Colombia's president denies links to drug kingpin Escobar

[Judi Lynn]

Source: International Herald Tribune/Associated Press

Colombia's president denies links to drug kingpin Escobar
The Associated Press
Published: October 2, 2007

BOGOTA, Colombia: President Alvaro Uribe on Tuesday publicly denied accusations that he befriended and helped a world-renowned drug kingpin in the 1980s.

Uribe denied any connection to Pablo Escobar, who was killed in a police shootout in 1993, responding to a new tell-all book by a former television news anchor who was Escobar's lover.

In "Loving Pablo, Hating Escobar," Virginia Vallejo claims that in the early 1980s Uribe, as head of the civil aviation authority, authorized flights and landing strips for members of Escobar's Medellin cartel and even allowed the drug boss to smuggle in exotic pets for his flamboyant Napoles ranch.
(snip)

Vallejo was a well-known news anchor and lace stockings model when she met and fell in love with Escobar. She left Colombia last year under the protection of U.S. authorities after allegedly providing information about the brothers Miguel and Gilberto Rodriguez Orjuela, leaders of the Cali drug cartel.

In her book she claims that she was introduced to Uribe by Escobar, who referred to the future president as Escobar's "only decent friend."



Read more: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/10/02/america/LA-GEN-Colombia-Uribe.php

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Photo of his shooting by Colombian forces



Painting of the same event by
Colombian painter,Fernando Botero

[Judi Lynn]

1. Pablo was no friend of mine, Colombia's Uribe says

Pablo was no friend of mine, Colombia's Uribe says
Mon Oct 1, 2007 4:55pm EDT

BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, dogged throughout his career by rumors of cozy relationships with drug lords and right-wing paramilitaries, said on Monday that he was never a friend of the late cocaine king Pablo Escobar.

The statement came in response to a book published last month by Escobar's one-time lover saying that Uribe helped the former head of the Medellin cartel secure licenses for planes and landing strips used to transport cocaine.

The book, "Loving Pablo, Hating Escobar" by ex-Colombian model and news presenter Virginia Vallejo, goes on to say she heard Uribe refer affectionately to the feared drug baron as "El Patron", or "The Boss" in English.
(snip)

Escobar was shot dead on a Medellin rooftop in 1993. Uribe,whose government has received hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. anti-narcotics aid, was re-elected last year.
(snip)

http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSN0146931320071001



Right-wing Colombian
President Alvaro Uribe.



Peter Sellers