WORLD : Medellin Kidnaping Reported
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BOGOTA, Colombia — A newspaper said today that Pablo Escobar, a reputed leader of the Medellin cocaine cartel, has kidnaped the son of President Virgilio Barco’s closest adviser.
El Tiempo said it was the latest in a series of abductions aimed at pressuring the government to end its crackdown on drug lords and raising money from ransom payments to make up for losses caused by the crackdown.
A group of men contracted by Escobar abducted Alvaro Diego Montoya, the president of a financial services firm, as he left his office in Bogota on Dec. 20, the newspaper reported.
Montoya is the son of German Montoya, Barco’s secretary general, considered the president’s right-hand man. Last year, Montoya carried several messages to Barco from a lawyer representing the drug chiefs.
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