In his first two years as president of Colombia, Cesar Gaviria did his best to make peace with Pablo Escobar, the leader of the Medellin cocaine cartel, trying to stop the drug-related violence that made every Colombian a potential victim.
He allowed Escobar to dictate the terms of his own surrender and turn his jail into a luxurious villa. But Escobar escaped in July during a bungled attempt by the government to move him, and now a new wave of violence has hit the country.With the Medellin cartel once again killing people in a series of bombings, Gaviria is taking a new tack.
"Without doubt, Colombia's No. 1 problem is the narco-terrorism of Escobar," he said in a recent interview at the presidential palace.
The president dismissed the possibility of further negotiations, saying Colombia now has the judicial and military tools to capture and convict the drug boss.
"Even though we've returned to the era of bombings, Colombian society is more prepared than it was three years ago," he said. "Today we have witnesses, we can solve crimes, identify those responsible and obtain convictions."
In the past six months, security forces have arrested scores of Escobar's associates, killed five more and conducted some 6,000 house-to-house searches, on several occasions coming within moments of capturing the Medellin kingpin.
The government has increased the bounty on Escobar's head from $4 million to $7 million, $2.5 million of which is being offered by the U.S. government.
In addition, the authorities have issued a decree allowing judges to reduce or cancel the jail sentences of any criminal who provides valuable information in the fight against drug cartels.
But the policy of confrontation has provoked the wrath of Escobar, who finds himself increasingly isolated yet more disposed than ever to use violence to achieve his goals.
"Pablo Escobar is on a dead-end street," said Rodrigo Losada, a political scientist at Javeriana University in Bogota. "He knows that if he surrenders again he'll probably get killed, so he's trying to intimidate society into granting him amnesty."
Since the escape last summer, officials have blamed Escobar's hit squads for killing more than 100 policemen in Medellin and exploding 11 bombs, one of which killed 20 people on a busy Bogota street last month.
Escobar has expanded his war to include the killing of suspected traitors inside his own organization. This has caused splits within the cartel that could cost him the cohesion he needs to carry out his campaign of intimidation.
The Semana newspaper published an interview recently with five of Escobar's former hit men who described the cartel purges in detail.
"The slightest doubt about anyone would result in his immediate execution," said one man, whom Semana did not identify by name. "In December alone at least 20 of his bodyguards were killed."