The first and last time U.S. Ambassador Myles Frechette flew commercially in Colombia, other passengers on the plane broke out in a sweat.
"You should have seen the look of horror on the faces of the Colombians who traveled with me," he said. "They thought for sure the plane would be bombed."The incident reflected the tension surrounding Frechette's 39 months as Washington's top anti-drug figure in the world's leading cocaine export country.
Never has a U.S. ambassador played such a public role in Colombia, where Frechette quickly became the country's second most-recognized figure after the man he gave so much grief, President Ernesto Samper.
"My charter was pressure and I applied it and, obviously, it had the desired results," the 61-year-old career diplomat said in an interview prior to his departure Saturday.
Samper has made no secret of his wish to see Frechette leave and he reiterated that stance Friday: "Like all good children's stories, this one also has a happy ending: Ambassador Frechette has gone and the president remains."
Steady disagreements with Samper's administration prompted some of the president's allies to publicly insult Frechette and spread lies, such as claiming he was undergoing psychiatric care.
Frechette was also harassed by the secret police, who he says at one point tapped his home phone so inexpertly he couldn't make calls.
But concerns were much greater about retribution by drug gangs. He received a series of death threats. Frechette and wife Barbara couldn't take walks and were warned to stay out of the embassy residence's back yard for fear of snipers.
"This is a tough place to work," said Frechette, a tall, balding man with a close-cropped beard whose good humor let him laugh along with political cartoons that variously portrayed him as viceroy and vampire.
Frechette, whose only previous ambassadorship was in Cameroon, arrived barely a month before Samper took office amid scandal over his campaign's acceptance of $6 million from the Cali drug cartel. Samper denies soliciting the money, but Washington insists he's guilty.