Army Says Fleeing Escobar Likely Dressed as Woman

Drug lord Pablo Escobar apparently disguised himself as a woman and promised soldiers huge sums of money when he escaped from prison last week, according to an army report published in newspapers Sunday.

The report by the army’s 4th Brigade said five soldiers helped Escobar past the jail’s gates and electrified fences. It said the soldiers are in custody and have confessed.

Meanwhile, Escobar set new conditions for returning to jail as Colombian politicians turned their attacks on President Cesar Gaviria for allowing him to escape.

The government said in a statement that it had received a telephone call late Saturday from “three well-known citizens” whom it did not name.

The intermediaries said they had spoken to Escobar and “he, apparently prepared to surrender, demanded some conditions,” it said.

In the latest offer, Escobar slightly toned down the conditions he had set earlier. He said he would accept being jailed in a normal prison or a military base, but it must be in his home region of Antioquia in northwestern Colombia.

Escobar said the perimeter of the prison must be guarded by an international force and that journalists must be able to visit it to testify it is not a luxury prison. He also asked for an independent cell and that the police should be kept out.

However, the government repeated it would accept only Escobar’s unconditional surrender.

The army report published Sunday said that army Sgt. Filiberto Joya persuaded four other soldiers to help Escobar and nine other inmates escape from jail near the northwestern city of Medellin shortly after midnight Tuesday. Joya reportedly warned his army peers to keep quiet.

“Even if they tear your eyes or your testicles out, don’t tell anyone about this and tomorrow we’ll get a large sum of money,” the report quoted Joya as saying. If all goes well, “they’ll make you millionaires.”

Testimony from one soldier, Juan Carlos Patino, indicated some of the fleeing inmates dressed up as guards, others as peasants and one as a woman in jeans, a sweater and a wig.

“ ‘Probably,’ said the soldier, ‘it was Pablo Escobar, dressed up as a woman,’ ” the report read.

It said Joya told fellow soldiers the escaping inmates were a group of guards. The report added that Escobar and the other inmates--all members of his Medellin cartel--were heavily armed at the time and were aided by municipal and national prison guards.

The escapees eluded 1,600 troops in and around the jail when they fled a few hours after the government tried to transfer them. Authorities said the decision was made because Escobar was ordering murders from prison.

Escobar’s brother Roberto, one of the escapees, said in a newspaper interview Saturday that they feared for their lives when several hundred soldiers surrounded the mountaintop prison.

He did not say how they escaped.

President Gaviria has been firing top prison and military officials since the escape, which was an embarrassing setback to the government. Officials have been trading blame.

The Justice Ministry announced Saturday night that it was dismissing Lt. Col. Hernando Navas, the director general of prisons. He was one of two officials kidnaped by the drug traffickers Tuesday night after entering the prison unescorted to tell them they were to be transferred.

The acting air force commander, Gen. Hernando Monsalve, resigned Friday after being blamed for a delay in the air transport of soldiers to the jail.