The new production based on the book "News of a Kidnapping", by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, shows the scourge that affected Colombia in the 1990s.
On August 12, the new series "News of a Kidnapping" was released worldwide, inspired by the novel by Gabriel Garcia Marquez of the same name. History that compiles around four years in a historical textual sample of the events that kept Colombians in suspense for almost eight months.
The criminal drug trafficking groups had come together in 1986 to create Los Extraditables, who declared war over the possibility of being extradited to a United States prison. They asked the Government to make the law unenforceable, but it was the opposite and they made sure that it would continue its objective of ridding Colombia of that evil. The president was César Gaviria.
War was declared. There was no other option unless the president gave in or the drug traffickers. That war had mourners and their first battle cry was the disappearance of Marina Montoya, whose remains lie today in the Jardines de Paz cemetery in northern Bogotá. She was kidnapped one afternoon on September 19, 1991, and hours later, at 7:30 p.m., they also kidnapped Francisco Santos, each with a different destination.
Marina was kidnapped by several men. She was held for four months, but she was not alone in that room, and where her relationship with her kidnappers remained calm. The visit of two women younger than her took away that tiny space. Maruja Pachón and Beatriz Villamizar were her new companions.
But before they appeared on the scene of that November 7, 1990, before their names were part of the headlines of the newspapers and the news in the city, Diana Turbay had been kidnapped on August 30 by the same criminal group, along with five other journalists, including a German.
Diana Turbay, Azucena Liévano, Hero Buss, Richard Becerra, Orlando Acevedo, and Juan Vitta were deceived when they accepted an alleged interview with Manuel Pérez Martínez, alias Cura Pérez, ELN commander. That deception led them to a municipality in Antioquia called Copacabana. This foolishness cost Diana Turbay her life, in a rescue attempt by the Armed Forces on January 25, 1991, her body was hit by a bullet that damaged her liver and a kidney.
The day before, the body of Marina Montoya was left in a vacant lot in the north of Bogotá, the most heartbreaking death of all, since only five days later he was recognized in Forensic Medicine by one of his relatives.
The two of them were the only fatalities of the ten kidnapped in 1990.
During that time, from September 19 to May 20, 1991, the order of releases began with Juan Vitta, who was editor of Hoy x Hoy magazine. Then Hero Buss, BBC reporter for Colombia. Then, Azucena Liévano, on January 13; Orlando Acevedo, Chamber Assistant, on January 17, 1991, and Richard Becerra, on January 25. Beatriz Villamizar separated from Maruja Pachón on February 4, 1991.
The abductees came out of captivity with traumas that healed over time and a lot of therapy.
For his part, Francisco Santos ended up being the victim who remained kidnapped the longest. He spent 243 days in Bogotá, in the same place. His release was recorded on May 20, 1991.
During these events, only four people died, including the driver Angel Maria Roa and Oromacio Ibanez.
Violence in Colombia due to kidnapping left 39,000 victims between 1970 and 2010, according to data from the National Center for Historical Memory.
In Colombia, it was at the end of the 1990s, when the country registered more than 3,500 cases and reached its maximum peak in 2000. However, according to data from the Ministry of Defense, 2,123 kidnappings were registered in 2003.
However, in 2021 there were 135 cases of people deprived of their liberty illegally, which represents an increase of 45% compared to 2020, when 88 kidnappings were registered, the lowest number since 2010.
Collective Kidnappings
While 285 people were celebrating a mass on May 30, 1999, in the morning hours (10:00 a.m.), several armed men dressed in camouflage interrupted the celebration in La María church in Cali. It was a mass kidnapping. The men entered shouting that there was a car bomb outside and that everyone should evacuate immediately. They were led to two trucks.
Avianca plane Hijacking
On April 12, 1999, an Avianca Fokker 50 was hijacked by six ELN guerrillas. The aircraft carried 41 passengers and 5 crew members. The guerrillas forced the pilot to divert the plane to a clandestine landing strip called Los Sábalos, located in the south of Bolívar. They took the plane's crew and passengers, including a baby, several elderly people, and took them to the jungle. They navigated a river in three boats until they were transferred to camps where they remained until their release.
