Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, December 3, 1993 TAG: 9312030421
SECTION: NATL/INTL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MEDELLIN, COLOMBIA NOTE: LEDE LENGTH: Medium
His hideout exposed by a traced phone call, Escobar was killed in Medellin, the industrial city that was the base of his trafficking network.
Authorities said Escobar and a bodyguard fired at troopers who raided their two-story house. Police returned fire and killed them both as a barefoot Escobar tried to escape over a rooftop.
``They offered resistance and died on the spot,'' Prosecutor General Gustavo de Greiff said.
Escobar's death was not expected to seriously affect the daily flow of tons of cocaine from Colombia to the United States and other countries. His role in the drug trade declined drastically during 16 months as a fugitive.
But many Colombians breathed a sigh of relief after the killing of Escobar. He was accused of murdering hundreds of people during a reign marked by assassinations and car bombings that blew apart neighborhoods, shopping centers and a passenger airliner.
President Cesar Gaviria said in a nationally broadcast speech that Escobar's death ``is a step toward the end of drug trafficking'' and shows ``it is possible to defeat evil.''
Andres Pastrana, a prominent senator, said of Escobar's death, ``It's the triumph of law over crime. Now the country can begin to live more peacefully.''
Not all Colombians were happy, however. Escobar had been generous to the people of his native Medellin.
More than a thousand onlookers gathered after the shooting and some whistled derisively as the heavily armed troops walked by.
Authorities found Escobar through a phone call he made Monday to a radio station to complain about the treatment of his family by Germany, Army commander Gen. Hernan Guzman said. Germany turned Escobar's family away after they sought asylum this week.
Escobar, 44, apparently had been hiding in the Medellin home several weeks.
He was killed by members of a 3,000-man police and army force that had hunted for him since he escaped from prison in July 1992.
Gen. Octavio Vargas, assistant director of the national police, said the raid was a ``commando-style, impeccable operation.''
Keywords:
FATALITY
by CNB