Alberto Villamizar, 62, Foe of Colombian Drug Cartel, Dies

Alberto Villamizar, 62, Foe of Colombian Drug Cartel, Dies

By DOUGLAS MARTIN
Published: July 28, 2007

Alberto Villamizar, a Colombian politician and diplomat who fought the Medellín cocaine cartel, dramatically won the release of his wife and sister when it kidnapped them, and then led his nation’s battle against a wave of abductions, died Thursday in Bogotá. He was 62.
The cause was complications of heart surgery, said Juan Manuel Galán, a family friend, as quoted by The Associated Press.
Mr. Villamizar’s crusade against kidnapping was chronicled by Gabriel García Márquez, the Nobel Prize-winning novelist, in his 1997 book, “News of a Kidnapping.”
The author hailed his “determination and patience” in avoiding armed solutions while not capitulating to criminal kidnappers. Mr. Villamizar had suggested that Mr. García Márquez write the book.
Mr. Villamizar’s grandfather was Colombia’s minister of war, and his father had been physician to the Presidential Guard. He himself went through medical studies at Javieriana University but never graduated.
He chose a political career and rose to prominence as an ally of the presidential candidate Luís Carlos Galán. The two sought to limit the wealth and political power of Pablo Escobar, chief of the Medellín cocaine cartel.
In 1985, Mr. Villamizar won passage of the National Narcotics Statute of 1985, the first general legislation against drug trafficking.
He then tried to block attempts by politicians associated with the cartel to pass a constitutional amendment forbidding extradition, which was Mr. Escobar’s greatest fear.
“It was nearly his death sentence,” Mr. García Márquez wrote. On Oct. 22, 1986, two assassins fired submachine guns at Mr. Villamizar as he got into his car. His escape was considered miraculous, the author wrote.
After the attempt on his life, Mr. Villamizar was named ambassador to Indonesia. After he had been there for a year, United States security forces in Singapore captured a Colombian assassin traveling to Jakarta. It was never proved that he had been sent to kill Mr. Villamizar, but Mr. García Márquez wrote that in the United States, a fake death certificate had declared him dead.
In 1989, Mr. Galán, who had a comfortable lead in the presidential race, was assassinated and succeeded as a candidate by César Gaviria, who won election as president. Mr. Villamizar supported Mr. Gaviria’s strong stance against terrorism and kidnapping.
In 1990, Mr. Escobar’s henchmen kidnapped Maruja Pachón, Mr. Villamizar’s wife and a prominent journalist, and Mr. Villamizar’s sister, Beatriz Villamizar de Guerrero.
Mr. García Márquez began his chronicle with their kidnapping, which was quickly followed by the kidnapping of eight more people, many of them prominent journalists.
The government asked Mr. Villamizar to be a mediator between the government and his family, a role that led to his becoming leader of Colombia’s campaign against kidnapping. He saw the war against the drug traffickers and their terrorist tactics as “an unavoidable personal challenge,” Mr. García Márquez wrote.
Mr. Gaviria, Colombia’s president, told Mr. Villamizar to establish contact with Mr. Escobar and negotiate with him, but with conditions: Mr. Villamizar could not violate constitutional safeguards protecting individual rights, and the president would not call off the military units searching for the kidnappers, but Mr. Villamizar could use the threat of extradition.
Mr. García Márquez noted the “internal contradictions present in these conditions.” He wrote, “In other words, he could do as he wished in his own way, using all his imagination, but he had to do it with his hands tied.”
Over five months of delicate negotiations, Mr. Villamizar persuaded Mr. Escobar to release his relatives. The drug lord was so impressed with the negotiator that he eventually asked him to help negotiate his surrender with the Colombian authorities.
“For all these years, Escobar has been my family’s cross, and mine,” he said to Mr. García Márquez. “First he threatens me. Then he makes an attempt on my life, and it’s a miracle I escape. He goes on threatening me. He assassinates Galán. He abducts my wife and sister, and now he wants me to defend his rights.”
In 1991, Mr. Escobar surrendered in return for lenient punishment. He escaped from his luxurious prison in 1992 and died in a gunfight with security forces in Medellín in 1993.
In 1996, President Ernesto Samper named Mr. Villamizar the country’s first kidnapping czar, a position he used to create a special police force to deal with abductions. In 1997, Mr. Villamizar was named Colombia’s ambassador to Cuba.
He is survived by his wife, Maruja Pachón, and his son, Andres.
“He was someone who lived with and understood very well the drama of kidnappings,” Olga Lucía Gómez, director of País Libre, a nonprofit group that helps abduction victims, said, as quoted by The Associated Press. “He helped to make the crime of kidnapping more visible.”