News of a Kidnapping

News of a Kidnapping Summary | Chapter 1 Summary

A fictional re-telling of a decidedly real story, News of a Kidnapping recounts the ordeal of ten abductees, their families' struggle to secure their release, and the events that, ultimately, altered the destiny of the entire Colombian nation.

Beginning in late August 1990, at the behest of Pablo Escobar, a series of systematic kidnappings were carried out. A number of high-profile Colombians - many of whom held significant and influential ties within both the media and government - were plucked from their daily lives for use as bargaining chips against a government policy that would have seen Colombian drug traffickers extradited to the United States.

The book opens with the seizure of the last two of the ten abductees: Maruja Pachόn de Villamizar and Beatriz Villamizar de Guerrero, wife and sister, respectively, to Alberto Villamizar, a well-known Colombian politician at the time. Moreover, Maruja was the sister of Gloria Pachόn, widow of Luis Carlos Galan, the young journalist who founded the New Liberalism in 1979, a group who, for their part, staunchly opposed drug trafficking and vehemently supported the extradition of Colombian nationals.

It is early evening on November 7, 1990, when, not two-hundred meters from Maruja's home, the car in which they are traveling is suddenly hemmed in, the driver killed and the women whisked away by armed gunmen in separate vehicles. Upon arrival at their destination, the kidnappers admit to having mistakenly taken Beatriz and tell her that she will be freed. Bravely, she refuses to leave Maruja. Having decided that their current location had been compromised, the kidnappers then place both women in the trunk of a car in which they are transported to a second location. It is here they meet Marina Montoya, one of the previous eight abductees taken some three months before.