Assassination of Luis Carlos Galán

On August 18, 1989, Luis Carlos Galán, a liberal presidential candidate for Colombia for the 1990-1994 period, was gunned down while greeting a crowd of supporters in the central square of the town of Soacha, near Bogotá. Galán was campaigning and stood on an improvised platform, along with his bodyguards Santiago Cuérvo Jiménez and Pedro Nel Angulo Bonilla, and Julio César Peñaloza Sánchez, a councilman from Soacha, when Galán, Peñaloza and Cuervo were shot dead by Jaime Eduardo Rueda Rocha and Henry Pérez, hitmen in the service of drug lord Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha 'El Mexicano', a member of the Medellín Cartel, an organization also known as 'Los Extraditables', also led by drug lord Pablo Escobar, and allied with them the politician Alberto Santofimio Botero. Although the regional hospital of Soacha was nearby, Galán was taken by car to the hospital in the town of Bosa in Bogotá, a bit far away, but the hospital lacked the equipment to save him, Galán had to be transferred to the Kennedy Hospital, in the town of the same name in Bogotá, where he was declared dead at 11 pm that same day after medical efforts.

Assassination of Luis Carlos Galán
Main square of the town of Soacha where Luis Carlos Galán was murdered.
Location	Main Square in Soacha, Cundinamarca, Colombia
Coordinates	32°46′45.4″N 96°48′30.6″W
Date	August 18, 1989 (1989-08-18) 8:30 p.m. (UTC−05:00)
Target	Luis Carlos Galán
Weapons	Mini uzi
Deaths	Luis Carlos Galán Julio César Peñaloza Sánchez Santiago Cuervo
Injured	Pedro Nel Angulo Bonilla
Perpetrators	Jaime Eduardo Rueda Rocha and Henry Pérez ordered by Pablo Escobar
Charges	Murder with malice (5 counts, Rueda Rocha and Henry Pérez murdered after escaping from prison)

Rueda Rocha and Henry Pérez escaped to the Magdalena Medio region, while other accomplices fled to Melgar. Following the strong order of President Virgilio Barco to capture those responsible for the assassination, the police captured several people, who turned out to be innocent, and shortly after, following a tip-off, the perpetrators of the crime were captured. However, despite the capture of the perpetrators of the crime, the innocent people remained in prison for almost 5 years until they were declared innocent in 1994, while the guilty and other accomplices were killed in the following years.

Subsequent investigations concluded that Galán was murdered by Henry Pérez and Jaime Rueda under the orders of Rodríguez Gacha and Escobar, the latter instigated by the politician Santofimio, fueling the hatred that Escobar had towards Galán for having indirectly exposed him as a criminal when he was campaigning politically in 1982, in addition to leading, together with his fellow party member Rodrigo Lara Bonilla, Minister of Justice, a frontal fight against drug trafficking and political corruption.

In mid-1989, Galán led the opinion polls as the favourite candidate to win the elections the following year, provoking the jealousy of Santofimio, who wanted to get rid of his political opponent. Since 2004, Santofimio ended up in prison when his complicity in the crime was discovered, along with that of the director of the DAS, General Miguel Maza Márquez, since the latter changed the guard that protected Galán.

In 2016, the Colombian Council of State declared the murder of Luis Carlos Galán a crime against humanity, because his murder was part of a persecution by drug lords against their opponents and anyone who confronted them, so the Prosecutor's Office can continue to prosecute people involved in this murder.

Background

Galán

Further information: Luis Carlos Galán

Luis Carlos Galán, his major son Juan Manuel and Luis Silva Segura. Bogotá 1984

Luis Carlos Galán, a journalist by profession but a politician with a career as Minister of Education, a city councilor in Bogotá and Colombian ambassador to Italy, had launched himself as a dissident candidate of the Liberal Party for the presidency of Colombia in 1982, opposed to the traditional election of the party's candidate through conventions where political bosses hand-picked the candidate, in this case the former president Alfonso López Michelsen, which watching for the reelection. Galán, together with his fellow party member Rodrigo Lara Bonilla, created his movement New Liberalism. Although Galán lost the elections to Belisario Betancur, his movement obtained multiple seats in the Senate, the House, the assemblies and the councils, members of his movement who openly opposed the customs of the Liberal government, among which were clientelism and the links of some of the figures with the heads of drug trafficking organizations. After finishing third in the elections, Galán was elected senator. Galán abstained from participating in the 1986 elections, supporting the candidacy of Virgilio Barco, who was elected president (1986-1990). Opinion polls continued to place him in first place for the next presidential elections. His campaigns were different from other political candidates because he represented youth and renewal in liberalism, the majority force in Colombia at that time, and he was far removed from party symbols or interventions in the public square. As the 1990 presidential elections approached, Galán, with the mediation of former president Julio César Turbay, agreed to dissolve his dissidence and return to the Liberal Party, although Galán only set as a condition the establishment of a popular consultation; a mechanism in which the voters of the Liberal Party would elect the candidate of their preference, instead of the party conventions. The Liberal candidates competing with Galán were former minister Hernando Durán Dussán, the senator and head of the People's Power; Ernesto Samper (previously López Michelsen's debate chief), the regional leaders Alberto Santofimio Botero, Jaime Castro Castro and William Jaramillo Gómez.

I do not recognize enemies within the Liberal Party... The only enemies are those who use terror and violence to silence the Colombian people, to intimidate them, or to assassinate their most important protagonists.

— Luis Carlos Galán during the 1989 Liberal Convention.

Escobar and Medellín Cartel

Further information: Pablo Escobar and Medellin Cartel

Escobar's mugshot after of being arrested in 1976.

Pablo Escobar was a criminal who, before dedicating himself to cocaine trafficking, stole tombstones for resale, then to smuggling under the command of Alfredo López Gómez 'Don Capone', and despite the latter's warnings, to drug trafficking under the patronage of Griselda Blanco. Escobar, under the influence of Santofimio, began his political activity in the Liberal Renewal movement together with Santofimio himself and Jairo Ortega Ramírez, who had registered his candidacy for congressman with Escobar as his alternate. Being a movement that supported Galán's candidacy in the 1982 elections, Galán had heard rumors of people with fortunes of dubious origin who intended to support the New Liberalism, among them Escobar. Unable to prove (for the moment) that Escobar was a drug lord, Galán, without mentioning Escobar's name, expelled him, Ortega and Santofimio from supporting New Liberalism. This action resented Escobar who wanted to kill him from that moment on.

Despite this, Escobar was elected as a substitute congressman for Ortega. But his political career was cut short when Rodrigo Lara, as a senator, denounced in several debates the infiltration of illicit money into politics and Colombian professional soccer teams. Due to these accusations, Lara was appointed Minister of Justice by President Betancur. From the ministry, Lara led a frontal fight against drug trafficking. Lara publicly denounced Escobar as a drug lord and co-creator of the paramilitary group MAS. Aided by Ortega, Escobar counterattacked by warning the minister to prove his accusations under penalty of criminal charges for slander and defamation, in addition to showing the public a copy of a check from drug trafficker Evaristo Porras to Lara's senate campaign. With his honour in question and abandoned by his fellow partisans (among them Galán), Lara, supported by President Betancur, managed to destroy Escobar's image by publishing a documentary by Brian Ross, while the newspaper El Espectador published how years before Escobar had been arrested along with his cousin Gustavo Gaviria for possession of cocaine paste. The agents who had arrested them were murdered, Judge Mariela Espinosa was threatened with death, so the case was time-barred. Escobar was expelled from congress to and resign from politics, while his visa to the US was cancelled, Lara approved the police raid, headed by Colonel Jaime Ramírez Gómez, on Tranquilandia; a complex of laboratories for processing cocaine in the jungles of the Yarí River, and Judge Gustavo Zuluaga Serna issued an arrest warrant against Escobar and Gustavo Gaviria for the murder of the two DAS agents. A few months later, Lara-Bonilla, whose honor had previously been called into question and then vindicated, was murdered.

The murder of Lara Bonilla marked the beginning of the war between the Colombian government and the drug lords of the Medellín Cartel. After a failed attempt to negotiate surrender in Panama with former President Alfonso López Michelsen as mediator, the war claimed the lives of Tulio Manuel Castro Gil, the judge in charge of investigating Lara Bonilla's murder; Judge Zuluaga Serna; Magistrate Hernando Baquero Borda, defender of the Extradition Treaty; Colonel Ramírez Gómez; Guillermo Cano, editor of the newspaper El Espectador; and other journalists. At the same time, Enrique Parejo González, Lara's successor at the Ministry of Justice and after Colombia's ambassador to Hungary, was the target of an attempt on his life, from which he survived.

Planning of crime

In mid-1989, with Galán expected to be elected president the following year, Santofimio met with Escobar and Rodríguez Gacha on a farm in the Magdalena Medio region. According to Jhon Jairo Velásquez 'Popeye', Santofimio instigated and convinced Escobar to assassinate Galán with the phrase "If Galán is president, he will extradite you. I tell you with all my conviction, Pablo, kill him."

Once the decision to kill Galán was made, Escobar ordered 'Popeye' to locate Ricardo Prisco and take him to the farm. At the hideout, Escobar gave Prisco a citizenship card with the name of Pacho Herrera, an enemy of the Cali Cartel, so that he could buy a vehicle in his name that would be used in the attack to kill Galán. With this, Escobar sought to implicate the people of the Cali Cartel in order to try to confront them with the authorities.

Failed attack

Days later, on August 5 of that year, Los Priscos proceeded to place a rocket in a vacant lot aimed at the University of Medellín where they knew Galán would go to give a conference guarded by Colonel Waldemar Franklin Quintero of the police. However, a neighbor alerted the authorities about the presence of strange people and all the attackers managed to flee, except one who, upon seeing the police approaching, pretended to be urinating. When the police asked him if he was a member of the gang, the man claimed to be homeless and said that he had seen some men throwing weapons before running away. The National Police held him for a few minutes and then let him go.

Police officer Valdemar Franklin Quintero was the prominent figure in the failed attack and immediately took Galán back to the Olaya Herrera Airport. Quintero was killed on Escobar's orders on the same day as Galán, August 18. This made Escobar turn to Rodríguez Gacha, who, having a fairly strong paramilitary apparatus with which he had had militants of the Patriotic Union assassinated, and with influence in Bogotá, coordinated everything necessary to be able to carry out the crime.

Men can be eliminated, but ideas cannot. And on the contrary, when men are sometimes eliminated, ideas become stronger.

— Luis Carlos Galán, august 1989.

Weakening Galán's security

The Galán Pachón family claims that Luis Carlos Galán had never requested a change of head of security a few days before the assassination. Victor Julio Cruz, Galán's head of security at the time, who had protected him until then, was surprised by his sudden replacement by Lt. Jacobo Alfonso Torregrosa Melo. According to General Maza Márquez of DAS, Galán had requested the change arguing that Cruz was a big gossip with Gloria Pachón, Galán's wife, while Cruz confirms that he had never been a gossip or had a bad relationship with Galán's family. According to Cruz, the change of head of security had been requested by Galán's own bodyguards, stating that they did not like the scheme that Cruz used to protect Galán. Cruz was eventually assigned as Rafael Pardo's head of security. Unlike Cruz, who had been Galán's head of bodyguards for years, Torregrosa was just a police officer who had recently returned to the DAS, whose CV was full of reprimands and dubious references, and who also claimed to have taken the course for the protection of politicians.

On the other hand, Rodríguez Gacha employed Henry Pérez, his ally in the training of paramilitaries in the Magdalena Medio, and Jaime Rueda, an extremely violent man and former FARC militant who, after leading a criminal group, went to work for Rodríguez Gacha and was trained in paramilitary camps under the supervision of Yair Klein. The weapon that would be used in the murder was to be a Mini Atlanta 380, which according to 'Popeye', had the ability to penetrate the bulletproof vest worn by Galán. Rocha was accompanied by his half-brother Jose Ever Rueda Silva and other 18 hitmen more characterized by wearing white hats.

Assassination

Early morning 6:00 - 6:15 A.M.

On the morning of August 18, 1989, Colonel Valdemar Franklin Quintero was killed without bodyguards, claiming, like the murdered Guillermo Cano Isaza, that he did not want to risk the lives of others to protect his own, and that he tried to go unnoticed, a strategy that did not last due to corrupt elements in the police. Galán sent his solidarity to the family, recognizing their work against the Medellín Cartel.

No citizen can [simply] be a spectator of the authorities' fight against violence.

— Galán's public statement regarding the murder of Colonel Quintero.

Just two days earlier, on August 16, 1989, Judge Carlos Valencia García was assassinated after signing a ruling against Pablo Escobar and other members of the Medellín Cartel for the murders of Jaime Pardo Leal and Guillermo Cano.

Afternoon 12:15 P.M.

At noon, Galán had lunch with Diego Uribe Vargas and Yolanda Pulecio, both organized the political demonstration in Soacha. During the afternoon he held a final meeting with his private secretary Juan Lozano Ramírez who was organizing his next political tours that would take place in Villeta and later in Ibagué. At the time of leaving he said goodbye to his secretary Lucy Páez.

Night 7:00 P.M.

Carlos Fernando, Galán's youngest son, who was 12 years old at the time, offered to bring him two bulletproof vests. Although it was not Galán's custom, since he had not needed one until then, he put on one; the one that was short and did not protect the entire abdomen, while Torregrosa put on the other one that was apparently safer than the one Galán was wearing, but it was planned that this vest would protect Galán's head. Galán said goodbye to his wife Gloria Pachón, who had earlier advised her husband not to get into any open-air vehicle.

Galán's arrival at the square 8:00 P.M.

A former bodyguard declared that Torregrosa informed him and his companions that a team would go to the municipality to reconnoiter the place and locate the security detail. The witness stated that such a scheme never existed, since on the night of the events there was no control of weapons or entry of people. Galán's bodyguards were usually made up of eight men, but Torregrosa sent two of them to Villeta, thus weakening Galán's protection. Meanwhile, four hours before the event, a wooden platform was built very close to the stage in the Soacha plaza, practically superfluous since the plaza had its own cement platform, making it easier for the assassins to hide under it. Galán's armored car arrived at the Central Square in Soacha at 8:30 p.m in an armored car and when he arrived at the town hall he boarded the back of an open-topped pick-up truck (since it did not have its wooden frame), a vehicle that was boarded by his bodyguards and at least two hitmen with upside-down banners whose objective was to feel Galán's body to see if he had a bulletproof vest. Rueda Rocha and other hitmen also arrived at the plaza in another car owned by the DAS, but Rueda unintentionally exchanged the Mini Atlanta submachine gun for a Mini Uzi that was a service weapon for DAS agents.

In the Soacha square there was no control or searches of the crowd of people who filled the square, but only a few police officers, despite Torregrosa's statement that he had organised a security ring including searches of the attendees, something denied by Lozano. In addition, the police in the square would be accompanied by a counter-guerrilla group and snipers, of which, due to the architecture of the square, only one could be placed in the bell tower of the church in the square. Likewise, the square lacked lighting and there was dust raised by motorcyclists. Upon getting out of the vehicle, Galán stood in the middle of the crowd greeting people, leaving Torregrosa behind, in the middle of a potentially dangerous crowd, with no barricades separating them from the crowd and no barriers in the back of the van carrying the convoy, giving way to a potential attack from the vehicle.

Shooting

Galán climb onto the wooden platform where he would give his speech, accompanied by councilman Julio César Peñaloza Sánchez and two bodyguards; Santiago Cuervo Jiménez and Pedro Nel Angulo. On the platform, Galán greeted the crowd by raising his arms, thus lifting his bulletproof vest and leaving part of his abdomen exposed. At 8:45 p.m. Jaime Eduardo Rueda Rocha, after passing under the wooden platform, quickly positioned himself almost diagonally firing the Mini Uzi submachine gun at Galán, with 5 bullets of which two hit his vest, two under it (hitting the light bulb of cameraman Jesús 'Chucho' Calderón) and one hitting mainly the abdominal aorta, which almost immediately caused a cardiorespiratory arrest. At the same time, councilman Peñaloza Sánchez was seriously wounded and died five days later.

Bodyguard Santiago Cuervo pushes Galán trying to save him, being also mortally wounded by the bullets, but even so, together with his partner Angulo, also wounded, he managed to get Galán down from the platform and take him to a car behind the platform while the crowd fled and the hitmen, including Rueda Silva and who along with other hitmen were with banners blocking the view of the bodyguards, they also fled to Melgar.

Consequences in the Soacha square

As the crowd ran away in panic in the midst of confusion, especially amid gunshots and fireworks, Galán was taken to the armored car of César Gaviria, his debate leader, which was used improvised as an ambulance and taken to the hospital in the town of Bosa, practically near Bogotá, but the rush hour caused the car to be delayed in arriving at the hospital. In the central square of Soacha, there were no witnesses due to the banners used by the murderers and their accomplices, and a shopkeeper kept the wood from the platform, while the television news not only documented the murder, with their backs to the victims, but also warned of an "attack" against Galán.

Galán declared dead

Upon arriving at the Bosa hospital, Galán could not be properly treated because they lacked the equipment to save him. Although the decision was made not to take him immediately to the Soacha hospital, which did have the equipment, apparently out of fear that Galán would be finished off there. However, at the Bosa hospital, Angulo and Cuérvo were treated, but Cuérvo died from his wounds days later, leaving his wife, who was 6 months pregnant, a widow, giving birth to a girl 3 months later. Although the idea was to take Galán to the Santa Rosa clinic, he was finally taken to the Kennedy hospital, where he was even treated by his brother Augusto Galán, who was a surgeon. But despite all medical efforts to save his life, Galán was declared dead at 11:10 pm. Galán's family first went to the Bosa hospital, only managing to see Cuérvo, who was unable to speak as he was dying, and then went to the Kennedy hospital just minutes before Galán was declared dead.

Immediate aftermath

Autopsy and funeral

Galán's grave at the Central Cemetery in Bogotá

The respective autopsy was carried out in the morgue of Forensic Medicine a day later on August 19, subsequently, Galán's corpse was taken to the Congress of the Republic where it remained in a burning chamber in the elliptical hall of the House of Representatives. In the afternoon he was taken to the Central Cemetery in a mass funeral on the way from Congress via Carrera Séptima and Avenida El Dorado to the cemetery. His burial was attended by over a million people, including ordinary people, members of the Liberal and Conservative parties of the Colombian Communist Party and the Patriotic Union, journalists, student activists, unions, human rights groups and more. During the funeral at the cemetery, Juan Manuel Galán, Galán's eldest son (17 years old at the time) gave a speech, which he changed by leaving the original in his father's corpse suit bag.

I love Colombia. I know that the criminals who murdered my father cannot be called Colombians; I know that drug traffickers cannot be called Colombians either. That is why, now more than ever, I know that my father was a great Colombian who was never intimidated, who was faithful to his ideals and his dreams... that is why I want to ask Mr. César Gaviria, the name of the people, and in the name of my family, that we entrust my father's flags into his hands. And that he has our support so that he can be the president that Colombia so wanted and needed. Please save Colombia.

— Juan Manuel Galán, Galán's eldest son during his father's funeral

Juan Manuel wrote the speech in the company of his cousin Juana Uribe, a copy of the original of which remained in the hands of his grandfather Mario Galán and Juan Manuel Galán's decision to appoint Gaviria caused controversy within the family itself, believing that he would be the successor that Galán would want, Juan Manuel Galán would regret his decision years later.

State of siege and other measures

Galán's death had a great impact on the Colombian population and the government, and the following day, the government declared a state of siege and issued Decree 1830 of August 19, 1989, which authorized extradition by administrative means without the need to request permission from the Supreme Court of Justice. The Government also created an Elite Corps in the Police in order to combat Los Extraditables frontally.

Capture of innocents

Following President Virgilio Barco's forceful order to capture those responsible, the DAS and the DIJIN, the latter under the command of Colonel Óscar Eduardo Peláez Carmona, unleashed several operations that led to the arrest of Alberto Jubiz Hazbum and four other innocent people. Jubiz, was a chemist from Barranquilla of Arab origin who had traveled to Bogotá to take a hydroponics course with the idea of finding an alternative that would allow him to recover economically from the loss of 86 hectares of tomatoes, a consequence of the overflow of the Magdalena River. On August 22, the same day that Jubiz planned to return to Barranquilla, while he was waiting for the merchant Jaime de Jesús Valencia Martínez to close a deal, suddenly a group of police officers burst into the Mezzanine Building located on Carrera 19 and Calle 79 in Bogotá, to carry out a raid. They planted an Ingram submachine gun (weapon different from that used in the crime) and both Hazbum and 4 men were captured and sent to the DIJIN facilities. Both Miguel Maza Márquez, director of the DAS, and Peláez, presented the captured men (Júbiz Hazbum, Armando Bernal, Norberto Murillo Chalarca and Pedro Thelmo Zambrano) as Galán's murderers despite the fact that the captured men claimed their innocence. They were accused of having ties to Escobar, Rodríguez Gacha and Yair Klein, as well as having planned the assassination days before, all of this with the support of false witnesses. Despite being a Galanist, Jubiz had attended his hydroponics classes except for one, on the day of the assassination, to watch the Millonarios vs. Junior soccer match.

Capture of the criminals

Days later, Cromos magazine published exclusive photos of the assassination. During the war between Víctor Carranza and Rodríguez Gacha, the emerald businessman Pablo Elías Delgadillo recognized José Ever Rueda Silva in one of the magazine's photos as one of the men in white hats who appeared in several photos holding a banner in the left corner of the platform where Galán was murdered. He had recognized him because he had been an employee of the emerald mines who had done work for Rodriguez Gacha and was easy to locate, because he resold emeralds in the center of Bogota. The police and other judicial authorities captured Jose Orlando Chavez Fajardo in the Lujan neighborhood in western Bogota, an accomplice to the crime who confessed his participation and other details of the crime; Chavez revealed himself to be one of the men who held a banner and fired shots at the ground to scare away passersby, his sentence of being killed by Rueda Rocha or he would be paid with a house and a car if he fulfilled his part. During the investigation, Chavez not only revealed Rueda Rocha but also Rueda Silva and Pedro Paez 'Najaro', all employees of 'El Mexicano'.

24 hours later, Rueda Rocha, his half-brother Rueda Silva and Enrique Chávez Vargas (Chávez Fajardo's cousin) were captured. The announcement of the arrests was made on Friday, September 22, 1989, during a press conference chaired by the commander of the XIII Army Brigade, General Ramón Eduardo Niebles, and the commander of the Bogotá Metropolitan Police, Colonel Nacim Yanine Díaz, who also linked the detainees to the attack on El Espectador that had occurred days before and to the campaign of extermination against the Patriotic Union. Rueda Silva denied the charges and Chávez Vargas accepted and confessed his participation, also providing enlightening clues, such as involving a lieutenant of the intelligence network of B2 of the XIII Brigade with the surname Flórez, key for the assassins to be able to infiltrate the political event. However, the courts ruled in favor of the dubious arrests by the DAS and the DIJIN, whose innocent prisoners were denied bail, even under threats from Peláez. Chávez Fajardo retracted his confession while his cousin Chávez Vargas confirmed his statements. Both Chávez cousins were granted prison benefits for collaboration, but years later they both disappeared after obtaining provisional freedom and despite the fact that both asked for protection from the justice system, both cousins were murdered on August 5, 1990 in the Las Delicias neighborhood, south of Bogotá.

On September 18 of that same year, after having spent almost a year in La Picota Prison, Rueda Rocha escaped in complicity with his lawyer Saúl Pérez, who entered the prison with a false ID and impersonated Rueda. Rueda was prosecuted for the murder of Galán, but was never tried. Instead, he returned to Puerto Boyacá, creating his own paramilitary group and remained in hiding until April 23, 1992, when he was shot dead in a confrontation with the police in Honda (Tolima). Meanwhile, Rueda Silva, also imprisoned in La Picota, wrote a letter to his mother to give evidence of who was behind the criminal plan. The letter, dated May 9, 1992, contained instructions to deliver it to the newly created Attorney General's Office, knowing that he would be killed so as not to leave any trace of the crime. Two months later, Rueda Silva was murdered by a retired army sergeant also imprisoned in La Picota. In less than three years, other accomplices of the assassination were killed.

On the other hand, in 1993, the Prosecutor's Office proved the innocence of Jubiz Hazbún and the other innocents and a judge granted them conditional freedom, being declared innocent shortly after. Jubiz sued the state because he was prevented from proving his innocence, and because his rights to liberty, equality, personal and family honor, good name and dignity were violated. Jubiz Hazbún died on April 26, 1998, one month after the conciliation of his case failed. He died without knowing the ruling of the Council of State that declared the Attorney General's Office, the Police and the Ministry of Defense responsible for his arbitrary detention, and condemned them to pay compensation of 3,000 million pesos. Maza Márquez and Peláez were forced to pay the nation the compensation money under the sentence of having condemned innocent people in an effort to give a false image of efficiency and effectiveness in the fight against crime.

The Council of State ordered a solemn act of public apology to be held on January 30, 2015, with the participation of the then National Director of the Police, Rodolfo Palomino López, and the Deputy Attorney General of the Nation, Jorge Fernando Perdomo Torres, who on that day stated that the forgiveness of the victims symbolizes the possibility of rebuilding the broken ties between the community and the State. A precautionary measure was issued against Peláez Carmona in February 2018. In 2014, part of the compensation was paid to the family, which has generated their indignation at the delay of the State in solving their situation.

Investigations

It was established that Galán was the victim of a perfectly crafted plan in which many important figures in the country were involved. To begin with, the file showed that Galán had a sudden change in his security arrangement days before his arrival in Soacha.

Galán was hit five times by a light submachine gun reserved for special operations by the military forces. Two bullet holes lodged in the bulletproof vest he was wearing, which, it should be noted, was not safe as it only covered his abdomen up to his navel, leaving him vulnerable to attack from below. The assassins were hiding under the platform where Galán was. Once hit, Galán fell to the platform and in the midst of the confusion he was dragged by his bodyguards to a vehicle behind the platform, from where he was taken to the Bosa Hospital, a town in Bogotá near Soacha, where he would die at 10:00 p.m. However, the nearest hospital in Soacha (Mario Gaitán Yanguas Hospital) was only 200 meters from the scene of the incident, but due to lack of foresight it was not considered.

Torregrosa was not on the platform when the attack occurred, which allowed Galán to be hit and killed, since if he had been there, he would have died instead of Galán. Months later, in mid-1990, despite having returned to his former position as watchman at the DAS tower, he went missing and remains missing to this day, leaving many questions unanswered, despite the progress of the investigation. Torregrosa, after having maintained contact with Rueda Rocha and being on the payroll of Rodríguez Gacha, is apparently still alive to date living in Venezuela or Spain after having disappeared in 1990, and despite having been declared dead by the National Registry of alleged natural causes in Santa Marta.

Responsibles parties

Medellín Cartel

Pablo Escobar (determinant) had wanted to kill Galán because the latter had publicly expelled him from the New Liberalism for his criminal record. However, in 1988, Escobar began to see him as a danger in view of his growing popularity, especially against the infiltration of drug trafficking in politics, while Galán was in favor of the extradition of the main drug lords to the United States.

Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha (determinant), being part of the Medellín Cartel and leader of its military wing, being naturally against the extradition defended by Galán.

Apart from the Medellín Cartel, the Cali Cartel has also been investigated.

Presumably self-defense groups

Carlos Castaño Gil (alleged instigator), according to Diego Fernando Murillo 'Don Berna', the late leader of the self-defense forces was also the mastermind as he considered that Galán was against paramilitarism.

Politicians

Alberto Santofimio Botero (determinant), being a traditional liberal political boss and ally of Escobar since 1982, considered New Liberalism a serious threat to his interests. Initially he was not linked despite his well-known connections, but on August 19, 1999, a judge in Cundinamarca established evidence that implicated Alberto Santofimio in the murder of Luis Carlos Galán and sent copies so that the Prosecutor's Office could investigate him after learning of the plan. However, the Prosecutor's Office claimed not to find any grounds for opening an investigation. Years later, in 2004, Jhon Jairo Velásquez revealed Santofimio's involvement in the Galán crime. Santofimio was immediately captured and taken to the Prosecutor's Office, denying any involvement. Santofimio was sentenced to 24 years in prison, briefly regaining his freedom in 2008 after an appeal by his lawyers. However, on August 31, 2011, the Supreme Court of Justice legally overturned the decision of the State Supreme Court and upheld the original sentence, giving credibility to the version proven in the trial of 'Popeye'. The Court ordered the arrest of Alberto Santofimio Botero; he was accused of being an influential party in the murder of not only Luis Carlos Galán, but also of the other two victims, councilman Peñaloza and bodyguard Santiago Cuervo, who were shot to death along with Galán. Both Santofimio and Maza offered to testify in court before the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) regarding Galán's crime, but the court refused to do so. On March 25, 2020, Santofimio was released on parole after having served three-quarters of his sentence, in addition to the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, which would put his health at risk, but he was also sentenced to pay more than 1.7 billion pesos in material damages to Galán's family, as well as nearly 230 million pesos to Cuervo's family.

Hernando Durán Dussán has also been accused of being an accomplice, in addition to his relationship with paramilitary groups, as well as his apparent political arm, the National Renewal Movement (MORENA) and the Peasant Association of Cattle Ranchers and Farmers of the Middle Magdalena (ACDEGAM), who gave him publicity after Galán's murder.

In 2010, former paramilitary Alonso Baquero stated in a statement before the Justice and Peace Chamber that the Galán crime had been planned by congressmen Duran Dussan, Cesar Pérez, Tiberio Villareal and Víctor Renán Barco, a statement that has been supported by former paramilitary leader Ernesto Báez, who at the time was advisor to Henry Pérez and creator of the National Restoration Movement (Morena), the political arm of paramilitarism. First in Justice and Peace and then in an 11-hour session with the Attorney General's Office and the Prosecutor's Office, Baéz also spoke about the paramilitary project, the pact with politicians and the assassination. He stated that "Without the support of the DAS and the B-2 it would have been impossible to carry out the attack."

State agents

Throughout the investigations into Galán's assassination, the possible active participation of officers from the F2 of the Police, the B2 intelligence unit of the Army, and the DAS in the planning and execution of the assassination, as well as in the deviation of the investigations, has been established. In the first years of the investigation, the alleged participation of Lieutenant Carlos Humberto Flórez Franco was known, referenced in the statements made at the time by the defendant José Orlando Chávez Fajardo —later murdered—, who confessed before the court two months after Galán's murder that a Lieutenant Flórez and a Sergeant Roa, both from the Army, had participated in the conspiracy to assassinate Galán. Over time, it was confirmed that it was Carlos Humberto Flórez and Sergeant Luis Alberto Roa Cárdenas, members of the B2 of the Army, both characters were members of Rodríguez Gacha's network of collaborators. Despite being a fugitive from justice today, Florez was acquitted in 2011 when no evidence was found to support the officer's presence in the events, although he does have an open case against him for the murder of the UP leader and union member Teófilo Forero in February 1989, which is open and in process before the JEP in the case of the extermination of the political party in question.

Starting in 2009, when the assassination was declared a crime against humanity, former general Maza Márquez was linked to the crime, who is considered responsible for altering the security scheme without Galán's consent. Officers Luis Felipe Montilla Barbosa, then Commander of the Soacha police, and the former head of Public Order of the then Administrative Department of Security (DAS), retired colonel Manuel Antonio González Henríquez, were also linked. Captain Montilla Barbosa lied, as the Prosecutor's Office pointed out, in the report he submitted on the case in 2016, when he indicated that he had "deployed all security operations" and that he had 40 of his men at his disposal, when the truth was that only 10 uniformed officers were located in the square and its surroundings, despite the figure of 80 men he managed in that Command. The Prosecutor's Office also analyzed whether there was tampering in the Soacha command's guard minute book, in order to establish whether there were inconsistencies regarding the number of police officers who actually participated in the political event. The case against Montilla and González was opened in 2013 based on the testimony of two police officers, Josué Oved Ariza Lancheros and Mario Rueda León, who stated that the investigation was diverted from the police itself and that the crime was even committed because the high command denied logistical support for the event in the Soacha plaza, and because records, minutes and statements from officers at the Soacha station and at the SIJIN about the day of the events were adulterated on the orders of then-General Argemiro Serna, then commander of the Cundinamarca police. One of the witnesses even claimed to have heard some F2 officers toasting Galán's murder. Both former general Serna and former colonel Oscar Peláez Carmona were also linked to the investigation as they were the ones who orchestrated the judicial setup against Alberto Jubiz Hazbum, Norberto Murillo Chalarca, Armando Bernal Acosta, Pedro Telmo Zambrano, Luis Alfredo González Chacón and Héctor Manuel Cepeda. It was learned that former general Serna was on the payroll of Rodríguez Gacha's organization.

In his statements before the Special Jurisdiction for Peace, former General Maza Márquez has also indicated that high-ranking Army officers, who in turn held high positions in the State, planned the assassination, carried it out and covered up the perpetrators. To convince the JEP magistrates, Maza linked six officers linked to military intelligence, who have been accused of having an alliance with paramilitaries for some time ago. This version has been supported for some time, mainly by independent organizations such as Equipo Nizkor, the Colombian Commission of Jurists and the Inter-Ecclesiastical Commission for Justice and Peace, who have agreed that both the active participation of state agents in the crime and its cover-up are a sustainable basis for classifying Galán's murder as a state crime, arguing the possible participation of high-ranking military officers who encouraged the participation of middle and low-ranking officers, and the material and intellectual authorship of that officers in the crime.

Legacy

Political impact and memorialization

Although Galán had been chosen as the presidential candidate by the Liberal Party convention, Galán had insisted on holding the referendum. This was held in March 1990 and Cesar Gaviria, Galán's successor, was chosen as the presidential candidate, and was subsequently elected president of Colombia in May of the same year, in the midst of the wave of terror and violence of that time.

Presidential candidate	Votes	Porcentaje
César Augusto Gaviria Trujillo	2.797.482	51.83%
Hernando Durán Dussán	1.204.987	22.32%
Ernesto Samper Pizano	1,028.866	19.06%
Alberto Rafael Santofimio Botero	232.106	4.30%
William Jaramillo Gómez	86.683	1.60%
Jaime Castro Castro	46.899	0.86%

The DAS, the Colombian secret police, whose powers included providing security to politicians, was dissolved in 2011 when it was discovered that it had been infiltrated by paramilitaries. The DAS was not only responsible for changing Galán's guard, but also for monitoring other opposition politicians who were also killed. Among these was Bernardo Jaramillo Ossa, whose bodyguards reacted late when Jaramillo was killed. Likewise Carlos Pizarro Leongomez, who upon being murdered, his killer Gerardo Gutiérrez Uribe 'Jerry', threw down his weapon begging not to be killed, but a DAS bodyguard murdered him at point-blank range according to investigations.

In 2014, during the municipal administration of Juan Carlos Nemocón, a monument was erected in the eastern part of the Plaza de Soacha at the point where the presidential candidate was shot in 1989 on 13th Street in front of the Mayor's office, remaining until 2022, by agreement of the Galán family with Mayor Juan Carlos Saldarriaga, in which it was moved to the entrance of the Municipal Stadium on Carrera Séptima A with Calle 22.

Popular culture

• Jubiz Hazbún serves as inspiration for the character of Carlos Alberto Buendía, protagonist of the 1997 series Caracol Televisión's La Mujer del Presidente; a systems engineer accused and imprisoned for a crime he did not commit. The Galán murder case is referenced in several episodes of the series.
• The murder of Galán. Chapter of the series Investigative Unit (produced by Fox Telecolombia) of the writer Gustavo Bolívar - 1999.
• Documentary "Galán: The Fight of a Giant" - 2004 by Juana Uribe.
• The murder of Galán is staged in the Colombian series Pablo Escobar, The Drug Lord Episode 44.
• Galán's assassination is mentioned in the Colombian series Tres Caínes.
• The assassination of Galán and the capture of the innocent people are mentioned in the TV series Alias el Mexicano.
• The death of Luis Carlos Galán is depicted in episode 5 of the Netflix series, Narcos.