Colombian hitman who killed between 300 and 3000 people released from prison early

Colombia’s release of the most notorious hitman for late drug cartel kingpin Pablo Escobar, while not breaking news (it happened in late August), is worthy of a brief moral discussion. John Jairo Velasquez, also known as “Popeye”, admitted to killing 300 people during the height of Colombia’s drug wars in the 1980’s and 1990’s before the heart of the violence moved north into Mexico.  He also claimed to have had a hand in the killings of up to 3,000 more.  What it means to have a hand in the extra 2,700 killings (whether he ordered them, supervised them, or just lost count somewhere north of 300 – which is entirely possible) is sort of beside the point. He is one of the most notorious mass murderers in the 20^th century.  He was given a 30 year sentence for his crimes.  That works out to about a month and a half per admitted, remembered murder.

John Jario Valesquez, in prison before his release

The BBC reports that he was released from prison after 22 years, eight years early.  He was released under armed guard, because now he fears for his own life.  The cartel that he used to work for doesn’t operate anymore and the likelihood of the families of one of his victims taking vengeance on him is pretty high.

Why the light sentence of 30 years in the first place?  He turned state’s evidence against a government official back in the bad old days of the drug wars. 

According to the BBC:  Popeye was convicted, not of the murder of 300 people, which would surely have had sentences run consecutively, but for his part in the murder of presidential hopeful Luis Carlos Galan in 1989. Galan had taken a hard line against the Cartels.  Velasquez was a witness against former Justice Minster Alberto Santofirmo, a rival candidate and close associate of Escobar, who is serving a 24-year sentence for his part in the murder of Galan.

What we have is the state turning a blind-eye to the murder of 300 people.  Some of whom were in the drug trade.  Some of whom surely were caught up near it, who may have witnessed something unwittingly.  But the state wanted to put away a politician, and the only way was to give a deal to a mass murderer.

Colombia in the 1980’s and early 1990’s could only be called a failed state.  The drug cartels ran rampant and corruption was endemic.  If the prosecutors had pushed hard enough into the 300 murders or the 3000 murders, who knows what they would have found. Perhaps the state, when they prosecuted Velasquez 22 years ago, thought they didn’t have the power to look into the 300 murders. They do now and did when he was in prison.  Or they made a deal back then to not prosecute the other murders because it was worth it to the state to put away a dirty, murderous politician who was connected to the drug cartels and to try to forcibly remove the drug cartels from politics.  Choices were made over what lives were worth prosecuting and a mass-murderer faced a month in prison per murder. 

Now he faces the possibility of vengeance on the streets.  I do not generally condone vengeance, particularly where there is a functioning state that can prosecute crimes.  I also don’t understand how a man who killed at least 300 people gets parole. Colombia is still in the throes of dealing with its drug war, with its war on the FARC guerillas who took over a large part of the drug trade when the Colombian cartels went down.  A lot on this story hasn’t been written.  The fact that this man got parole shows that it hasn’t and that the machinations and deals that are brokered and decide whose lives are worth more than others (the 300 who were killed and not prosecuted versus the one politician who was) continue to play out, decades later and the drugs continue to flow north, albeit from different sources.

Article and picture: BBC.com