Editor’s Note
This article examines the professional assassination of a top Colombian emerald dealer, an event that has reignited concerns about the violent undercurrents and external criminal interests plaguing the country’s famed gem trade.
Colombia’s emerald trade, renowned for the exceptional quality of its gems as well as its relentless violence, has suffered another blow to its reputation with the professional assassination of a top dealer. The killing has sparked speculation over which criminal powers beyond the jewel business could be at work, and what they may gain from the hit.
Juan Sebastian Aguilar, 58, was shot in the chest by a proficient sniper who reportedly spent days lying in wait in the mountains above his target’s upscale home in northern Bogotá. The marksman, according to media reports, escaped on horseback into the lush mountains behind the housing complex, ending an almost cinematic killing. His exit also complicated police efforts to track his movements.
Aguilar’s death at first glance appeared to be a simple settling of scores — revenge for past betrayals — between rival gem traders. But the sophistication of the hit has since led observers to speculate that the killing could be connected to broader criminal groups like drug trafficking and money laundering syndicates. Others believe he may have been eliminated to ease the way for killing another emerald trader.
Aguilar had become a powerful individual with significant security around him, he added.
This is not the first time Aguilar had been targeted. He narrowly survived an attempt on his life last year, and, according to El Tiempo, investigators are exploring whether it could be the same killer. And while almost certainly linked to the emerald business, sources shrug off the idea of a new round of tit-for-tat killings — an extension of what has been called the Green War — and believe that more criminal elements are at play.
Though Colombia’s emerald industry dates back over 500 years to the time of the Spanish Conquest, the modern-day business has a murky history. It is marred by violence and conflict, particularly during the Green Wars of the 1980s, during which up to 6,000 people were killed in clashes between rival mining clans and right-wing paramilitary groups fighting for control over the lucrative mining regions in Boyacá, about 150 kilometers from Bogotá.
The recently deceased Aguilar, also known as “Pedro Alguilar” or “Pedro Pechuga,” came from that era. He began his emerald career as bodyguard and then head of security for so-called “Emerald Czar” Victor Carranza, who, in the 1980s, successfully fought against notorious drug lords Pablo Escobar and Jose Rodriguez Gacha for control of the gem industry.
Prior to his death from cancer in April 2013, Carranza was the most powerful figure in Colombia’s emerald business.
The financial spoils are not just access to the $150 million in annual emerald exports, but ample opportunities for money laundering. The exchange of stones for cash often takes place on Bogotá’s streets, making them ripe for leaking dirty money into the system.
Baquero reckons the score against Aguilar may date back to the post-Carranza days and the push for power from rival emerald barons whose business interests shifted into the drug trade and money laundering.
One theory is that former members of the so-called Junta Directiva, or Board of Directors, found that frontmen — among them possibly Aguilar — were unwilling to return properties and businesses held for them.
This shadowy organization once held significant influence in Colombia’s criminal underworld, according to sources and media reports. Allegedly headed by Julio Lozano Pirateque, The Board’s associates operated behind the scenes, controlling networks that straddled illicit operations and legitimate businesses, such as foreign exchange houses and the emerald trade, to launder money.
Another theory is that Horacio Triana, an emerald dealer and Carranza’s historical rival who is serving time in a US prison on drug-related charges, may have wanted Aguilar out of the way.
Triana’s beef with Aguilar likely stems from the dead man’s close association and friendship with Hernando Sànchez, heir to Carranza’s emerald empire. Sánchez inherited control of Colombia’s biggest and most productive mining area — the Santa Rosa — when Carranza died. That put him, and thus, Aguilar, in the business crossfire of rival emerald barrons and traffickers, like Triana, as well as another key player, Pedro Rincon Castillo, known as “Pedro Orejas.”
