Capítulo 50: THE CATHEDRAL:- PART3
The Monkey was unable to close the helicopter door, so the co-pilot did it.
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"Do we take off now?" the pilot said.
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"What do you think? Move it!" Pablo said, briefly dropping his polite mask. As the helicopter ascended, Pablo said to Villamizar, "Everything is fine, isn't it, Doctor?"
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"Everything's perfect."
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After fifteen minutes, the helicopter landed next to the first helicopter on a prison soccer field with broken goalposts and rocks everywhere. Pablo got out. Fifty men in blue guard uniforms aimed their guns at him.
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He responded like thunder: "Lower your weapons, damn it!"
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The guns were lowered before their commander issued the same order.
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They walked to a house containing the official delegation, more of Pablo's men who'd surrendered and his wife and mother.
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"Take it easy, Ma," Pablo said, patting his mother on the shoulder.
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The prison director shook Pablo's hand.
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"Señor Escobar. I'm Lewis Jorge Pataquiva."
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Pablo pulled up a trouser leg, revealing Sig Sauer 9 mm pistol with a gold monogram inlaid on a mother of pearl handle. The spellbound crowd watched him remove each bullet and throw it on the ground. The gesture was designed to show confidence in the warden whose appointment had worried Pablo. On a portable phone, Pablo told his brother that he'd surrendered. Addressing the journalists present, he said his surrender was an act of peace. "I decided to give myself up the moment I saw the National Constitutional Assembly working for the strengthening of human rights and Colombian democracy."
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Journalists wrote about Pablo:
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"I had thought that he was a petulant, proud, disciplined man, one of those who is always looking over his shoulder. But I was wrong. On the contrary, he is educated. He asks permission if he walks in front of a person and is agreeable when he greets someone."
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"You can see that he is someone who worries about his appearance. Especially his shoes. They were impeccably clean."
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"He walks as if he had no worry in the world. He is very jovial and he laughs a lot."
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"He had a bit of a belly, which makes him look like a calm man."
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Pablo acknowledged everyone.
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"I'm here," the special prosecutor said, taking Pablo's hand, "Señor Escobar, to make certain your rights are respected." Pablo thanked him.
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Pablo took Villamizar's arm. "Let's go, Doctor. You and I have a lot to talk about."
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In an outside gallery, they both leaned against a railing. Pablo thanked Villamizar and apologised for the pain he'd caused him and his family. He said both sides had suffered in the war.
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"Why was Luis Carlos Galán killed?" Villamizar said, referring to the presidential candidate.
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"The fact is that everybody wanted to kill Dr Galán. I was present at the discussions when the attack was decided, but I had nothing to do with what happened. A lot of people were involved in that. I didn't even like the idea because I knew what would happen if they killed him, but once the decision was made, I couldn't oppose it. Please tell doña Gloria that for me," Pablo said, referring to Galán's widow.
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"Why was an attempt made on my life?"
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"A group of friends in Congress had convinced me that you were uncontrollable and stubborn and had to be stopped somehow before you succeeded in having extradition approved. Besides, in that war we were fighting, just a rumour could get you killed. But now that I know you, Dr Villamizar, thank God nothing happened to you."
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"Why did you kidnap my wife and sister?"
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"I was kidnapping people to get something and I didn't get it. Nobody was talking to me. Nobody was paying attention, so I went after doña Maruja to see if that would work." Pablo said that the negotiations had convinced him that Villamizar was a brave man of his word, and he was eternally grateful for that. Even though he was not expecting them to ever be friends, Pablo assured Villamizar that nothing bad would ever happen to his family. "Who knows how long I'll be here, but I still have a lot of friends, so if any of you feels unsafe, if anybody tries to give you a hard time, you let me know and that'll be the end of it. You met your obligations to me, and I thank you and will do the same for you. You have my word of honour." Pablo asked Villamizar if he'd have a word with his mother and wife, who were having sleepless nights as they suspected the government had arranged for Pablo to be murdered in prison.
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Forty-one-year-old Pablo underwent the medical examination required for new prisoners. His health was documented as that of "a young man in normal physical and mental condition." Pablo said that the scar on his nose was due to an injury from playing football as a child. The only abnormality found WaS congestion in the nasal mucous membranes.
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To obtain imprisonment, Pablo cited a crime that he had been found guilty of by the French authorities: acting as a middleman in a drug transaction arranged by his cousin, Gustavo. He issued a statement: "That country's penal code… gives one the right to apply for a revision of their case, when they appear before their national judge, in this case a Colombian judge. This is precisely the objective of my voluntary presentation to this office, in other words, to have a Colombian judge examine my case." Rather than plead guilty to a crime, he had surrendered to appeal the French conviction.
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In court in Bogotá, Pablo declared his job title as "livestock farmer," and added, "I have no addictions, don't smoke, don't drink." He said he'd done an accounting course and, while incarcerated, he was going to obtain a college degree. "I wish to clarify that there may be people who might try to send anony. mous letters, make phone calls or commit actions in bad faith under my name in order to harm me. There have been many accusations, but I've never been convicted of a crime in Colombia."
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"Do you know where they got the 400 kilos of cocaine?" the judge said, referring to Pablo's conviction in France.
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"I think Mr Gustavo Gaviria was in charge of that."
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"Who is Mr Gustavo Gaviria?"
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