The Convoluted Case of �lvaro G�mez

Alvaro Gomez Hurtado.

�lvaro G�mez Hurtado was like a comet across Colombian journalism and politics during the 1980s and '90s.

The son of ex-president Laureano G�mez, Alvaro worked for his father's newspaper and other publications as well as serving as Bogot� city councilman, in both houses of Congress and as minister and ambassador in various nations. A leading member of the Conservative Party, he ran three times unsuccessfully for president. In 1998 he was kidnapped by the M-19 Guerrilla group, who were demanding the convening of a Constitutional Convention. The guerrillas achieved their goal, and G�mez Hurtado served in that convention.

G�mez then became an academic, helping to found two universities. But he may have signed his own death warrant by becoming a furious critic of Pres. Ernesto Samper, who was embroiled in a scandal over drug cartel financing of his presidential campaign, known as the Proceso 8000.

"The regime must be overthrown," G�mez said in at least one interview.

In Novemember, 1995, as he left a university, G�mez was gunned down.

His assassination has never been solved. Pres. Samper, guerrilla groups, paramilitaries drug cartels and others have all been suspects in the killing.

Ignacio Londo�o Zabala, today an attorney with ties to criminal gang leaders, may have played a role

Ignacio Londo�o

in the assassination.

And now, Londo�o's assassination may guarantee that the mystery will never be solved.

Londo�o, an attorney and local politician in Valle del Cauca with ties to drug cartel leaders, was gunned down the other day in Cartago, Valle del Cauca, where he was a candidate for mayor.

Londo�o had given two of his bodyguards the weekend off and sent the third to do a chore in Bogot�. Londo�o was in his office when someone shot thru the window, killing him.

Londo�o was allegedly linked to the Proceso 8000 as well as various drug cartel leaders. Investigators wanted him to testify about G�mez's killing.

Londo�o lying murdered on a Cartogo street.

The Londo�o killing is itself the subject of mystery, which will likely never be resolved. Was he killed because of his campaign for mayor? Because of his possible declarations in G�mez's assassination? Because of his links to drug cartel leaders?

The G�mez-Londo�o saga is yet another example of the intersection of politics and violence, which so often ends in impunity.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogot� Bike Tours