Chapter 1 Summary

A fictional re-telling of a decidedly real story, News of a Kidnapping recounts the ordeal of ten abductees, their families' struggle to secure their release, and the events that, ultimately, altered the destiny of the entire Colombian nation.

Beginning in late August 1990, at the behest of Pablo Escobar, a series of systematic kidnappings were carried out. A number of high-profile Colombians – many of whom held significant and influential ties within both the media and government – were plucked from their daily lives for use as bargaining chips against a government policy that would have seen Colombian drug traffickers extradited to the United States.

The book opens with the seizure of the last two of the ten abductees: Maruja Pachόn de Villamizar and Beatriz Villamizar de Guerrero, wife and sister, respectively, to Alberto Villamizar, a well-known Colombian politician at the time. Moreover, Maruja was...