Home
Search
Members
Login
Register
Recent Posts1
JUNK DRAWER / Megateo - from author Toby Muse
« Last post by raul on Today at 08:40:00 am »“And that opens the floodgates for everyone to talk about their favorite rebel leader: Victor Ramon Navarro Serrano, known by everyone as Megateo. A legend, a man who could only be born out of the jungles and mountains of Colombia. Drug lord, warlord, and a bandit beloved of the people. Pablo Escobar, Che Guevara, and Robin Hood, all rolled into one.
Growing up in the mountains of Catatumbo, Navarro Serrano was bright and ambitious. Colombia’s rigid feudal hierarchy wasn’t going to work for him—he wasn’t going to work himself to death in a field. Born poor and die poor was no deal. The quickest way to be someone in the Catatumbo was to join the guerrillas. The guerrillas in his town were the Maoist Popular Liberation Army (EPL). Over the course of the 1990s, the EPL shrank from a national guerrilla movement to only ruling Catatumbo. The EPL raised money for its fight by “taxing” coca sales, turning Catatumbo in to a sanctuary for coocaine, a regulated zone where cartels could come. And in 2000, Megateo took control of the EPL and became the warlord of Catatumbo. The EPL pursued coocaine to keep fighting against the government. Slowly but surely, the group started fighting the government to pursue coocaine. Coocaine had seduced another.
“He was a revolutionary, but you know what coocaine does to you . . .” says a farmer.
Megateo turned the EPL into a uniformed coocaine trafficking militia that spouted revolutionary slogans. He never stopped wearing the military uniform befitting a guerrilla insurgency, but as coocaine took over, the narco within came out. Gold chains, expensive watches, flashy SUVs, costly escorts flown in, gold pistol-shaped medallions. Narco style.
One farmer tells how Megateo famously asked his lovers to tattoo his name next to their vaaginas. It was a golden ticket ensuring that Megateo would take care of the woman.
“He always helped people out if they needed it. If a mother couldn’t feed her children, he would pay for her shopping every month.”
What you hear in the farmers’ voices is a nostalgia for stability. When there is one warlord, everyone knows the rules and there is peace. When there are two warlords, there is war. And the farmers always die first.
“If something happened, you could speak to him. If someone stole your motorbike, or a man touched your daughter, you could send a message to him and he would take care of it,” says another.
When the state won’t do its job, a line of villains wait for their chance to step in instead.
The EPL slowly turned from a revolutionary organization to a well-run narco-militia. With a multimillion-dollar bounty on his head, Megateo invested heavily in snipers. His men couldn’t stand and face the army and the police, but they could score big in hit-and-run operations. These mountains became shooting galleries, knocking off police and soldiers.
Megateo’s story ended as it must, as Megateo knew it would. Megateo bought a mobile antiaircraft missile launcher to take down the helicopters that plagued him. Except the arms dealer was an undercover army agent and the rochet launcher was booby-trapped. Megateo was eager to try out his new toy. And the army agent politely excused himself to a safe distance. Megateo pressed “Fire.” All they ever found was one leg.
With Megateo gone, Catatumbo became an open war zone as all the other militias came in.
“We never should have killed him,” someone in the army will tell me later. “He put order in Catatumbo. Now it’s a disaster.”
From author Toby Muse
Growing up in the mountains of Catatumbo, Navarro Serrano was bright and ambitious. Colombia’s rigid feudal hierarchy wasn’t going to work for him—he wasn’t going to work himself to death in a field. Born poor and die poor was no deal. The quickest way to be someone in the Catatumbo was to join the guerrillas. The guerrillas in his town were the Maoist Popular Liberation Army (EPL). Over the course of the 1990s, the EPL shrank from a national guerrilla movement to only ruling Catatumbo. The EPL raised money for its fight by “taxing” coca sales, turning Catatumbo in to a sanctuary for coocaine, a regulated zone where cartels could come. And in 2000, Megateo took control of the EPL and became the warlord of Catatumbo. The EPL pursued coocaine to keep fighting against the government. Slowly but surely, the group started fighting the government to pursue coocaine. Coocaine had seduced another.
“He was a revolutionary, but you know what coocaine does to you . . .” says a farmer.
Megateo turned the EPL into a uniformed coocaine trafficking militia that spouted revolutionary slogans. He never stopped wearing the military uniform befitting a guerrilla insurgency, but as coocaine took over, the narco within came out. Gold chains, expensive watches, flashy SUVs, costly escorts flown in, gold pistol-shaped medallions. Narco style.
One farmer tells how Megateo famously asked his lovers to tattoo his name next to their vaaginas. It was a golden ticket ensuring that Megateo would take care of the woman.
“He always helped people out if they needed it. If a mother couldn’t feed her children, he would pay for her shopping every month.”
What you hear in the farmers’ voices is a nostalgia for stability. When there is one warlord, everyone knows the rules and there is peace. When there are two warlords, there is war. And the farmers always die first.
“If something happened, you could speak to him. If someone stole your motorbike, or a man touched your daughter, you could send a message to him and he would take care of it,” says another.
When the state won’t do its job, a line of villains wait for their chance to step in instead.
The EPL slowly turned from a revolutionary organization to a well-run narco-militia. With a multimillion-dollar bounty on his head, Megateo invested heavily in snipers. His men couldn’t stand and face the army and the police, but they could score big in hit-and-run operations. These mountains became shooting galleries, knocking off police and soldiers.
Megateo’s story ended as it must, as Megateo knew it would. Megateo bought a mobile antiaircraft missile launcher to take down the helicopters that plagued him. Except the arms dealer was an undercover army agent and the rochet launcher was booby-trapped. Megateo was eager to try out his new toy. And the army agent politely excused himself to a safe distance. Megateo pressed “Fire.” All they ever found was one leg.
With Megateo gone, Catatumbo became an open war zone as all the other militias came in.
“We never should have killed him,” someone in the army will tell me later. “He put order in Catatumbo. Now it’s a disaster.”
From author Toby Muse