"The Cocaine Horsemen" by Fabio Castillo

Has anyone read this book? What's Fabio Casillo's story?

Uribe, chosen by paras and narcos...

Alvaro Uribe was born in 1952 in Medellin, into a gentry family from Antioquia, also linked to the landowner property and the drug trafficking business. Fabio Castillo's book, Los jinetes de cocaína (/The cocaine horsemen/), tells that Alberto Uribe Sierra, the father of the current Colombian president, was a well known drug dealer, who was once arrested to be extradited. However, Jesús Aristizábal Guevara, then Secretary of Government to Medellín, managed to release him. Uribe Sierra was killed by the guerrilla due to his contra-insurgent activities.

The political carrier of who is currently Colombia's president began very early. Even before he could finish college, and it coincided with the very peak stage of the Medellín Cartel. In 1976, he was Chief of Assets for the Public Enterprises of Medellín (Empresas Públicas de Medellín). He served as Secretary General of the Ministry of Labor between 1977 and 1978, and between 1980 and 1982 he served as Director of Civil Aviation. He was Mayor of Medellín from 1982 to 1983 and councillor of that town between 1984 and 1986; Antioquia's senator between 1988 and 1993, and governor of that department for the 1995 to 1997 term.

Columnist Fernando Garavito from El Espectador journal expressed that during the period in which Uribe served as director for the Colombian Civil Aviation several pilot licenses were given to the Medellín Cartel -which allowed its pilots to fly huge quantities of cocaine out of Colombia and inside or outside of the United States. Uribe was allegedly retired from that post due to this irregularity.

Fabio Castillo expressed it in his book, /The Cocaine Horsemen/, with naturalness. “Uribe gave license to several pilots of drug dealers when he served as director of Civil Aviation... when Rodrigo Lara served as Minister of Justice, he ordered to stop 30 airplanes to the Ochoa, ten to Pablo Escobar, ten to Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha and four to Carlos Lehder Rivas, but that he had just immobilized a small part of the great air fleet of Medellín's drug traffickers.�? And so forth.

In an article published in 2004, Marhyon Escobar expresses that when Uribe served as Mayor of Medellín in 1982 -post he had to quit after barely five months out of 2 years period due to the pressure of then-President Belisario Betancur Cuartas when this latter found out of a secret meeting of Uribe with the mafia lords Pablo Escobar Gaviria, the Ochoa Vazques, Carlos Ledher Rivas and Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha- he personally presided the inauguration ceremony of the shantytown /Medellín sin tugurios/ (Medellín without shantytowns), built at the east of this city by the former drug lord Pablo Escobar Gaviria.

A document undersigned by the chief of the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Donnie R. Marshall, on August 3 2001, tells that several air lanes were seized with materials for the production of cocaine. The airplanes were addressed to Medellín for a company called GMP Productos Químicos (GMP Chemical Products).

The 50 tons of the precursor chemical destined to GMP were enough to make 500 tons of cocaine hydrochloride, with a street value of 15 billion dollars.

The owner of GMP Chemical Products, according to the 2001 DEA chief's report, is Pedro Juan Moreno Villa, the campaign manager and longtime right-hand-man for current Colombian president.

On the other hand, MacMillan Editorial published in 1999 a book about the Colombian drug trafficker Pablo Escobar, titled /Whitewash/. Simon Strong, the book's author, had the opportunity to interview Alvaro Uribe and he describes such interview as follows.

“I met with Uribe Velez at the lobby of a hotel in Bogotá, in March 1994, in order to talk about politics and drug traficking.

“For that time, he was senator. One of the congressmen who had just been elected under his guidance was Willian Vélez, who had been one of the first Escobar's political allies in Envigado (town and municipality in Antioquia). When I mentioned his connection with Vélez, the youthful and some times superior charm of this gentleman evaporated along with his smile.

“After he had apparently calmed, I asked him about his tenure as director on the Colombian Civil Aviation. It was all. This short man jumped furiously (...) ran to the stairs through the lobby and did not stop until he was amid his bodyguards, who had parked outside the terrace. Then, rethinking about abandoning that way a recorded interview and surrounded by his bodyguards in order to support him and threaten me, he insisted on continuing the interview. 'I am honest,' he repeated incessantly.�?

However, the most relevant case of Alvaro Uribe personality is shown by the journalist Joseph Contreras.

In March 2002, Newsweek magazine published a controversial interview that Contreras made to then candidate for the Colombian presidency, Alvaro Uribe Vélez, which was focused on the dibate of his paramilitary project. Following, we textually reproduce such interview.

Contreras (C): Some Colombians regard you as the preferred candidate of the paramilitary groups.

Uribe (U): I have never met any member of either the paramilitary forces or the guerrillas. (Paramilitary leader) Carlos Castaño has clearly said he does not know me. I once met (paramilitary supremo) Salvatore Mancuso when he was a cattle rancher but I have not spoken with him since he
became a paramilitary member.

C: But many years ago when you...

U: I won't answer that. If I have links to the paramilitary groups, file
a complaint with the appropriate authorities.

C: In 1997 and 1998, agents of the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) seized 50 tons of a chemical precursor used in the processing of cocaine. Those chemicals had been allegedly purchased by a company belonging to Pedro Juan Moreno, who worked with you when you were governor of Antioquia.

U: I became aware of that only after my term as governor ended. If the charges are true, he should go to jail. If they are groundless, the DEA should rectify that error. I believe that an error was made in this case.

C: According to a best-selling book about the drug trade entitled 'The Cocaine Horsemen,' you spoke out on behalf of a low-income housing program in Medellin that was funded by drug lord Pablo Escobar when you were mayor of that city in 1982...

U: I asked the attorney general's office to investigate that matter, and I was completely cleared of those charges. That housing program was well underway when I became mayor. I had nothing to do with that.

C: Well-informed sources say that a record number of pilot's licenses and airstrip construction permits were issued by the civil-aviation authority when you headed that agency in the 1980s, a period when drug trafficking was on the rise...

U: Let's not talk further. I see that you have come here to smear my political career.

C: Your deputy at the aviation authority was a man named Cesar Villegas, later sentenced to five years in prison for his links to the Cali cartel and murdered earlier this month...

U: I refuse to accept that you foreign correspondents come here to ask me these kinds of questions and repeat slanders made against me. All I say is this: as a politician, I have been honorable and accountable. We have nothing else to discuss.

It is worth mentioning that journalists Joseph Contreras and Fernando Garavito, who had the opportunity of interviewing Uribe Vélez trying to clear his possible links to the paramilitary, had fled from Colombia due to alleged threats of murder.

As senator, Uribe went ahead with laws which have favored the greatest financial concentration of capital in hands of financial monopoly groups and imperialist financial capital:

* Law 71/88 or the Retirement Benefit Reform. It has served for some monopoly groups to own the Private Funds of Retirement and Unemployment, which in 1995 added up to $708 billion pesos, resources addressed to financial speculation.

Meanwhile, age and time for workers to have the right of retirement was
increased.

* Law 50/90 or Labor Reform. It aimed to fit the labor legislation to the needs of the neoliberal model, turning workers into a merchandise subject to the laws of a market free of legal and labor union hindrance.

Uribe Vélez defended that law as the philosopher's stone to activate employment.

For that period, unemployment almost reached 10%; instead of reducing, 12 years later it reaches 27%.

With Law 50, the gentry stripped Colombia’s workers of their labor achievements, among them labor stability. The right to strike in public administration companies was eliminated; criminalization on people's manifestations intensified; the increase of workers' laboral time was established; temporal companies and temporary jobs are created; and there are also created the so called Retirement Funds as a way to wrench from workers their unemployment benefits, and to transfer them to the hands of monopoly groups. Today, imperialism demands to deepen the Labor Reform started by Uribe.

* Law 100/93. Social Security System. Health became into the most profitable and speculative business of the monopoly groups, which progress on a advertising war in order to take possession of all the affiliates to the Retirement Fund, causing the breakdown of the national health service.

By Medellin Traveler on Mar 6, 2008, 15:01 in Friendly Talkzone.

huskie says on Mar 6, 2008, 15:32:

There is also a documentary," Los Jinetes de la Cocaina", I read the book and saw the documentary, I liked the doc better, you should be able to find it on dvd anywhere in the US
Cheers

"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds-"

tejasmarcos says on Mar 6, 2008, 15:37:

and i thought uribe was a good fella...... ;)

my glass is getting shorter on whiskey, ice and water...

Medellin Traveler says on Mar 6, 2008, 15:43:

huskie,
Is the doc known as Cocaine Cowboys in the US?

I found this site http://www.derechos.org/nizkor/colombia/libros/jinetes/ when I searched the web looking for the DVD.

Medellin es una chimba! www.medellintraveler.com

Catfish35 says on Mar 6, 2008, 16:05:

TJ.
I agree, however, everyone must unfortunately weigh and ingest their politicians with a preponderance scale instead a totality measure. I appluad MEDTRAVller for enlightening us on Uibe, and I believe that we all should expose everything about all politicians. However, it appears that they ALL have dirt somewhere swept under a rug. We must take the negatives into consideration against the positives.
I believe Uribe has done many good things in his tenure. It is very unfortunate that the good times for Colombia may be soon on a down swing. Uribe will not have any backing at all with Obama if he gets in and I believe that Clinton will not help out Colombia much either, unless Bill gets involved and pushes for this FTA, as he did with NAFTA and GATT etc...
I think we are fooling ourselves to consider Colombia is not majorly plugged into the USA. As things change there (and not for the better) so will things here. I still believe Uribe is good for Colombia and esp. for MED. Some money somewhere is being pumped back into the system. Look at the all the road work and jobs it has created just for example. The new construction all not which is private. I think he has stink on his hands however I shiver to think what Colombia may have as opposed to him. Do you think someone better? With no shit bones in his closet? I hardly think anyone can find a politician anywhere in the world like that, and if we do, he wont last too long....in life! (all IMOP, of course)

" Say hello to my lil' friend"Tony Montana

tejasmarcos says on Mar 6, 2008, 16:09:

good observations, fish. thanks for the post, mt.

my glass is getting shorter on whiskey, ice and water...

lampltr says on Mar 6, 2008, 17:06:

MT great reading for sure....these available in Ingles?
I will second tejas fish...I believe without the backing from the U.S. Colombia will be swallowed up by the left and quite possibly become a socialist society dispite what the major may desire. My thoughts anyways, chao guys.

Medellin Traveler says on Mar 6, 2008, 17:56:

lampltr,
I'm not sure, Huskie read the book, also would like to know if it was in ingles, 'cause I'm not up to reading whole book in espanol.

Huskie?

Interesting comment, where WOULD Colombia be today without the backing of the US?

Medellin es una chimba! www.medellintraveler.com

juancegomez says on Mar 6, 2008, 18:06:

The problem with this book (and similar documents), read a long time ago but I am unfortunately not in the mood to do so again right now, is that it states many things as facts without directly backing them up, and that it doesn't really try to present details which, at the very least, provide us with additional context.

It's just "slap this and this claim, this and this circumstance...and by the way, Uribe has a horrible temper, so he must be angry at the truth of the accusations against him".

The entire GMP case, for example, actually had a rather unexpected outcome than you'd expect from just reading what is mentioned here. I posted about this previously, should be somewhere else in PBH.

Or, for example, the claim that Uribe's father was going to be extradited. That should be extremely easy to prove, since it would show up either in the Colombian press or in U.S. warrants / official requests for extradition. But has someone dug that up? No. It's stated as a fact, just like that.

It's always "this person said or heard that someone else said..., or this book where this person said or heard that someone else said...". That won't fly in a court, international ones even.

None of this means that Uribe is a holy saint or what not. But the fact is that the usual case against him depends almost exclusively on either claims or circumstantial evidence or personal attacks.

I prefer to be an anti-Uribist in terms of his actual (mis-)government, thank you very much.

huskie says on Mar 7, 2008, 08:27:

Yeah MT that is the one, I bought it at either, Costco or Target, cannot recall, but its a doc about people, who worked for the cartel, Gringos, and others, and they decided to make a documentary. Here's the link
www.magpictures.com/

The cocaine trade of the 70s and 80s had an indelible impact on contemporary Miami. Smugglers and distributors forever changed a once sleepy retirement community into one of the world’s most glamorous hot spots, the epicenter of a $20 billion annual business fed by Colombia’s Medellin cartel. By the early 80s, Miami’s tripled homicide rate had made it the murder capital of the country, for which a Time cover story dubbed the city “Paradise Lost.��?

With COCAINE COWBOYS, filmmaker Billy Corben – whose first feature Raw Deal: A Question Of Consent, caused a sensation at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival – paints a dazzling portrait of a cultural explosion that still echoes as Hollywood myth, evidenced by the latest manifestation, NBC/Universal’s Miami Vice, opening July 28th. Composer of the original “Miami Vice��? theme, Jan Hammer, provides the score.

Director/Producer - Billy Corben
Producer - Alfred Spellman
Executive Producers - Bruno del Granado
Daniela Manas
Music Composer/ Performer - Jan Hammer
Director of Photography - Armando Salas
Editors - Billy Corben
David Cypkin

“AN INCREDIBLE STORY, WILDER THAN ANY EPISODE OF MIAMI VICE.��? – Dennis Dermody, Paper Magazine

“FASCINATING AND GENUINELY ENGROSSING. The tales of ‘the Godmother’ make even Tony Montana’s antics in ‘Scarface’ seem like kiddie fodder.��? – Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald

“MOVE OVER “MIAMI VICE’ and ‘SCARFACE’ – THIS IS HOW IT REALLY HAPPENED. Exhilarating.��? – Dan Hudak, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

***1/2 If ‘The Godfather’ movies were based on real gangsters and some of them were still around to talk about the good old days., they might be as fascinating as the characters in ‘Cocaine Cowboys’.��? – Jack Matthews, New York Daily News

"A hyperventilating account of the blood-drenched Miami drug culture in the 1970’s and 80’s, the movie overflows with cops and coroners, snitches and smugglers, reporters and importers. Most resemble refugees from “Scarface,��? and all talk a mile a minute — except for the dead bodies, of course." – Jeanette Catsoulis, New York Times

“FORGET MIAMI VICE. FORGET SCARFACE. For the real drug-traffic-out-of-control-in-Miami story, check out the compulsively watchable Cocaine Cowboys.��? – Jay Carr, AM New York

“THE ‘GODMOTHER’, NO LIE, MAKES TONY MONTANA LOOK LIKE MOTHER TERESA.��? – Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly

“SUCH A BUZZ TO WATCH! Kinetic and absorbing, the doc equivalent of ‘Goodfellas’.��? – Noel Murray, The Onion

“TREMENDOUSLY ENTERTAINING! Action-packed, with rapid –fire editing and colorful characters who tell riveting stories.��? – Neil Rosen, New York 1 News

“An exhaustive and exciting history of how that white powder transformed Miami.��? – Andrew O’Hehir, Salon

Cheers

"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds-"

jorgegdiaz says on Mar 7, 2008, 10:30:

Also, El Hombre que Hizo Llover Coca, Max Merlmestein
A gringo in the trade, like George Jung. However I don´´t think he got convicted

Man with hole in pocket feel cocky all day.

huskie says on Mar 7, 2008, 11:04:

I just saw your question on the book, I read it in Spanish, dunno if it's available in english
Cheers

"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds-"

Mr. Hollywood says on Mar 7, 2008, 11:21:

Have you noticed that EVERY successful politician draws this kind of smear?

Remember the "October Surprise" against Bush 1?

Whitewater against the Clintons?

All the allegations against JFK because of his father's questionable activities during prohibition?

I say judge a president by the integrity of his or her actions while in office.

cali373 says on Mar 7, 2008, 11:49:

This is old news and all ready covered on PBH. Like Colombians don't already know Uribe is a Paramilitary supporter. We all know Paramilitaries are drug traffickers and commit atrocities against innocents.

Smile if you are a thinker!

ChinazoPavilion says on Jun 19, 2008, 00:35:

Well I just found this post but I really like all the info you gather from different sources. :)

About the book " Los jinetes de la cocaina", it is one of the best books that describes the drug business in colombia, everything is inside. When the book came in 1988, the people in colombia thought that Fabio Castillo wrote a novel hahaha but as the time passed, more and more from the book came to surface. Even today , 20 years later, there are still episodes with people described in the book :O . That book takes 10/10.

You can find it here: (Spanish)

http://www.derechos.org/nizkor/colombia/libros/jinetes/

Fabio Castillo wrote the second part in 1996. Called "Los nuevos Jinetes de la cocaina" "The new horsemen of cocaine" based upon Cartel del Norte del Valle "North Valley Cartel" and is very good too. Right now there is a "telenovela" (Colombian garbage tv programs ) airded in "canal caracol" at 20:30 Bogota time. Based in another book called "Cartel de los sapos" but the stories between los nuevos jinetes and cartel de los sapos match perfectly so I guess Fabio Castillo was right again. Mot of the druglords from norte del valle cartel are now behind bars or "had become one with the force" hahaha the "boss of bosses" was captured last year so I hope Fabio Castillo could write the 3rd volume of jinetes de la cocaina about the probably next coming cartel XD.

Interesting what you write about alvaro uribe, I didnt know he was behind so many congress out-"laws" hahah but actually the American Journalist you named: Joseph Contreras wrote a book in 2002 about auv that didn't get many interest from the media... I'm wondreing why!! The book is called: "alvaro uribe el señor de las sombras biografia no autorizada"/ alvaro uribe lord of shadows, not authorized biography" and you can find it here:

resistir.info/colombia/biografia_auv.pdf

if the link is broken just google it and it will appear:D

and talking about Mr. Fabio Castillo, as far as I know he received many life threats and he had to flee!! If you find him, please ask him when he will publish the 3rd volume of jinetes and probably we could know who will be the next presidents supported by the next drug cartels in the next 30 years hahahaaha

Thank you very much for your post, I really appreciate it :D