Father Garcia:-
In predominantly Catholic Colombia, many people, including Pablo's workers, sought divine inspiration from a program called God's Minute. It was hosted by a white-haired priest with worldly brown eyes and a narrow face called Father Garcia, an octogenarian who'd become a living institution since his TV debut in 1955. Prior to the evening news, Father Garcia, the son of an army general, would appear in a black habit with a clerical collar and deliver a sixty-second homily with an important social message. Generations of Colombians grew up watching him.
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In accordance with his teachings, he lived in a tiny room with numerous unrepaired leaks in a vicarage. He slept little, on wooden planks with a sheet provided by nuns consisting of miniature house-shaped bits of cloth sewn together. He didn't use pillows. He hardly replaced his clothing. In a restaurant, he once approached a woman with a diamond ring and told her that it was worth enough to build 120 houses for the poor. The next day, she mailed him the ring.
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He'd won forty-six awards for arranging charitable events. He raised money to build God's Minute housing projects in the slums. During national disasters, he led fundraising campaigns. Since 1961, he had regularly hosted the Banquet for a Million, a fundraiser at which celebrities paid a million pesos for a cup of soup and a roll of bread served by a beauty queen. He once outraged the more puritanical among his flock by sending a fundraiser invitation to the actress Bridget Bardot who was renowned for her sex appeal.
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On April 12, 1991, Father Garcia set off to visit Dr Patarroyo, who was famous for developing a chemical malaria vaccine in 1986 and donating its patent to the World Health Organisation. He wanted the doctor to help him set up an AIDS clinic. On the journey, he was accompanied by an old friend whom he often sought advice from, and who'd financed his chapel and many of his projects.
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"Listen, Father," the old friend said. "Why don't you do something to move this thing along and help Pablo Escobar turn himself in?" Much later, the old friend would claim that his request that day had been inspired by God, and that, "It was like Father was floating. During the interview [with Dr Patarroyo] the only thing on his mind was what I had said, and when we left I thought he looked so excited that I began to worry."
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With the priest in a rapturous state over what to do about Pablo, the old friend took him to rest at a holiday home in the Caribbean. But Father Garcia slept little. He jumped up in the middle of meals to go on long walks of contemplation. "Oh sea of Coveñas!" he yelled at the tide. "Can I do it? Should I do it? You who know everything: will we not die in the attempt?" After such walks, he'd return as if hypnotised and discuss the answers he'd received from God with his friend.
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By April 16, a complete plan had unfurled in his mind. On April 18, Father Garcia arrived at the TV studio at 6:50 pm. Pablo's workers watched the man whom they considered a saint deliver a message to their boss:
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They have told me you want to surrender. They have told me you would like to talk to me. Oh sea! Oh sea of Coveñas at five in the evening when the sun is setting! What should I do? They tell me he is weary of his life and its turmoil… Tell me, oh sea: can I do it? Should I do it? You who know the history of Colombia, you who saw the Indians worshipping on this shore, you who heard the sound of history: should I do it? Will I be rejected if I do it? If I do it: will there be shooting when I go with them? Will I fall with them in this adventure?
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Afterwards, Father Garcia was inundated with messages from across Colombia. A swarm of journalists started to shadow his movements. The public was divided. Some believed he was acting on behalf of God. Others thought that he was insane and he'd crossed a line that separated beliefs in redemption from naiveté.
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The next day, he showed up unannounced at the prison holding the Ochoas, who also trusted in his divine powers. As the negotiations required a degree of secrecy, the Ochoas were concerned about his high profile. They referred him to Fabio Sr, who told him that Pablo would be amenable to his idea and that the traffickers - who generally believed in the Virgin Mary, the Holy Infant and assorted saints - would be more likely to surrender if Father Garcia were to bless such activity. Two days later, the priest told journalists that the hostages would be freed soon and that he was communicating with the Extraditables.
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With Pablo having kidnapped his wife and sister, Alberto Villamizar had paid close attention to the priest's broadcast. The president had commissioned Villamizar to negotiate the release of the captives. His sister had recently been freed after the murder of Marina, but the Extraditables were still holding his wife. As a politician, Villamizar had fought attempts by colleagues to pass legislation against extradition. In return, Pablo had sanctioned a hit on him in 1986. Following its failure, Villamizar was appointed as Ambassador to Indonesia, where he'd felt safe until US security forces captured a hit man in Singapore sent to kill him.
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Watching God's Minute convinced him that Father Garcia could play an important part in the negotiations. In recent months with media interest in Pablo's possible surrender escalating - Villamizar's letters to Pablo had achieved nothing. Pablo was still insisting. on the police being held accountable for the murders of slum kids and claiming that General Maza had been behind the assassination of the presidential candidate, Luis Carlos Galán, for which Pablo had been blamed. "Tell doña Gloria that Maza killed her husband, there can be no doubt about it." Pablo continued to accuse Maza of allying with the Cali Cartel. Maza responded that he wasn't going after the Cali Cartel or even drug traffic, but after traffickers committing terrorism. Maza sensed that Pablo was going to call for his resignation as a condition of his surrender.
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Many books on Pablo have portrayed his battle with Maza as one of evil versus good. The reality was far more complex. On November 25, 2010, Colombian prosecutors issued an arrest warrant for Maza for his involvement in Galán's murder. The prosecutors claimed that Maza had intentionally reduced Galán's bodyguard contingent to enable the assassination of which Pablo had been accused. Pablo had told Villamizar the truth about Maza.
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Seeking advice, Villamizar - with a stern intellectual face, bags under his hazel eyes, short brown parted hair and a slight beard turning grey - visited Jorge Ochoa in prison, who sent him to the Ochoa ranch, La Loma, to see his father.
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Cradling a whiskey and sitting in his throne-like chair, Fabio Sr sympathised. "We won't screw around anymore with letters. At this rate it will take a hundred years. The best thing is for you to meet with Escobar and for the two of you to agree on whatever conditions you like."
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In a letter to Pablo, Fabio Sr proposed that Villamizar be transported to him in the boot of a car. Pablo responded, "Maybe I'll talk to Villamizar, but not now."
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Villamizar tried to broker a month's truce From the National Police, who refused to halt operations against such a criminal as Pablo.
"You're acting at your own risk and all we can do is wish you luck."
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Villamizar went to see Father Garcia at the TV studio. They visited the Ochoas in prison.
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In a cell, the priest dictated a letter in the exact same manner he delivered his sermons on TV. He invited Pablo to join him in bringing peace to Colombia. In this endeavour, he hoped to be accredited by the government, so that Pablo's "rights, and those of your family and friends, will be respected." He asked Pablo not to make impossible demands on the government. He concluded with, "If you believe we can meet in a place that is safe for both of us, let me know."
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Pablo responded three days later. He requested disciplinary sanctions against the police he'd accused of murdering the kids in the slums. He agreed to surrender and to confess to a crime even though no evidence existed anywhere in the world of any crime alleged to have been committed by him. The priest was disappointed that Pablo hadn't agreed to meet him.
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After corresponding with Pablo in secrecy for five months, Villamizar was concerned about the priest's high profile, which now included journalists camped outside of his ascetic living quarters.
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On May 13, 1991, Villamizar received a letter from Pablo, requesting that he take the priest to the Ochoas at La Loma and keep him there for as long as possible. It could be days or months because Pablo needed to examine every detail of the operation. If any security issues arose, negotiations would collapse.
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