Petro’s reveals strategy to change Colombia’s socio-economic model
How Colombia’s judicial reform seeks to solve prison...
Colombia’s chief prosecutor says paramilitaries kidnapped, interrogated investigators
Colombia’s war crimes tribunal to press criminal charges...
Colombia jails US citizen on femicide charges
Colombia preparing tropical paradise for tourism after 500...
Hacktivists leak 178,000 documents from Colombia’s military
Colombia sentenced for exterminating political party
Colombia’s capital Bogota awarded for failing crime policy
OAS urges Colombia to release people arrested over...
  • About
  • Support
  • Newsletter
  • Contact
Colombia News | Colombia Reports
  • News
    • General
    • Analysis
    • War and peace
    • Elections
    • Economy
    • Culture
    • Sports
    • Science and Tech
  • Travel
    • General
    • Bogota
    • Medellin
    • Cali
    • Cartagena
    • Antioquia
    • Caribbean
    • Pacific
    • Coffee region
    • Amazon
    • Southwest Colombia
    • Northeast Colombia
    • Central Colombia
  • Data
    • Economy
    • Crime and security
    • War and peace
    • Development
    • Cities
    • Regions
    • Provinces
  • Profiles
    • Organized crime
    • Politics
    • Armed conflict
    • Economy
    • Sports
  • Lite
  • Opinion
News

Interior minister was Pablo Escobar’s ‘errand boy’: Pastrana

by Benjy Hansen-Bundy March 26, 2013
2.4k

pastrami

Former Colombian President Andres Pastrana has called the interior minister an “errand boy” for Pablo Escobar, after a spat over the peace talks with rebel group, FARC.

Pastrana’s remark referred to the fact that Pablo Escobar escaped from prison just weeks after the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Carrillo, left his former office as the minister of justice in 1992.

This particular episode, which seems reminiscent of a Colombian telenovela, began earlier in March when ex-president Andres Pastrana, who led the failed 1998-2002 negotiations with Colombia‘s largest rebel group FARC, said the guerrillas are “setting the agenda” in ongoing peace talks with the government. Pastrana indicated how his peace talks, though unsuccessful, were at least transparent, whereas the current talks continue behind closed doors. This obscurity, he claimed, benefits Santos’s re-election prospects.

MORE: FARC setting the agenda of Colombia peace talks: Pastrana

“It is unfortunate that the former president [Pastrana] ends up aligning with the extreme right in this country, the warmongering group that is fighting the peace process,” Carrillo said during an impromtu press conference on Sunday at the president’s offices in Bogota.

Early Tuesday morning Pastrana struck back in an interview with Blu Radio.

“Where is the tolerance, where is the opportunity to express opinion? I make an analysis and it’s raining fire and lightning. Why is the Government allowed to talk with the FARC but when I speak everyone criticizes [me]?” Pastrana lamented.

Ironically, the ex-president began the interview with this short-lived declaration: “I will not engage in controversies with the errand boy of Escobar.”

Pastrana has remained a vocal critic since he left office in 2002.

Sources

  • “No entro en controversias con el camarero de Escobar”: Pastrana sobre Carrillo (Blu Radio)
  • La pelea entre Pastrana y Carillo (Semana)
  • Mininterior califico de lamentables declaraciones de Pastrana sobre proceso de paz (El Colombiano)
Andres PastranaFernando CarrilloJuan ValdezPablo Escobarpeace talks

Trending

  • Colombia jails US citizen on femicide charges

  • Colombia’s war crimes tribunal to press criminal charges over failed plot to extradite former FARC chief

  • Petro’s reveals strategy to change Colombia’s socio-economic model

For patrons

Downloads for patrons

Related articles

  • Colombia’s government and ELN rebels overcome “crisis” in peace talks

  • Colombia’s FARC dissidents captured 5 soldiers during ceasefire: military

  • Colombia’s government and ELN rebels push ceasefire talks forward

  • Twitter
  • Email
  • Rss

@2008-2019 - Colombia Reports. All Rights Reserved.
Powered by Digitale Zaken and Parrolabs


Back To Top
Colombia News | Colombia Reports
  • News
    • General
    • Analysis
    • War and peace
    • Elections
    • Economy
    • Culture
    • Sports
    • Science and Tech
  • Travel
    • General
    • Bogota
    • Medellin
    • Cali
    • Cartagena
    • Antioquia
    • Caribbean
    • Pacific
    • Coffee region
    • Amazon
    • Southwest Colombia
    • Northeast Colombia
    • Central Colombia
  • Data
    • Economy
    • Crime and security
    • War and peace
    • Development
    • Cities
    • Regions
    • Provinces
  • Profiles
    • Organized crime
    • Politics
    • Armed conflict
    • Economy
    • Sports
  • Lite
  • Opinion