Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

Rodríguez Gacha was born in May 1947 in the small town of Veraguas, near Pacho in the department of Cundinamarca, to a poor family of cheese vendors. He left school in the early 1970s and moved to Muzo, Boyacá, the center of the emerald exploitation in Colombia, where he worked under Gilberto Molina Moreno, the 'tsar' of emeralds, developing a fearsome reputation as a killer. He became acquainted with drug traffickers, decided the drug business was more profitable, and moved to Bogotá, where he associated with Verónica Rivera de Vargas, the 'queen of cocaine,' by murdering the family of her main rival. Rivera introduced him to Pablo Escobar and Mexican drug lord Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo. After moving to Medellín in 1976, Rodríguez Gacha associated with the Ochoa family, Pablo Escobar, and Carlos Lehder in establishing an alliance that became the Medellín Cartel. He pioneered new trafficking routes through Mexico and into the United States, primarily Los Angeles, California and Houston, Texas, and is often said to have been the first to establish cooperation strategies with drug trafficking cartels in Mexico. His infatuation with Mexican popular culture, music, and horse culture, and his fondness for foul language, earned him the nickname El Mexicano. He owned a string of farms in his hometown with Mexican inspired names such as Cuernavaca, Chihuahua, Sonora and Mazatlán. According to the US Justice Department, Rodríguez directed cocaine trafficking operations through Panama and the West Coast (California) of the United States. It is claimed that he helped design a Nicaraguan trafficking operation that employed pilot Barry Seal (who was murdered on February 19, 1986, after agreeing to testify against the Medellín Cartel). Rodríguez Gacha based much of his operations from Bogotá and other areas in the Cundinamarca region, as well as in the Middle Magdalena region. It was Rodríguez who first set up Tranquilandia, one of the largest and best known of the jungle laboratories where more than two thousand people lived and worked making and packaging cocaine.

In Their Own Story

As he became one of the main capos of the rising Cartel, Rodríguez Gacha started having problems with the FARC guerrilla, mostly because the insurgent army taxed some of his coca plantations and sometimes robbed some of his men. When the M-19 guerrilla kidnapped Martha Nieves Ochoa, the sister of fellow drug lord Jorge Luis Ochoa, the cartel created the 'Muerte a Secuestradores' (MAS) [Death to Kidnappers] movement, one of the first far-right paramilitary groups to fight the guerrillas. Rodríguez Gacha became one of the main economic supporters of the group and soon became the de facto military leader of the cartel, forming the largest paramilitary organization in the country, composed of around 1,000 men, all trained and armed, originally devoted to his security but soon becoming an anti-communist army directed particularly against the FARC, and then against the Unión Patriótica political party. On March 7, 1984, the Colombian Police and the DEA destroyed Rodríguez Gacha's Tranquilandia complex. A few weeks later, on April 30, 1984, Colombian Minister of Justice Rodrigo Lara, who had crusaded against the Medellin Cartel, was assassinated by armed men on a motorcycle. In response, President Belisario Betancur announced 'we will extradite Colombians.' The crackdown forced the Ochoas, Escobar and Rodríguez to flee to Panama for several months. A few months later, Escobar was indicted for Lara's murder and Rodríguez was named as a material witness. Escobar, Rodríguez and the Ochoa brothers met with former Colombian president Alfonso López in the Hotel Marriott in Panama City, but the negotiation failed after news leaked. By the late 1980s Medellin traffickers controlled 40% of the land in the Middle Magdalena, according to a Colombian military estimate, and funded most of the paramilitary operations in the region. Between December 1987 and May 1988, Rodríguez hired Israeli and British mercenaries to train teams of assassins at remote training camps in Colombia. Yair Klein, a retired Israeli lieutenant colonel, acknowledged having led a team of instructors in Puerto Boyacá in early 1988. On August 21, 1989, Attorney General Dick Thornburgh released a list of the twelve Colombian drug kingpins (the 'dirty dozen') most wanted by the United States, including Pablo Escobar, Jorge Luis Ochoa, and José Gonzalo Rodríguez. On December 6, 1989, Attorney General Dick Thornburgh announced that authorities had frozen accounts in five countries holding $61.8 million belonging to Rodriguez Gacha, held in bank accounts in England, Switzerland, Austria, Luxembourg and the United States. An additional $20 million of Gacha's drug money was suddenly transferred to Panama, where it was protected from American authorities. Rodríguez Gacha died on 15 December 1989.

Reader's Guide

Based on the real-life figure José Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha (14 May 1947 – 15 December 1989), this character was one of the leaders of the Medellín Cartel along with the Ochoa brothers and Pablo Escobar. He was acknowledged as one of the world's most successful drug dealers, and in 1988, Forbes magazine included him in their annual list of the world's billionaires. His nickname El Mexicano came from his infatuation with Mexican popular culture, music, and horse culture, and his fondness for foul language. He pioneered trafficking routes through Mexico into the United States, primarily Los Angeles and Houston, and is often said to have been the first to establish cooperation strategies with Mexican drug cartels. He was the de facto military leader of the cartel, forming a paramilitary organization of around 1,000 men. He set up Tranquilandia, one of the largest jungle laboratories where more than two thousand people lived and worked. He was named as a material witness in the assassination of Minister of Justice Rodrigo Lara on April 30, 1984. He was on the US Attorney General's 'dirty dozen' list of most wanted Colombian drug kingpins released on August 21, 1989. On December 6, 1989, authorities froze $61.8 million of his assets in five countries, with an additional $20 million transferred to Panama. He died on 15 December 1989.

Did You Know?

• Rodríguez Gacha was born in May 1947 in the small town of Veraguas, near Pacho in the department of Cundinamarca, to a poor family of cheese vendors.
• He was known by the alias El Mexicano (The Mexican) due to his infatuation with Mexican popular culture, music, and horse culture, and his fondness for foul language.
• In 1988, Forbes magazine included him in their annual list of the world's billionaires.
• He was named as a material witness in the April 30, 1984 assassination of Colombian Minister of Justice Rodrigo Lara.
• On December 6, 1989, authorities froze $61.8 million belonging to Rodriguez Gacha in bank accounts across England, Switzerland, Austria, Luxembourg and the United States.