
The Dirty Dozen
Pablo Escobar Gavirla,
39:
Leader of the Medellin cartel,
which dominates the world
cocaine trade. Escobar, who has a
fortune estimated at more than
$2 billion, is under indictment in
Miami, Los Angeles and Atlanta.
Gilberto Jose Rodriguez
Orejuela, 45:
Head of the Cali cartel. Owned a
soccer team in Medellin and the
First Interamericas Bank in
Panama. Under indictment in
New York, Los Angeles, New
Orleans and Miami.
Jorge Luis Ochoa
Vasquez, 40
Juan David Ochoa
Vasquez, 41:
Jorge's elder brother, he
helps manage the
business.
Fablo Ochoa
Vasquez, 32:
The youngest Ochoa son,
"Fabito" helps supervise
the family business.
se 2000/08/09 : CIA-RDP96-00789R003501040009-0
Jose Gonzalo
Rodriguez Gacha,
42:
The most vicious of the
Medellin kingpins,
dubbed "El Mexicano."
Gustavo de Jests
Gavirla Rivero, 42:
Escobar's cousin and
right-hand man. Under
indictment in Atlanta.
Chief executive officer of the - .
family cocaine business, he is
Pablo Escobar's peer in wealth,
political influence and legal
invincibility, Under indictment
in Miami and Atlanta.
Miguel Angel Rodriguez
Orejuela, 46:
Brother of Gilberto. Co-owner of the
soccer team and a chain of drugstores
and big businesses in Medellin. Under
indictment in New Orleans.
Jaime RaUl Orejuela
Caballero, 46:
Indicted in New York in 1985 for drug
trafficking.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administra-
tion was reportedly keeping a plane ready
to fly him to America as soon as the last i
was dotted on the extradition papers.
Yet Escobar, Rodriguez Gacha and
the other drug, lords had all escaped-per-
haps into the Colombian jungles, maybe to
Peru, Brazil or Panama, where strongman
Manuel Antonio Noriega has helped them
hide out during previous crackdowns. The
Extraditables on Thursday issued a bulle-
tin (printed on stationery with the cartel's
makeshift trademark) declaring war to the
death on any politicians, judges, journalists
or members "of the political and industrial
oligarchy" who oppose them, adding men-
acingly that they would not "respect the
families" of their targets. To underscore
those threats, the gangsters bombed the
headquarters of the Conservative Party
and of Galan's Liberal Party campaign or-
Geraldo Moncada, 42:
Money launderer for the Escobar and Ochoa families. Under
indictment in Atlanta.
Jose Santacruz Londono, 45:
Partner of the Rodriguez Orejuelas. A prominent figure in
the Callcartel, whose gang dominates the New York drug market.
Under indictment in New York.
Jose Ivan Duarte Acero, 37:
Indicted in Miami for the attempted murder of two DEA agents.
ganization, and burned the ranches of for-
mer Finance Minister Edgar Gutierrez
Castro and Senator Ignacio Velez Escobar.
Can the Colombian government win
this war against the gangsters who smuggle
into the U.S. an estimated 80% of all the
cocaine snorted or smoked by Americans?
The record is not encouraging. The drug
barons have been forced to flee abroad be-
fore, notably during the crackdown that
followed the 1984 assassination of Justice
Minister Rodrigo Lara Bonilla, only to re-
turn and flaunt their wealth and power
more ostentatiously than ever.
President Barco will have to sustain the
campaign-at considerable risk to his own
life-long after public outrage at the rubout
of Galan has subsided. In an interview
with TIME earlier this year, Barco asserted,
"We're fighting a struggle that implies such
suc
ing to pay." But, he said, "fighting against
drugs means fighting for democracy."
Even if Barco persists, though, Wash-
ington is concerned that the Colombian
government cannot match the drug gangs
in money, firepower or training. The car-
tel runs a regular school for motorcycle-
riding assassins (called sicarios) just out-
side Medellin. There, as shown on a
videotape boldly distributed by the coke
cartel, aspiring murderers are drilled in
such techniques as twisting around on
their choppers to blanket a car with lethal
gunfire as they roar past. The trainers
have been identified as British, South Af-
rican and Israeli mercenaries; an embar-
rassed Israeli government pledged last
week to investigate the reports and, if they
are true, do all it can to stop such activity.
The U.S. aid acka e to B rc il'-
ha
ofA " to I
 - e N RDP96-00789ROO3501040009-0
balance. In response to Colombian re-
quests, by Thursday evening Bush's White
House staff outlined to the President what
could be scraped together. Bush insisted
that the aid had to reach Colombia fast
and be paid for without hurting other
countries or Government programs. The
assistance was shaped into a formal plan
by Friday morning and announced by the
White House that afternoon, following
consultations with congressional leaders.
It includes 20 Huey helicopters, machine
guns, mortars, 18-man assault boats,
jeeps, radio equipment and ambulances.
The first installment, consisting of eight
Hueys and various small arms and am-
munition worth $20 million in all, should
be delivered in the next 14 days, the rest
within a month or so.
OT here is some talk too of sharing
more intelligence with the Bo-
gota government. In the past, the
DEA pointed the Colombians to
the sites of cocaine labs. But the CIA and
the National Security Agency refused to
make available satellite photographs and
electronically intercepted messages-
with some justification, considering how
thoroughly the Colombian government
was thought to be honeycombed by drug-
gang spies.
Despite some initial press specula-
tion, however, Bush from the beginning
firmly ruled out the use of,U.S. troops,
and made that stand public after tele-
phoning Barco Monday night. Barco
briefly raised the subject only to dismiss
it; the Colombians, he said, do not want
any such assistance. Both Presidents are
well aware that the presence of armed
Yankees would be bitterly resented as
U.S. interference. The White House,
however, rather nervously disclosed that
a "small" band of Americans will be dis-
patched to train the Colombians in the
use of the military equipment they will
be getting. One official estimated the
number of trainers and support person-
nel at 50 to 100..
U.S. troops may not be needed any-
way: possibly the drug lords began the lat-
est round of murders in desperation be-
cause the Colombian government was
already putting a deep crimp in their ac-
tivities. One of the hits was on Medellin
police chief Valdemar Franklin Quintero,
who had commanded an operation called
Rainbow that resulted in the destruction
of 28 cocaine-processing laboratories and
the capture of eleven tons of the drug.
Even more important, Colombian au-
thorities in the first six months of 1989
seized more than a million gallons of pro-
cessing chemicals such as ether and ace-
tone-enough to make 320 tons of co-
caine, almost the entire estimated yearly
output of the cartel. It was the rubouts of
Franklin Quintero and Superior Court
Colombian police commander with a cache of cocaine seized in a government raid
Soldiers awed by the obscene lavishness of drug lord Rodriguez Gacha's bathroom
The murder box score: 178 judges, one Justice Minister, one editor ...
Magistrate Carlos Valencia, who invali-
dated a jury's verdict acquitting Rodri-
guez Gacha of murder, that caused Presi-
dent Barco to declare that he was reviving
the extradition process. The murder of
presidential candidate Galan, occurring
minutes before Barco went on television,
then prompted the mass arrests and the
escalation to full war.
Though the U.S. has a big stake in
the battle in Colombia, it cannot do
much besides send materiel and cheer
for Barco. Washington's antidrug policy
is moving away from interdiction of
supply to cutting down demand at
home. Bush's program will propose
shifting funds to expanded drug-educa-
tion and -treatment programs, and stiff-
er penalties for casual users. Such an
emphasis on curtailing the U.S. appetite
for cocaine and other drugs is fine by
the Colombians. As President Barco
told TIME, "Every time a North Ameri-
can youngster pays for his vice in the
streets of New York, Miami or Chicago,
he becomes a link in the chain of crime,
terror and violence which has caused us
so much damage and pain. The best
help the U.S. could give for the tran-
quillity and the defense of human rights
of Colombians would be attacking face
to face the consumption of drugs in that
country."
After years of nagging Colombia to
crack down on its cocaine gangsters, the
U.S. is seeing the government literally
risk its life to do so. Now the question is
how hard America is prepared to fight
the drug war in its own streets.
-Reported by Dan Goodgame/
Kennebunkport, John Moody/Bogota and Elaine
Shannon/Washington
rop y r Release 2000/08/?&E,CIA' P9&-OO789ROO35O1O4OOO9-0
 Approved For Release
My Lunch with Felix
I or Felix Bloch it was "just another
Fday," but a meal with him last week
at Washington's posh Jockey Club took
place under the watchful gaze of FBI
agents two tables away, while a posse of
reporters and TV cameramen waited out-
side. Two months have passed since the
State Department accused Bloch of con-
tacts with a Soviet agent, setting off a cir-
cus of public surveillance but no formal
charges. Yet as Bloch sipped a vodka ton-
ic and spoke angrily of the "F- Bureau
of Incompetents," he seemed little
changed from the career foreign-service
officer I have known for more than 28
years. "I guess the bottom line is they
don't have a case yet," he said.
Bloch, 54, appears much more dy-
namic than the stiff-necked, melancholy
personality portrayed on television. Al-
ways a meticulous dresser, he suggested
that we meet "someplace where you need
a coat and tie" in order to keep the casual-
ly attired press mob outside.
"Do you really think I'm dour?" he
began., referring to a description of him in
a recent issue of TIME. It seemed an odd
concern for a man at the center of the
most serious State Department espionage
scandal since the Alger Hiss affair. But
perhaps Bloch's preoccupation with the
media is understandable: he carried with
him a color photo of a woman knocked to
the ground in a supermarket by a burly
TV cameraman who had been tracking
Bloch's grocery cart. "That's the way it is
nowadays," he said, sighing.
Some suggest that Bloch enjoys his
notoriety. Yet he has rejected a barrage of
telephone calls and messages from Diane
Sawyer asking him to appear on Prime
Time Live and from Mike Wallace for 60
Minutes. Bloch plays along with the re-
porters who clog his every step. "Longev-
ity runs in the family," he cautions. "This
could go on for another 35 years."
ounter with a suspected spy
tion is ambivalent. At his first FBI interro-
gation, on June 22, he not only surren-
dered his diplomatic passport, as he was
required to do, but volunteered to give up
his regular passport as well. He says he
agreed to permit the FBI to search his car
s e r dew
and apartment without a warrant and
even reminded the agents to check the
cellar storage space. But when Bloch and
his wife Lou returned from a trip to New
York City, they found a valuable chande-
e
lier cracked, the windows open and the
d
air conditioning running. They submitted
a bill to the FBI. To Bloch's great irrita-
e e
tion, the FBI also confiscated his private
Every breath you take, every move you make: Bloch In a quiet moment in Washington
"Longevity runs in the family; this could go on for another 35 years.'
With the skill of a veteran diplomat, he
dodges questions about espionage. "There
have been no charges," he said at lunch.
What of the Government's statement that
he had been involved in a "compromise of
security"? "What's a `compromise'?" he
asked coyly. Anyway, he added, "there's
no evidence of a compromise."
Does that mean he is innocent? Bloch
paused an agonizing 30 seconds. "I can't
comment on particulars, for then I must
comment on the whole." He has heard
that a federal grand jury is investigating.
"What more can they learn?" Bloch
asked. "They have all my papers and have
talked to all my friends and colleagues:"
A W6
]t~j "Fis l le hill - -
papers and only belatedly returned a
checkbook, with just three blank checks,
so he could pay some bills.
Angered by intense surveillance in
New York City, Bloch took to marching
up one-way streets, causing traffic tie-ups
as the pursuing FBI autos bucked oncom-
ing cars. At intersections the FBI held traf-
fic, but Bloch chose to let cars back up
while he waited for a green light.
In Washington, to ease the FBI's bur-
den, Bloch generally tells agents where he
is headed. Even so, as one agent allowed,
there have been some fender benders
caused by the troupe. In front and back of
Bloch's Washington apartment, FBI
agents sit in autos, the motors running,
smiling wanly at passersby.
Still, Bloch does not play the deeply
wronged innocent. A self-described fatal-
077TVV*2UU I _ J
said. "I don't expect anything else." Can
he endure the pressure? "I know p~,Dple
think of suicide," Bloch said, "but my
roots are in Vienna, where everybody
thinks of suicide all the time." Thinking
and doing, he seemed to be saying, are
two different things.
Acquaintances have searched in vain
for an indication of what might have mo-
tivated tivated Bloch's espionage, if indeed the
Government's suspicions are justified.
Money is an unlikely answer. He still
earns $80,000 a year from the State be-
partment, and his wife has additional in-
come. Except for their $328,000 apart-
ment, Bloch has modest tastes. He seems
satisfied with his books, the theater, his
stamp collection and a glass of good wine.
Bloch resented serving under politically
appointed ambassadors in Vienna, but his
real complaint is with the State Depart-
ment's failure to consider him for ap-
pointment as Ambassador to East Ger-
many, and his later lack of success in
becoming Deputy Ambassador to the
Hague or Consul General in Munich,
even though he had the backing of his im-
mediate bosses.
Is he guilty? Bloch's Talmudic refusal
to deny everything leaves the question
open. After lunch we stopped in the men's
room., where an FBI agent rushed in,
standing, staring and listening as we
washed our hands. Bloch agreed to meet
again, "providing I don't defect to East
Berlin before then.
"Just kidding," he added, smiling at
the agent. Outside, Bloch headed toward
Dupont Circle, trailing agents and media
like the Pied Piper. "The guy's got guts,"
mused one agent as he rejoined the
procession. ^