Noriega sheltered Colombian drug lord says Escobars son.
The son of the late Medellin cartel boss Pablo Escobar Gaviria, has confirmed that it was an open secret: that his father, the "boss of bosses", lived on the isthmus in 1984 under the patronage of the then dictator Manuel Antonio Noriega.
Escobar’s son said that his father who in the early 80s were the most wanted criminal in the world, distrusted Noriega and feared that he had given details of the Panama-Nicaragua smuggling route to the United States.
Juan Pablo Escobar, or Sebastián Marroquín, as he is now called, also revealed that his father left Panama upset because his former patron, who even gave him Panamanian identity card, stole a plane and $3 million.
Sebastián Marroquín, now an architect living in Buenos Aires, broke the silence 17 years after the death of his father, in the documentary "The sins of my father," by the Argentine filmmaker Nicolás Entel. The Latin American television premiere was on Wednesday (May 19) on Discovery Channel.
In his conversations with the filmmaker Escobar’s son said that he, his sister, his mother and father left Colombia the day after the assassination of then-Colombian Justice Minister Rodrigo Lara, ordered by his father.
They did it in a helicopter, flying low to evade radar, and arrived in Panama for sanctuary with Noriega and his military.
According to Marroquín, who at that time was seven years old, they were housed in a "mansion" near a golf course.
Former Gen. Ruben D. Paredes, when asked, said that at that time hewas out of the Defense Forces and had no access to information.
Paredes said he had not seen the film or had no idea of the location of the "mansion" cited.
He also said it had no information of the aircraft and the $3 million, stolen by Noriega.
The TV premiere was broadcast in cinemas in the U.S. and Europe.
It showed videos of a visit by former Colombian President Alfonso Lopez Escobar in Panama, which led to speculation about plans of the leader of the Medellin cartel to be allowed to return home in return for paying the foreign debt of Columbia.
Marroquin said that all these speculations were lies.
After leaving Panama, the boss and his family were received by the Sandinista regime. Escobar was killed in 1993 in a shoot out with an American backed vigilante. group. Some family members believed he had committed suicide after trying to escape across rooftops, but an autopsy showed the bullet that killed him was fired from several feet away.
Meanwhile The Second Court of Justice has notified Noriega of his July 7 hearing for the disappearance and death of political leader Heliodoro Portugal, and announced that they will request his extradition.
Noriega’s extradition would mean him having to answer to, three outstanding prison sentences: 15 years in prison for the killing of Hugo Spadafora, 20 years for killing Moses Giroldi, and 20 more for the slaughter of rebel troops in Albrook.