Colombian conflict dialogue, but President Barco sent an ultimatum to the guerrillas and demanded that they immediately disarm or face military retaliation. Regional guerrilla and Army skirmishes created a situation where each violation of the ceasefire rendered it null in each location, until it was rendered practically nonexistent. By 1990, at least 2,500 members of the FARC-founded Patriotic Union had been murdered, according to historian Daniel Pecáut, leading up to that year's assassination of presidential candidate Bernardo Jaramillo Ossa. The Colombian government initially blamed drug lord Pablo Escobar for the murder but journalist Steven Dudley argues that many in the UP pointed
Pablo Escobar in the book "Escobar"). Roberto Escobar also claimed that, in addition to using planes, his brother employed two small submarines to transport the massive loads. In 1982 Escobar was elected as an alternate member of the Chamber of Representatives of Colombia, as part of a small movement called "Liberal Alternative". Earlier in the campaign he was a candidate for the "Liberal Renewal Movement", but had to leave it because of the firm opposition of Luis Carlos Galán, whose presidential campaign was supported by the "Liberal Renewal Movement". Escobar was the official representative of the Colombian government for the swearing-in of