Ex-drug lord Fabio Ochoa walks free in Colombia after 20 years in US prisons
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Victims of Medellín cartel demand justice as some express dismay former mob boss faces no charges in Colombia. The return of former drug trafficker Fabio Ochoa to Colombia following his deportation from the United States has reopened old wounds among victims of the Medellín cartel, with some expressing dismay at the Colombian authorities’ decision to let Ochoa walk free.
Some of the cartel victims said they are hoping the former drug lord will at least cooperate with ongoing efforts by human rights groups to investigate one of the most violent periods of Colombia’s history and demanded that Colombian prosecutors also take Ochoa in for questioning.
In the late 80s and early 90s the Medellín cartel killed police officers, politicians, judges, journalists and bystanders as it waged war on the Colombian state, which had stepped up its efforts to interdict drug shipments, arrest drug traffickers and seize their properties. Some historians in Colombia attribute 10,000 killings to cartel leader Pablo Escobar.
Ochoa was one of the cartel’s key operators at the time and lived for several years in Miami where he ran a distribution center for the cocaine cartel. He has denied being involved in the cartel killings. But many victims of the cartel and their relatives are highly skeptical of that claim.
Bogotá mayor Carlos Fernando Galán was 12 when his father, presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galán was killed by cartel hitmen in 1989. On Monday night Galán wrote in a post on Twitter/X that it was “unacceptable” for Ochoa not to be facing any charges in Colombia.
