NEWS OF A KIDNAPPING: Goodreads Book review *****

"I read this text after a recent trip to Medellin, Colombia. Pablo Escobar, drug baron/champion of the poor (depending on whose perspective you take) was at one time the 7th richest man in the world due to his vast international drug business. His legacy on that city is complicated, but twenty years after his bloody death--shot ignominiously by the Colombian Special Forces as he fled across the terracotta rooftops--the city is a resurgent, sunny and peaceful town that deserves to be defined by its present day success, rather than by the shadow of its most notorious son.  Garcia Marquez died the day after I arrived to Medellin and the waiting staff in the restaurant where I was having lunch stopped what they were doing, as did the rest of the diners, to watch the news of the passing of this Nobel-prize winning national icon. His flair for storytelling is unsurpassed from a literary perspective, but of crucial importance to this telling of a true life spate of kidnappings--coordinated by Escobar in an attempt to protect him from the fate of extradition to the United States-- is his background as a journalist in the early part of his career. His journalistic skills equipped him with the drive to tell the truth and the necessity for meticulous fact-checking ahead of publication. So, as he researched this story, he left no stone unturned when speaking to the survivors, their families, and the families of those who were tragically assassinated by Escobar's henchmen.  The non-fiction account of the strategy and planning involved by the authorities, including access all the way up to former President Gaviria, together with the devastating emotional impact upon the families involved is a testament to the incredible power of humans to overcome adversity and at the same time for the nation of Colombia to become galvanized and united in their heroic attempts to free those prisoners.  Garcia Marquez is passionately patriotic, but the style of writing in this account is objective and leaves the reader to form their own opinions of Escobar's motives and methods (he ascribes some of his motivation as coming from alleged abuses carried out by the Police against young men within the slums, arresting and sometimes murdering them without evidence of due legal process). However, the story stands as a powerful monument to the thousands of innocent lives lost during this time of crisis during the early 1990s. It is so wonderful to see how Colombia has overcome these deep scars today, and to know that the sacrifice of those who gave their lives for the freedom and prosperity enjoyed by the country today will not be forgotten."