The Assassination of Captain Fernando Posada Hoyos — When Pablo Escobar Personally Led the Attack

This article details the assassination of the SIJÍN's¹ captain Fernando Posada Hoyos, an operation where Pablo Escobar personally led sided by his lieutenants. This wasn't an isolated case of the chief of the cartel acting as the commander of his armed wing as there is evidence of other operations where Escobar organized fake police checkpoints in strategic sectors targeting high class executives, police chiefs, officers, industrialists and more in order to execute them or extort means for the organization. It also brings a controversial topic due to testimonies accusing Pablo's son participating in the operation with his father.

¹ SIJÍN — Police intelligence agency.

The Belief of Power Loss of Escobar

Following the events in La Catedral and the embarrassing worldwide fiasco of the authorities attempting to capture the maximum leader of the cartel, the war against narco-traffickers was reestablished once again. From July and the subsequent months, the assassination of policemen, activation of car bombs and massacres perpetrated by groups of assassins reached astonishing levels of public calamity.

However, the tide seemed to be turning for the cartel's force, or at least was believed to be reduced as a result of the successful operations the authorities were having. The harsh persecution and killing of heads of sicarios and the forced re-surrender of lieutenants close tied to Pablo Escobar Gaviria made it seem it was a question of time for 'El Doctor' to submit himself once again, but this time, he wouldn't have the same privileges he had at his luxury resort La Catedral in Envigado.

It's also worth noting that while 'Los Pepes' gained their recognition in 1993, this group and its connections were already operating with the police and using all kinds of intelligence work to weaken the Medellín cartel's operations.

Medellín, December of 1992 — The Time Amidst the Violence

Even though the non-stopping violence was a daily occurrence, the usual festive celebrations approaching Christmas time served as a breathing break for the citizens who each day hoped, and in certain instances even petitioned the mafia on the press to reconsider their devastating methods, to think of the lives of those who worked hard and didn't have anything to do with the war they were having.

Nonetheless in the core of the cartel, the stage was constantly getting arranged for terrorist activities. The target on occasion was the captain Fernando Posada Hoyos, who was accused by the cartel's agents of being an active participant in tortures and cold blooded executions with elite commandos of the intelligence unit.

Though it's known the cartel members frequently used lies and manipulation tactics accusing others, the problems with corrupted police organizations cannot be ignored. Even years before and way more during the peak war of 1992 and 1993, there are multiple reports involving the search bloc, the DIJÍN agency, the F2, DAS and others of committing all kinds of atrocities against lower class citizens like kidnappings, paid-executions, massacres and so on. Many of these were and are still whitewashed by the government who never led proper investigations to persecute implicated members of these death squads.

F2 — Secret service-alike police, involved in numerous scandals until its cease.DAS — Colombian FBI equivalent.

"Hay que arreglar esta vaina con los muchachos"

In the 18th of December of 1992, the cartel agents organized multiple 'citas' (encounters) for the organization and delegation of tasks between the multiple gangs under order of the cartel's lieutenants. Commonly in these substantial operations, only the most trusted lieutenant heads knew exactly who was being hunted to avoid the word being spread risking the possibility of someone getting tempted to inform the authorities, specially taking into account the organization was facing problems due to heavy pressure of rival groups.

The 'cabecillas' (heads) frequently omitted details or just said: "Vamos a darle piso a un sapo" (We're gonna kill a rat) and only while these events were taking place some groups knew the magnitude of what they were involved in. Some incidents even were disapproved by members of specific gangs but if you were already in the mist, there was no going back.

The head of the SIJÍN was already being persecuted by the organization, a previous car bomb set towards his convoy failed to reach his caravan but the capo's desire only ended when someone complied or got killed. During the day surveillance agents scouted a house being used as a front for police operations in the sector of El Nogal in Medellín. The captain who was accompanied by some escorts was confirmed to be on the house on that late night.

"Listo llave, rematen a ese hijueputa"

As said before, the Christian celebrations and late night 'rumbas' were usually occurring, tragically for the captain, the dawn of that Saturday was far away of being a night of parties and would be the last day of his life. At round 2AM multiple vehicles started displacing to the sector where Fernando was staying. The lieutenants arrived in cars and motorcycles, strategically parking on escape routes and placing bombs to detonate in case of a counter attack of the police happened. Around 3:40 AM a colossal blow detonated shattering nearby glasses and making the neighborhood dogs anxiously bark.

Pablo Escobar Gaviria was leading the group of sicarios who had just placed the charges on the house entrance and were now viciously entering the residence in search of the captain. The newspaper sources say the captain was on the ground seriously wounded when multiple people entered his room and discharged multiple gunshots on him.

On other notes, the officer adjured for his life but the cartel chief had the 'pleasure' of personally executing the captain. Some of the implicated members are believed to have taken this attack to a personal level due to their losses of gunmen and connections by the hands of the police agencies. One lieutenant in particular El Tití, who had lost a brother 2 days prior by the hands of 'Los Pepes' and corrupted forces was deeply tied in the execution as well as multiple other operations alongside Escobar Gaviria.

While the cartel agents were escaping there was a shootout with escorts of the captain and members of the police who were arriving on the scene. It can be stated this criminal attack was part of an act of vengeance for the press statements high tier officials were giving implying that Escobar's reign was quickly coming to an end. The capo liked maintaining a high morale attitude and as he proudly remarked in many cases, he felt glad about being a 'bandido' and being around his hired-guns.

The sheer brutality of this attack wasn't well received by the citizens. Being told the cartel was becoming weakened but at the same time having the means to orchestrate something like this was something too contradictory to believe. The fear of 'los Pabludos' was still strong.

The Case of Juan Pablo Escobar

It results that in investigations held by the authorities in following months, testimonies of sicarios and more people were given of a supposed participation of Juan Pablo Escobar alongside his father controlling the operations with a megaphone. Surprisingly in other versions, he's even cited to have shot the captain. When 'Popeye' was speaking with dozens of press agencies he attacked him claiming the capo's son was present and that he had to pay money for informants to change their versions. In addition to this, the same accusations were made by a relative of Escobar and a former cartel agent.

However, in both the case of Popeye and the latter, this really sounds motivated by personal interest instead of the real side of the story.

My personal take: While Juan Pablo wasn't the holy trinity and had in fact many contact with literal kings of criminality at that time, I seriously doubt these accusations. Even though I highly criticize his stands and posture with his books, documentaries and self-promotion, I don't find it right to attack a person based only on faulty records. I also point that this thought is shared by others whom are my friends and investigate as well as other journalists. Though there are also those who disagree, but each one is free to have their own opinions and line of investigations.