In the midst of the controversy over the possibility of his release on parole, Colombia remembers the painful story of the nearly 200 children raped and murdered by the criminal. This is his life and his criminal record.
Colombia, since time immemorial, is a country that has developed in the midst of inclement violence. Violence, whether due to ideology or particular interests, has marked the lives of many Colombians. However, little is mentioned about one of the most painful and violent chapters against the most vulnerable population of Colombia, which is identified with its own name: Luis Alfredo Garavito Cubillos, serial killer and child rapist.
Garavito, born on January 25, 1957 in the municipality of Genova, Quindio, did not have an enviable childhood, which some scholars of his criminal profile take into consideration when analyzing his acts. He was the eldest of seven children and there is evidence that he was an introverted and, at times, violent child.
His childhood, social problems and his father's abuse.
He was a source of ridicule among his schoolmates and teachers did not cooperate with the rejection and, as a result, he dropped out of school at the age of 10. In one of the hearings against him, Garavito also explained that his home was no different.
"I had the misfortune of being in a family that spent the whole time arguing, fighting and throwing words of coarse caliber at each other," Garavito said about his environment.
He also stressed that Manuel Antonio Garavito, his father, was a violent man who treated his mother, Rosa Delia Cubillos, in a degrading manner. Researcher Jesús Herranz-Bellido, from the University of Alicante, collected the testimony Garavito gave about his relationship with his father.
He was defined as "very rigid" at first. Later, he explained that his mother was subjected to beatings, even when she was pregnant with his siblings. "I was the only one who defended her," the criminal recounted. In that context, the treatment of Luis Alfredo was no different. The insults were endless for the minor and he was only required by him to perform tasks. In addition, it was known that it was Manuel Antonio who did not allow him to have friends or a girlfriend.
Strangely, with vague memories, he identifies his father as the one who perpetrated the first sexual abuse he experienced in his life.
"My father did not sleep with my mother, he slept with me, he bathed me... I have a vague memory, it was at night, he kind of caressed me, he touched my private parts... I never loved him, I saw him as an executioner," Garavito confessed in one of the hearings against him.
In addition, when he was only 12 years old, he was a victim of abuse by a friend of his father, who committed these acts against him systematically. He was the owner of a drugstore, who tortured and raped him, causing damage to his genitals. Among the abuses, Garavito confessed that he received blows to his penis and buttocks while he was tied to a bed.
He attributes this experience to the fact that he did not feel heterosexual enough when he first saw pornographic magazines.
The man's abuse lasted two years, until he moved to the municipality of Trujillo, in the department of Valle del Cauca. It was there that another man, according to him, raped him again, another friend of his father. Garavito assured that he did not say anything for fear that his family would decide to believe the perpetrator.
It was after that that, at an early age, he had his first approach to the crimes he committed against children.
"Then I began to feel an attraction to people of the same sex. My brothers and sisters were very young, and I felt something inside me that I could not explain. We all went to a bed, where I insinuated that they take off their clothes and I began to caress them, nothing happened there, neither my parents noticed, nor perhaps my siblings remember. When I was sleeping, I would take my younger brothers and take off their clothes and without them knowing I would caress them," Herranz-Bellido said in his criminal profile of Garavito.
Garavito's first recorded victim
At age 15, Garavito cornered a boy to touch his genitals. The then teenager did not plan to rape him, but only intended to "lightly abuse" the minor. According to the academic report of the researcher from the University of Alicante, the victim screamed and called the attention of the authorities, who removed the boy who tried to abuse him.
The father, for his part, reprimanded him, telling him why he had not committed the crime against a woman. From then on, he ended his coexistence with his father, who threw him out of the house because of his homosexual behavior.
According to Garavito, after these events, he became friends with women and even had a romantic relationship with one of them. These facts have not been proven by the authorities.
On the other hand, according to Crimen + Investigación, from then on he had a wandering life that was hindered by his violent and depressive attitude. His lack of attraction for women generated frustration and, as a result, at the age of 23 he decided to see a psychiatrist.
Living in Armenia, she got a job in a bakery and was treated in Alcoholics Anonymous. At the same time, he went to church frequently and sometimes bought sexual favors from children who were prostituting themselves around him. Remorse accompanied him day by day.
At 23, he was treated for a fight with co-workers that led him to lose his job. There he discussed his suicidal thoughts, omitting his sexual preferences and his pedophile background. Therefore, he was only treated for depression.
According to the investigator, the man even had a woman named Claudia as a companion while working in a supermarket. Their relationship was for appearances, since he satiated his sexual desires by raping minors from the town of Quimbaya. After a while, he did not take pleasure in just raping them, but also decided to torture them.
The beginning of the Garavito that Colombia fears
With these children, he used blades, candles and lighters to mistreat them. That made Garavito, he said, feel good. Thus his sexual satisfaction depended on the pain he inflicted on his victims.
It was after this that in October 1992, in Jamundí, he committed the first murder in his name. While touching him, the man used blades he carried to murder a child. From then on, he could not stop and, upon seeing any child, he decided that he had to kill him to satisfy his sexual need.
From there, Garavito's acts became more bloodthirsty, making incisions on children to cut them open while they were still alive. He also amputated body parts such as thumbs. This is how he managed the murder and rape of nearly 200 children.
The capture
On April 22, 1999, the feared rapist and murderer of children was captured in a rural area of Villavicencio, department of Meta. It was a homeless man who alerted about the criminal's presence, and while waiting for the authorities, he thwarted the abuse and murder of a minor who was screaming for his life.
After taking the child to a safe area, the man alerted the police and three agents captured Garavito, who gave a false name in order to dissuade the authorities. However, on July 20 of that same year, authorities linked past crimes and identified him as such. In November of that year, the feared serial killer confessed to being the perpetrator of 140 murders of minors nationwide.
So far, he has been proven responsible for the murder of 186 children and the rape of 200 of them.
Considered one of the worst criminals in the world and reaching international relevance due to the gravity of his crimes, in 2001 he was sentenced to 1853 years and 9 days in prison for his crimes. This sentence, the highest known in Colombia, could not be applied because life imprisonment is not feasible in the country. For this reason, he was commuted to the maximum sentence of 40 years.
Only 20 years have passed since then. However, in 2006, he received a sentence reduction for reporting the location of some of the bodies of the murdered children. For this, he received only 24 years in prison, which would end in 2025.
