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Manuel de Dios Unanue
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NiLPnote: I was binge watching Netflix's series "Narcos" when in episode 6 of season 3 they had a despiction of the 1992 assassination of journalist Manuel de Dios Unanue by the Cali cartel. Manuel was the legendary editor of El Diario-La Presnsa at a time when people actually read the paper and it was an influential political force in the city. His relentless expossure of the these drug dealers was so effective that they assassinated him in retalitation. He was the first journalist to have been killed by the cartel.
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Depiction in Netflix's "Narcos"
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That was 25 years ago. I was moved by the reenactment of his murder because on that day I was supposed to have lunch with him but had to cancel at the last minute. While the "Narcos" series' depiction of what happened s oversimplified for dramatic effect, it made me remember that sad day.
Four years after his murder, Daily News columnist Juan Gonázlez wrote a moving update of the case. While I recently wrote a comment on Juan's new book on Mayor de Blasio, expressing disappointment that he ignored Latinos in the book, this has nothing to do with acknowledging the award-winning journalism he has produced over the years. The piece below is a good example of his transition from Young to Middle Aged Lord.The Old Lord version, well, in light of his new book, the jury is still out on that one!
---Angelo Falcón
Journalist's Slay Avenged
By Death Of Cali Druglord
By Juan Gonzalez
The phone call startled Vicky Sanchez out of a deep sleep at her home in Puerto Rico early Wednesday morning. "Don't be frightened," said the man on the line, an old friend from New York. "I've got good news. They killed El Chepe last night.
"Sanchez immediately erupted in tears, nearly waking Melody, her 6-year-old daughter who was asleep beside her. Jose (El Chepe) Santacruz Londono, one of the world's most powerful druglords, had been shot to death in a gunfight with Colombian police on a dark highway outside Medellin, the caller said. "The circle has closed," Sanchez said yesterday.
Exactly four years ago last night, Manuel de Dios Unanue, Sanchez' long-time companion and Melody's father, was shot to death at the Meson Asturias restaurant in Jackson Heights, Queens. De Dios, we would later learn, had been assassinated by a Cali cartel hit team on orders from Santacruz Londono, the cartel's third-ranking boss.
A crusading Cuban-American journalist and former editor of El Diario-La Prensa, the city's oldest Spanish-language daily newspaper, de Dios had angered Santacruz Londono with his exposes of Cali's operations in Queens. But the killing of a journalist in the middle of New York City sparked a massive federal and local police hunt for the killers. Eventually a half-dozen assassins were arrested and convicted.
Although federal court testimony revealed that Santacruz Londono masterminded the killing, the feds were never able to nab him. Like all the other leaders of the Cali cartel, billionaire Santacruz Londono cultivated a polished public image back home. The one-time resident of Queens insisted he was a legitimate businessman. While they cavorted with the economic and political elite of Colombia, the Cali thugs supplied most of New York City's cocaine throughout the 1980s and '90s.
When the even more violent Medellin cartel became decimated by government repression a few years ago, Cali replaced it as the biggest drug syndicate in the world. Then, last year, some of Colombian President Ernesto Samper's closest aides disclosed that Samper had received more than $6 million from Cali for his election campaign.
As if to prove his regime was not corrupt, Samper unleashed a ferocious assault on the cartel, arresting five of its top six leaders, including Santacruz Londono. But two months ago, El Chepe, also known as the man of a thousand faces because of all the plastic surgery he'd undergone to disguise his identity, made a spectacular escape from jail.
This was the last straw. The Clinton administration was so furious that on March 1 it declared that the Colombian government was not cooperating in the fight against drugs and suspended most U.S. foreign aid. The move also endangered more than $1 billion in loan guarantees from international economic groups.
The action angered many Colombians, even those who believe Samper is corrupt, because it penalizes the entire country. Days after the decertification, Colombian police miraculously cornered and killed El Chepe outside Medellin, where he reportedly was trying to make a new alliance with the remnants of the Medellin drug syndicate. The nephew of Pablo Escobar, the notorious Medellin drug czar also gunned down by police, claimed his body.
"I always said Manuel would not have justice until El Chepe had fallen," Vicky said. "Now I can finally have some peace. But life is bittersweet. Melody, who was only 2 when her father was killed, still has vivid memories of him. A few days ago, the girl surprised her mother when she said: "Remember how Daddy used to laugh when I would kiss him and start biting his lip?
"Then there is the injustice Sanchez believes the New York Police Department has committed against the five Queens homicide detectives who cracked Manuel's murder after a year-long investigation. Only one of the Latino detectives was promoted. When he was a candidate for mayor, Rudy Giuliani marched with Sanchez through the streets of Queens to demand that the Dinkins administration do more to find Manuel's killer. After his election, Giuliani attended a dinner honoring the five detectives and praised their work. He promised to do all he could to get the hero detectives promoted. "Those policemen deserve more from the city," Vicky said. "That's the last battle Manuel would have wanted me to fight.
