by Germanico Vaca
I will tell you a story that very few people know, but which I was told as the truth. It is a story good enough for a movie—one that powerful institutions would prefer never be told. Yet it must be told, because truth does not belong to governments or intelligence agencies. It belongs to history. The repercussions could be more damaging than you can ever imagine.
I learned this account from the judge who issued the arrest warrant against Pablo Escobar Gaviria. She and her husband were living in the United States, pretty much in exile from Colombia. He was one of the most prestigious professors at Colombia’s most important university, conducting years of investigation, spending countless hours with attorneys general and criminal investigators. What they uncovered was not merely disturbing; it was grotesque, shocking, and morally repugnant. It painted a picture of systematic wrongdoing that implicated not only criminals, but powerful state actors—particularly the United States—in acts of profound global harm.
This is the story of one of the most disturbing chapters in modern history.
In 1970 or 1971, Pablo Escobar was approximately 21 years old. At the time, he had stolen a car in Colombia and arranged to sell it in Ecuador through a contact involved in emerald trafficking. While in Ecuador, he also agreed to pick up drugs as part of a small-scale criminal exchange.
As Escobar entered the quiet town of Ibarra, Ecuador, he noticed something that struck him immediately: customs officers and police rigorously inspected passports, documents, and vehicles for drugs and weapons. Yet curiously, a race car loaded on a truck ahead of him passed through without inspection—followed by a truck loaded with tires that also went unchecked.
At that moment, an idea was born.
That observation would become the foundation of a trafficking method on a scale previously unimaginable.
Escobar traveled to Yahuarcocha, where the car race was going to take place. He attended the race event and immersed himself in the atmosphere of excitement and prestige. He introduced himself as a racecar driver from Colombia. Soon after, he contacted his criminal associates, and within months, they helped finance new asphalt for what would become the Yahuarcocha International Racetrack.
Before long, drug traffickers from Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru were competing in car races in Ecuador. Among them were the Montoya brothers, Londoño, and Pablo Escobar Gaviria himself. Under the guise of motorsports, they exchanged trucks filled with tires—tires that concealed coca leaves destined for drug laboratories in Colombia. Race cars themselves were stuffed with coca leaves and chemical precursors used in drug production.
Some drivers were recruited into the operation; many of them would later meet tragic ends.
The money flowed rapidly. By 1971, luxury race cars such as the Porsche 906, Porsche 908, Porsche 917, Ferrari Dino, and BMW Alpina were racing in a small Ecuadorian town—an extraordinary spectacle for the time. No driver ever admitted to illicit connections, but all claimed that their expensive machines were funded through “personal connections.”
Escobar and his associates accumulated vast wealth. But this was only the beginning.
By 1976, Pablo Escobar Gaviria had established multiple trafficking routes for chemical precursors, coca leaves, stolen cars, and car parts. The organization was loosely structured and was not formally recognized as a “cartel” at the time. He also persuaded a cousin—then Director of Civil Aviation in Colombia—to establish air routes that expanded the operation dramatically.
Thus, El Señor de los Cielos was born.
By 1986, Álvaro Uribe Vélez was reportedly listed by U.S. intelligence sources as a drug trafficker of greater prominence than Escobar himself. Escobar had already embedded informants throughout the military, police, and customs agencies. By the early 1980s, he was exporting more than 75 tons of cocaine annually to the United States. In 1982, he entered politics and was elected as a Representative of the People. By then, he had accumulated such vast wealth that 22 large farms in Antioquia belonged to his family.
By the late 1980s, a decisive shift occurred.
The CIA allegedly decided to seize the financial assets of the drug cartels. To accomplish this, it relied on a bank registered in Luxembourg, but with major operations in Karachi and London: the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI). Originally established to facilitate payments for CIA operations in Afghanistan, the bank expanded rapidly as revenues from opium trafficking, arms sales, and covert operations across Central America surged.
At its peak, BCCI operated over 400 branches in 78 countries and controlled assets exceeding $20 billion, making it the seventh-largest private bank in the world.
According to this account, Álvaro Uribe Vélez was recruited by the CIA, provided with a fabricated academic credential, and promised the presidency of Colombia in exchange for delivering the cartel’s funds into BCCI. By the late 1980s, Colombian drug organizations deposited their money into BCCI, unaware that the bank itself would soon be targeted. But more importantly, without suspecting that the Bank was a CIA operation to get hold of all their money.
The CIA allegedly orchestrated regulatory scrutiny by financial authorities, citing poor oversight. Investigations revealed massive money laundering, financial fraud, and illegal control of a major American bank. In July 1991, regulators in seven countries simultaneously raided BCCI offices, freezing records and shutting down operations.
The money vanished.
During U.S. Congressional hearings, CIA officials repeatedly refused to answer questions, invoking national security. One exchange became infamous when a senator demanded answers under threat of consequences. The response was chilling:
“Senator, I will answer your questions—but then I will have to kill you for reasons of national security.”
The questioning stopped.
No serious investigation followed. No one pursued the billions of dollars that disappeared. BCCI faded from public discourse, and accountability vanished with it.
According to this version of events, the outcome was clear: from that point forward, the CIA was deeply embedded in drug trafficking operations throughout Latin America and into the United States itself. Even the current cartels are nothing but CIA operations.
History moved on—but the truth was buried.
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario