When General Jose Guillermo Medina Sanchez, 53, retired as head of Colombia's 80,000-member National Police last month, the country's law-enforcement officials turned out in full dress uniform, complete with ceremonial gilt swords. But Medina's departure was not quite so honorable as it seemed. Colombian police officials have told TIME that Medina was fired on orders from President Virgilio Barco Vargas after the general came under suspicion of being on the payroll of Pablo Escobar Gaviria, patriarch of one of the leading families of the Medellin drug cartel.
After Escobar narrowly escaped capture in an army raid on one of his estates...
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