Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha
Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha (* 1947 in Pacho , Cundinamarca , Colombia ; † December 15, 1989 in Tolú , Colombia), also known as "the Mexicans" because of his preference for large hats , was an important member of the infamous Medellín cartel .
Life
José Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha ("El Mexicano") was born in 1947 in Pacho, Colombia. There he began his career in the semi-legal emerald trade . At the end of the 1970s he got into the drug trade .
Together with Pablo Escobar and the Ochoa brothers, he co-founded the "Extraditables", a military association of drug traffickers that campaigned for the protection of their interests and against extradition to the USA , and for the murder of Luis Carlos Galán , the presidential candidate of the Liberal Party for the 1990 elections. Galán had announced an intensified offensive against the drug mafia in the event of his election.
Gacha was considered the most powerful and cruel of the leaders of the Medellín cartel until it became clear after his death in 1989 that Pablo Escobar had been the real leader all along.
Gacha is responsible for founding and promoting many right-wing paramilitary groups such as the AUC , which were initially supposed to protect the cocaine industry from left-wing rebels and other criminal organizations, and which are still an important party to the armed conflict in Colombia , which has been going on for over 40 years .
Gacha was shot dead on December 15, 1989 during a raid by a Colombian special force. One came on his trail when he ordered a truckload of women over the radio to his remote stay. The location was inaccurate because the part of the conversation that was intercepted was too short, but elite police units were called in to comb the area. They were finally led to the house by a certain Jorge Velasquez, a cocaine smuggler from Cartagena who had worked as an informant for the competitors of the Medellín cartel in Cali.
literature
- Raul Zelik : The informalization of the state of emergency . In: jour fixe initiative berlin (ed.): War. Münster, 2009. ISBN 978-3-89771-490-8
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Gacha, Gonzalo Rodríguez |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | the mexican |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Colombian drug trafficker; Member of the Medellín cartel |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1947 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Pacho , Cundinamarca , Colombia |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 15, 1989 |
| Place of death | Tolu , Colombia |