The Druglord. By Peter A. Neissa.

The Druglord. By Peter A. Neissa. ISBN 091574526. 6x9, B&W, 376 pgs. $17.95.

It is the true life story of Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha ("El Mexicano"), the drug lord of the Bogota branch of the Colombian Drug Cartel. This historical novel offers a factual and knowledgeable Colombian perspective that well connected Colombians have known for years: the real Drug Cartel, a group consisting of over two-hundred drug traffickers, met for the first time in 1976, not to discuss drugs, but to devise a solution to the kidnapping and murders inflicted upon them by the Marxist guerrillas. It is the gripping story of "El Mexicano,"  when at age six, he witnesses the massacre of his family by the Colombian Army. It shows his involvement with the adolescent city gang, El Centro, which controlled Colombia's lucrative emerald black market, to the Cartel's development from a national to international status. Alias “El Mexicano” was the second most wanted man in Colombia after Pablo Escobar. The police offered a reward of COP 100 million for anyone who gave information on his whereabouts. He was one of the people in charge of ordering the terrorist attacks as part of the war the Medellín Cartel waged on the Colombian state to avoid extradition.

“El Mexicano’ was one of the most feared men in Colombia and the authorities had accused him of the largest homicides that had been perpetrated in the country in recent years.” El Espectador, December 16, 1989.

Additionally, he was considered the main person responsible for the distribution of cocaine from Panama to California. He was accused of having participated in the assassination of Minister of Justice Rodrigo Lara Bonilla, Judge Tulio Manuel Castro Gil, Colonel Jaime Ramírez Gómez and the presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galán. status.