BOGOTA, Colombia -- On the afternoon of Wednesday, June 12, former Colombian President Cesar Gaviria received the most important phone call of his life.
It was from his brother Juan Carlos, who told Gaviria he was alive and free after 72 days in captivity.
After a brief but emotional conversation, Gaviria phoned his mother to give her the good news. Then, Gaviria sat on an easy chair in his suite at the Casa Medina Hotel north of Bogota and wept with joy.
Since that time, Gaviria, secretary general of the Organization of American States (OAS), has not had many more opportunities to celebrate.
His appeal to Cuban President Fidel Castro -- asking him to mediate in Juan Carlos' kidnapping -- and the release to Cuba of the kidnappers' leaders have damaged Gaviria's career as international leader more than he anticipated.
As a result of his conversations with Castro, two Cuban emissaries were sent to Colombia to mediate with the kidnappers, and Cuba eventually granted the kidnappers refuge on the island.
New details about the episode reveal that it took the cooperation of Cali drug cartel leaders, some whiskey and several hired models in addition to Castro to rescue Juan Carlos.
Now critics say Gaviria ignored an evident conflict of interest in negotiating with Castro, compromising not only the independence of his own post at the OAS but also the sovereignty of his country.
Today, four months after the kidnapping's dramatic outcome, Colombian authorities want to go over the case in slow motion to find out exactly what happened.
The Colombian government is not certain who permitted the kidnappers to leave the country.
``Neither I nor -- to my knowledge -- President [Ernesto] Samper knew about the release of those people to Cuba,'' Alberto Villamizar, Colombia's anti-kidnapping czar, told a Herald reporter.
Prosecutors have issued a warrant for the arrest of the eight suspects in the kidnapping.
Gaviria says that when he called Castro he never considered that his action might conflict with his duties as OAS secretary general, although he admits that Cuba is one of the organization's touchiest topics.
``That never troubled me. It was a humanitarian gesture,'' Gaviria told The Herald. ``I will not feel [morally] unfit to speak about Cuba at the OAS in the future. My feelings about Cuba are the same as before the kidnapping.''
Soon after the kidnapping, U.S. and OAS officials indicated they continued to have confidence in Gaviria's independence on issues involving Cuba.
On April 10, a communique signed by a group calling itself ``Dignity for Colombia'' and bearing Juan Carlos' thumbprint provided the first indication of the kidnappers' intent.
The mysterious group delivered documents to the news media signed by ``Commander Bochica'' demanding that President Samper be ousted, that popular novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez take over the presidency and that all U.S. diplomats be expelled from Colombia.
Authorities knew little about the group. Gaviria decided to call the one person in the world who knew the most about guerrillas -- Castro.
After talking with Castro, Gaviria sent a personal envoy to Cuba -- Ricardo Santamaria, the former Colombian ambassador to Cuba who had forged a very close relationship with Castro during his time in Havana in 1993-94.
Santamaria was welcomed at the presidential palace by Castro along with Vice President Carlos Lage and Castro's secretary, Felipe Perez. During lunch, Castro promised to investigate, ``without hesitating a minute,'' Santamaria said.
The case was assigned to Jose Arbesu, former chief of the Americas Department at the Central Committee of the Communist Party.
While Juan Carlos Gaviria counted the days of his captivity, curled up in a hole dug by his captors in a shuttered house near Pereira, the Colombian Congress debated the impeachment of Samper. The president had been accused of allowing drug money to slip into his presidential campaign fund.
On May 27, the Gaviria family received the worst news: Juan Carlos would be executed by the kidnappers if Congress exonerated Samper.
On June 2, Arbesu traveled to Panama, where Gaviria was presiding over the 26th General Assembly of the OAS. He told Gaviria that Juan Carlos was not in the hands of any of Colombia's known guerrilla groups.
Back in Colombia, a police informer provided some vital new information: Commander Bochica was a prisoner at the La Picota jail in Bogota. His real name: Hugo Antonio Toro Restrepo, a taciturn law professor who admired Castro. He was serving time for murder.
Police transferred Bochica to Bogota's Modelo Prison.
The prosecutor's office in Bogota is investigating whether the transfer was made so that Cali drug cartel leaders imprisoned at Modelo could be used to get information from Commander Bochica.
A group of Cali Cartel chieftains hosted a little party for the mysterious commander one night soon after his arrival in the maximum security building of Modelo Prison.
Music, a little whiskey and a few models hired by the drug traffickers for the occasion achieved the desired result, according to sources familiar with the investigation.
Toro revealed his secret identity. When ``Popeye,'' a well-known hit man for the Medellin Cartel, entered the prison cell holding a knife, Toro spilled more details.
He said his organization was holding Juan Carlos and would free him only if Cuba's Castro, his hero, expressly requested his release.
Told about Toro's admission, Gaviria phoned Castro from Bogota and arranged to send Santamaria to Cuba.
Using a corporate jet chartered by Gaviria, Santamaria traveled to Havana the following morning, June 11. He had lunch with Castro and Arbesu at Protocol House, a government residence reserved for visiting dignitaries.
After lunch, a secretary set up a computer in a nearby room and the Cuban president dictated the two-paragraph message that would save Juan Carlos Gaviria's life.
In the message, Castro asked the kidnappers -- ``for strictly humanitarian reasons and without the least desire to meddle in the affairs of your country'' -- not to kill Juan Carlos.
Castro and Gaviria spoke again and agreed that Castro would send two close aides to deliver the message personally to Commander Bochica.
At 3 p.m. on Tuesday, June 11, Santamaria flew back to Bogota with Arbesu and Jorge Luis Joa, an expert on armed insurrection in Latin America.
Arbesu went to Modelo Prison to deliver Castro's message to Bochica. After a discussion that lasted three hours, Bochica revoked the order of execution but demanded that he, his relatives and some members of the Dignity for Colombia gang be granted asylum by the Cuban government.
The next day, Juan Carlos was taken by his kidnappers to the airport in Pereira. They accompanied him on a flight to Bogota where he was set free. It was just one day before his execution would have been triggered by Congress' exoneration of Samper.
The same day, June 12, the kidnappers and some of Commander Bochica's relatives were put aboard an Avianca plane, chartered by the Gaviria family, that took them to Havana.
The reaction throughout the country was that Gaviria had staged a 48-hour coup d'etat, said a lawyer at the attorney general's office.
Cries of indignation also rose from the Cuban exile community in South Florida, along with speculation about what Castro expects from Gaviria as repayment for his favor.
When asked about this, Santamaria said: ``I think I know Castro, and even if he had a favor to ask Gaviria, he wouldn't do it. He is a gentleman.''
Copyright © 1996 The Miami Herald