by Ken Dermota - The Washington Times - July 17, 1991

MEDELLIN, Colombia - Pablo Escobar, the Colombian drug lord who once supplied 80 percent of the cocaine entering the United States, says his conscience is at peace after his June 19 surrender.

Escobar, who turned himself in after a new constitution banned extradition, also said that education is the only way to combat narcotics abuse and that the best way to end trafficking would be to legalize drugs.

The self-acknowledged drug baron, who is being held in a specially fortified prison near here in the town of Envigado, prodided written answers to 35 questions submitted to him.

His responses - the first time he has agreed to be questioned by the foreign press - carry Escobar's signature and his finger-print. These are his usual seals of identification, and the authenticity of both was verified by independent sources in Colombia.

Escobar, who has been named one of the world's wealthiest men by Forbes magazine, is now jailed with 11 of his closest collaborators in a prison built to his specifications.

He said the prison, with a 4,000 volt electric fence and a dog run, is intended to keep his many enemies out.

In the interview, Escobar demanded a public trial instead of one presided over by wht Colombians calla "faceless judge," one whose identity is kept secret in an attempt to protect him.

Escobar said his desire is to face those who accuse him of the murder of three presidential candidates, all of whom were assassinated by teen-age hit men.

The 41-year-old Colombian, who faces nine indictments in the United States for drug trafficking and murder, also stands accused in his own country of the murder of 215 Medellin police officers. He allegedly offered $ 4,000 for each policeman killed.

In addition, he is accused in the bombing of the headquarters of the DAS, Colombia's equivalent of the FBI, as well as the bombing of the offices of the newspaper El Espectador and the killing of its publisher.

Escobar shifted the blame for some of his country's most hideous crimes from himself to government agents. He accused the DAS director, Miguel Antonio Maza Marquez, of masterminding the assassinations of the three presidential candidates in order to improve his own chances for the presidency.

In seven years on the run, Escobar saw his wife nearly every weekend. He hid often in his native province of Antioquia, which surrounds Medellin. He was popular among Antioquia's poor because he spent lavishly on public works projects.

The "total war" between a group of Medellin traffickers known as "The Extraditables" and the government was touched off by the August 1989 murder of presidential candadate Luis Carlos Galan.

In the 14 month conflict, more than 1,000 people were killed, 107 of them in the bombing of an Avianca Boeing 727 airliner in November 1989.

That war ended when Colombia's constitutional convention dropped extradition from the new constitution on June 19. Within hours, Escobar submitted himself to justice. His parteners, the Ochoa brothers - Jorge Luis, Juan David and Fabio - surrendered earlier this year.

Following are the highlights of the Escobar interview .

Question : Do you regret having participated in drug trafficking ?

Pablo Escobar : My conscience is at peace. I have struggled for just causes : family, liberty, life, the rights of nationality, the unprotected and marginal classes and human rights. My money has served a social function and I have helped my people.

Q : Do you feel guilty for having corrupted American and European youth ?

A : If I have committed errors, I am here to pay for them. And if I am guilty, God and the justice system of my homeland will judge me.

Q : What is the solution to drug trafficking ? Are you in favor of the legalization of drugs ? What should Colombia do ? What should the United States do ?

A : Education. The United States and Colombia must focus all of their efforts on education. Legalization is the solution to put an end to drug traffickers, and education is the solution to put an end to drugs.

Q : In what respect has the United States failed in its struggle against trafficking ? And Colombia ?

A : The United States has many successes in repressing trafficking. Many traffickers have died and many are in jail. But drugs continue and will continue to prevail so long as all efforts are not focused on education.

Q : How much cocaine is being exported at the moment to the United States ? Canada ? Europe ? Japan ?

A : I can only say that cocaine is invading the world. It leaves a lot of countries, passes through a lot of countries and arrives to a lot of countries. But I also want to say that there is a terrible difference between the damage done by cocaine and the damage done by "crack" (a potent form of smokable cocaine). Remember that South Americans get cocaine into the United States. Crack is made in labs inside the United States.

Q : In what aspects does your current opinion of drug trafficking differ from 10 years ago ?

A : There are more drugs, more violence . I wonder : Will there be better education ?

Q : What do you know about U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration operations in Colombia ?

A : In nearly all police operations against us there were people (who) "disappeared," murdered and tortured, people who were hung from and thrown from helicopters. Peasants tell us that there were foreigners in many of those operations, but I didn't see them, nor do I know if they were with the DEA. I can't confirm anything in that sense. I read in the press that the English claim honors for their participation in the operation against (drug lord Gonzalo) Rodriguez Gacka (who was killed in a police shootout Dec. 15, 1989).

Q : How would you answer people who say that drug traffickers don't enjoy the same human rights as other people ?

A : It is always said that all citizens have the same rights. But that is not true in the case of the penal codes since all of the crimes have different sentences and that also depends on the customs of the people. In the Mideast and in Indonesia they hang (traffickers). In the United States, when one is Colombian, they sentence him to life in prison. In the countries of South America, perhaps, the law is fairer because coca has formed a part of our aboriginal customs for millennia.

Q : Why does extradition of Colombian citizens violate their civil rights ?

A : Because the members of the prisoners' families are not granted visas to the United States so they can visit, because Colombians do not understand the language or the customs, and because they are discriminated against.

Q : What should the United States do to improve the state of human rights in Colombia ?

A : Not treat drug trafficking as a war. The problem isn't one of repression, but education. If there is no consumption, there will be no traffickers.

Q : Do you have anything to add ?

A : Yes, I will repeat that I wish and will ask for a pubblic trial and I want (DAS Director) Maza Marquez to attend along with all those who accuse me of the death of the presidential candidates and the leaders of the left.