Book review::
"News of a kidnapping", Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Garcia Marquez tells the story of a series of kidnappings in Colombia in 1990. The drug baron Pablo Escobar was trying to negotiate terms for his surrender and imprisonment in Colombia (as opposed to extradition to the US or summary execution). Ten hostages were taken to put pressure on the Government.

Like any work of art, the shapes of the gaps around the story are as important as the story itself. Aside from his demands for guarantees of personal security, Escobar also demands that the police stop massacring the slum dwellers of Medellin. He backs up these demands with Amnesty International reports detailing the arbitrary executions of unarmed civilians. But the Government can do nothing, they have no direct control over police operations. The massacres are part of the war being fought between the Government and the drug cartels: both sides are killing innocent by-standers. Some of the hostages form personal friendships with some of their guards, recognising them as victims of the poverty and violence that grips the country.

The ten kidnapped hostages have powerful friends who put pressure on the Government both through direct contact and through the media. But the question of dealing with police violence is not part of Garcia Marquez's story.

Escobar had gained his fame and fortune by dealing drugs openly. The aeroplane used for the first shipments to the US was displayed at the entrance of his ranch where he threw lavish parties. He was popular because he was bringing wealth into a desperately poor region. The transition from local hero to public enemy number one is another gap that defines this story.

In the 1991 Pablo Escobar released the last hostages and surrendered. In the epilogue to Garcia Marquez's story he walks out of an absurdly insecure prison. After more than a year on the run he is finally caught and killed by the Colombian police.