Panama, and Maj. Gen. William F. Garrison, commander of the Joint Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg, N.C. Col. Boykin and his crew flew south that evening with authorization to get the job done. Their mission was code-named Heavy Shadow. They arrived on a U.S. Air Force jet painted to look like a standard commercial flight.
Eight very fit American men dressed in civilian clothes were met at El Dorado airport in Bogota by midlevel embassy officials and driven downtown in the dark, moving swiftly along roads that in daylight would have been choked with traffic.
The U.S. Embassy was just north of central Bogota, a gray, four-story, L-shaped structure with a windowless fifth floor atop one arm. It was set back behind high walls. In the vault on the closed fifth floor, Busby was waiting with CIA Station Chief Bill Wagner and Joe Toft, the top DEA man in Bogota.
Busby and Boykin were old friends, and after a few minutes of getting caught up, the ambassador began briefing the Delta colonel on the situation. It was, to say the least, confusing.
From the rondos of blame taking place in the government palaces to the furious caterwauling of the Colombian press, the July 22 prison escape of Pablo Escobar had set off a great storm in Bogota. There were hourly contradictory reports: Pablo had been captured; Pablo had been killed; Pablo had surrendered; Pablo was still hiding in the jail.
To an extent that no one had anticipated, the Escobar problem was a keystone that touched every fissure of Colombia's confusing power structure. When Escobar walked out of jail, the hopeful administration of President Cesar Gaviria had begun to splinter. Every day a new official investigation began. The Ministry of Justice accused the army of accepting bribes to allow Escobar's escape; one widely circulated (and false) report held that Escobar had paid huge sums to the soldiers around the prison, then walked out dressed as a woman.
President Gaviria had already fired all the guards and army officers associated with the disaster, as well as the air force general whose pilots had kept the assault force waiting for hours on the ground in Bogota after they were ordered to attack the prison.
The military began spreading rumors that Escobar had escaped through a secret underground tunnel. It seemed possible: On intercepted phone calls from the prison in the weeks before the escape, Escobar and his men had been overheard speaking about using 'the tunnel.'
Escobar had, in fact, left by more conventional means. The 'tunnel' turned out to be the drug boss' term for the covered truck that was used to roll contraband - women, weapons, bodies, alcohol - up and down the mountain under the studiously uninterested noses of prison guards and army patrols. The truck helped Escobar maintain his extravagant lifestyle inside the comfortable 'prison' that he had paid to have built and that was guarded by men he controlled.
The day after his disappearance, Escobar's lawyers had presented the government with a surrender offer. In his typical arrogant, formal style, the drug boss' demands were enumerated:
(1) That he would be able to return to prison;
(2) That his guards be rehired;
(3) That aerial surveillance of the prison be stopped;
(4) That no additional charges be brought against him;
(5) That his family and those of the others be allowed unrestricted prison visits;
(6) That the National Police have nothing to do with his rearrest or imprisonment.
Much to the satisfaction of the U.S. Embassy, President Gaviria had flatly refused to negotiate.
The following day an odd communique was broadcast by the national radio station Caracol, from someone calling himself 'Dakota,' who claimed to speak for 'The Extradictables,' the theatrical form Escobar often used when making formal statements to the public. The term referred to the period, a few years earlier, when the drug barons had waged a successful campaign of terror and bribes to outlaw their extradition to the United States.
Ever concerned with his image and mindful of the storm of speculation around his escape, Escobar listed the following helpful clarifications:
One billion pesos (about $475,000 in today's dollars) were paid to bribe the army to let him escape.
Escobar was hiding at a safe location and would not surrender.
While there would be retaliation against high officials, there would be no acts of violence against the public.
There were no tunnels beneath the prison.
Seventy armed men met Escobar when he left the prison.
Escobar originally intended to kidnap and execute Vice Minister of Justice Eduardo Mendoza, and return his body 'in pieces' to Bogota, but did not only because he had been forced to hurry off.
President Gaviria's pledge to protect the lives and rights of Escobar and the confederates who escaped with him was 'a joke.'
In addition, the U.S. Embassy had received a fax on the day of Escobar's escape - an ugly threat issued politely:
'We, the Extradictables declare: That if anything happens to Mr. Pablo Escobar Gaviria, we will hold President Gaviria responsible and will again mount attacks on the entire country. We will target the United States embassy in the country, where we will plant the largest quantity of dynamite ever.
'We hereby declare: The blame for this whole mess lies with President Gaviria. If Pablo Escobar or any of the others turn up dead, we will immediately mount attacks throughout the entire country. Thank you very much.'
The slightly adolescent flavor of this message led the embassy to suspect Escobar's teenage son, Juan Pablo, a chubby would-be heir to the cocaine dynasty who had lately taken to making threats on his father's behalf. To further confuse matters, Escobar's mother, Hermilda, in a newspaper interview in Medellin, said her son had fled to southern Colombia, and would turn himself in when it was safe.
