César Gaviria

* Narcos
* Real life

**César Gaviria** is a Colombian economist and politician who served as the President of Colombia from 1990 to 1994. He aided in bringing Pablo Escobar to his end.

Gaviria was the campaign manager of presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galán before the latter's assassination by the Medellín cartel in 1989 for supporting an extradition treaty with the Americans. As per the wishes of Galán's son, Gaviria became the new presidential candidate of the New Liberalism party was tasked to continue Galán's legacy. Gaviria stunned the foreign press by expressing his support for extradition, and survived an assassination attempt by Escobar when he blew up a commercial airliner, killing 107 civilians. The bombing led to a sympathy wave against Escobar, and Gaviria won the elections by a large margin.

Determined to fight against extradition, Escobar launched a nationwide kidnapping campaign of high society individuals, including former President Julio César Turbay Ayala's daughter and popular news anchor Diana. Gaviria resisted Turbay's pressure to negotiate with Escobar and had the Search Bloc mount a search and rescue operation. Gaviria refuse to allow the US Government to assist them so that he is not seen as an American puppet. The operation however failed after Colonel Horacio Carrillo accidentally killed Diana. Facing significant public backlash after the death of a public icon, Gaviria holding to his nationalist pride was forced to repel the extradition treaty while signing the new Colombian constitution in 1990.

In 1991, Gaviria negotiated a controversial surrender treaty with Escobar, which resulted in the drug lord being imprisoned in his specially designed private prison. Despite allowing Escobar to live a life of luxury, Gaviria went forward with the deal in exchange for peace, which was absent for decades in the country. After the DEA leaked photos proving that Escobar had killed two of his lieutenants inside his private prison in 1992, Gaviria had the army lay siege upon the prison and sent his trusted deputy Eduardo Sandoval to arrest Escobar. Escobar however held Sandoval hostage, and Gaviria had the DAS raid the complex. While Eduardo was freed, Escobar escaped into the woods.

After escaping, Escobar restarted his war against the Colombian government, which resulted in Gaviria reforming the Search Bloc and finally swallowing his pride and ask for the US Government's help. Meanwhile, Attorney-General Gustavo de Greiff started an investigation alleging Gaviria that had a hand in Escobar's escape. After the cartel killed Colonel Carrillo, Gaviria forced Colonel Hugo Martinez to take up the job of hunting Escobar. Martinez made little progress early on, resulting in Escobar's rivals forming the Los Pepes death squad. Gaviria refused to condemn the Los Pepes, who killed several civilians along with Escobar's allies. Gaviria also refused to negotiate with Escobar or guarantee foreign asylum for Escobar's family in lieu of the aggressive Los Pepes attacks. After Escobar went off-the-grid in mid-1993, Gaviria forced Los Pepes to give up their arms and surrender, which they did. Eventually, Search Bloc located Escobar, and killed him on 3 December 1993. He was succeeded by Ernesto Samper in 1994.