He suffers from eye cancer and can no longer see out of his left eye. He was also diagnosed with leukemia. She has lost a lot of weight and, apparently, there is no cure. Luis Alfredo Garavito, the biggest rapist and murderer of children in Colombian history and the second in the world, after a Russian, awaits death in a cell in the high-security Tramacúa prison, located on the outskirts of Valledupar, the capital of the northern department of Cesar.
They sentenced him for 138 crimes, later he accepted another 32, but an investigation by journalist Mauricio Aranguren raised the figure to 192 children. To them we would have to add three adults, as he admitted, and some more who have never been investigated. He himself confessed it to fellow prisoners, when he was still sharing with other inmates.
But since long ago he remains alone in the wing of a pavilion. Even when this newspaper visited Tramacúa, he knew that he did not even go down to the Infirmary to treat his ailments. He couldn't stand it when other inmates yelled at him "murderer", "thug", threatened him with savage and slow deaths, and insulted him of all kinds.
He also stopped attending medical consultations at the local hospital. When patients or any citizen recognized him, she received a shower of insults that made her angry.
He has always hated that they speak ill of him, an inmate who met him told EL MUNDO, he is fatal when they criticize him and does not understand that the world considers him a depraved rapist and murderer of infants, and that in Colombia they nicknamed him "La Beast" or "The Monster".
Garavito was sentenced in 2001 to 1,853 years, but his sentence was reduced to 40 years and with the reductions he obtained and his good prison behavior, he was about to be granted early release. He could have left the following year, but a judge completely closed the door on him, despite the fact that reputable constitutionalists argued that he had the right to receive prison benefits if he met all the conditions. And on that occasion, to the surprise of those who have closely followed his steps, he did not appeal the sentence.
Garavito has only been visited by one woman for decades, and he fights for his rights with surprising zeal, as if he were an innocent detainee.
In addition to being a ruthless serial killer, he has the same ability as the best con man to convince adults and children of the false story that he tells them. Once arrested, he confessed that he disguised himself as a farmer, a priest, a homeless person, a street vendor or whatever to attract children and adolescents between the ages of eight and sixteen.
In the first hours of his arrest, in 2001, he denied everything, but when the prosecutors rigorously presented his modus operandi to him, he felt cornered and began to list, one by one, the first dead. One of the lurid details that caught the attention of the investigators is that he marked with a pencil, drawing sticks, each raped and murdered child.
He also said that he realized he was a pedophile, only attracted to boys, at the age of 14, when he tried to rape a 5-year-old boy. His mother surprised him and threw him out of the house. He would later discover, according to what he said, that when he tortured a little boy "he felt greater sexual pleasure."
A recent photograph of him has now become known thanks to the fact that he gave a series of interviews to the Colombian journalist Rafael Poveda, director of "Testigo Directo". "
"He is an absolutely cunning person, with a gift for words, very skillful, with a great level of conviction. That's how he convinced his victims," Poveda said. Precisely because of that quality that he retains and the danger that he still represents for society, justice chose not to open the prison doors for him.
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