Jhon Jairo Velásquez

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Jhon Jairo Velásquez (2014)

Jhon Jairo Velásquez Vásquez (born April 15, 1962 in Yarumal , Departamento de Antioquia ; † February 6, 2020 in Bogotá ) was a Colombian hit man , who was also known as Popeye . Popeye was the right hand man of the drug trafficker and terrorist Pablo Escobar (1949-1993) and confessed to his perpetrators in 250 to 300 murders and the order of another 3,000 killings by the Medellín cartel . He himself spoke of his own murders.

Life

youth

Jhon Jairo Velásquez attended evening school in his youth and graduated. In his youth he attended beauty courses and worked at various hairdressers in Medellín, only to retire a short time later because he found no satisfaction in these professions. He was later inducted into the School of NCOs of the Colombian Armed Forces , where he earned his distinctive nickname Popeye because of his physical resemblance to the character. This appearance should later be changed through plastic surgery . Later he entered the National Police Cadet School "General Santander" and studied for a semester.

Murder victim

He was responsible for the kidnapping of Andrés Pastrana on January 16, 1988, then a candidate for the mayoral election of Bogotá, to put pressure on the Colombian authorities to prevent a possible extradition of Pablo Escobar to the United States . He was found guilty in August 1992 of murdering Colombian presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galán in 1989 , for which he was sentenced to 30 years in prison. He himself admitted that he was the mastermind behind the murder of 3,000 people and that he personally killed 250 to 300 people, including his own girlfriend.

Imprisonment and release

Velásquez gave up his life in the service of the Medellín cartel in October 1992 and surrendered to the police. He had been held in the maximum security prison of Cómbita, northeast of Bogotá , for his actions since 1993 . In August 2014, after more than 21 years in prison, he was released on parole for cooperating in investigating the acts of the Medellín cartel. His life was filmed. No other contemporary witness from that dark time in the South American country knew the internals of international drug smuggling as well as he, who was the only person close to Escobar to survive the bloody drug war. During his imprisonment he continued his education and received a. a. 14 diplomas in different courses.

After his release, Jhon Jairo Velásquez settled in Bogotá to hide from his enemies. In June 2016 he announced that he wanted to go into politics in order to become a senator . However, he was not eligible as a convicted criminal under the Colombian Constitution. On May 25, 2018, Velásquez was arrested again for extortion and membership of a criminal organization . He had previously been monitored for threats against left-wing presidential candidate Gustavo Petro and his supporters. Velásquez himself explained the threats by saying that his Twitter account had been hacked.

Most recently, Velásquez explained the time he had worked for Escobar as a professional killer on a YouTube channel. He had over a million subscribers there.

Velásquez died in a hospital in Bogota of complications from gastric cancer that had been treated since December 2019.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ "Killing was easy": Right hand of drug lord Escobar: 300 times murderer unpacks. In: express.de . September 19, 2016, accessed February 7, 2020 . Sibylla Brodzinsky: Ex-Pablo Escobar enforcer who killed 300 seeks new career as YouTube star. In: guardian.co.uk . June 8, 2016, accessed February 7, 2020 .
  2. ^ Documentation "Inside the Real Narcos: Columbia" (2018); in Germany as “ The real Narcos : Colombia” or “Drug cartels up close: Among gangsters in Colombia”.
  3. ↑ Pablo Escobar's hit man is free. In: faz.net . August 27, 2014, accessed February 7, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Klaus Ehringfeld: Released after 21 years in prison: Escobar's hit man fears for his life. In: Spiegel Online . August 27, 2014, accessed February 7, 2020 .
  5. ↑ After 250 murders: Escobar's contract killer wants to go into politics. In: süddeutsche.de . March 21, 2017, archived from the original on March 21, 2017 ; accessed on February 7, 2020 .
  6. ↑ Pese a ser su anhelo, Popeye nunca podrá aspirar al Congreso. In: elespectador.com . June 30, 2016, accessed February 7, 2020 (Spanish).
  7. ↑ Shortly before the election in Colombia: Police arrest convicted contract killer by Escobar. In: stuttgarter-zeitung.de . May 26, 2018. Retrieved May 27, 2018 .
  8. ↑ Kathrin Zeiske: Women and men: Escobar orders, Popeye kills. In: tagesspiegel.de . September 16, 2011, accessed December 29, 2018 . POPEYE_Arrepentido. In: YouTube. Retrieved February 7, 2020 (Spanish, YouTube channel by Jhon Jairo Velásquez).
  9. ↑ Drug lord Escobar's hitman Jhon Velásquez dies in Colombia. In: BBC News . February 6, 2020, accessed on February 6, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Velásquez, Jhon Jairo
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Popeye (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Colombian hit man
DATE OF BIRTH April 15, 1962
PLACE OF BIRTH Yarumal , Antioquia Department , Colombia
DATE OF DEATH February 6, 2020
Place of death Bogotá , Colombia