Who is Virginia Vallejo? Everything You Need to Know

Quick Facts

Also Known As: Virginia Vallejo García

Age: 74 Years, 74 Year Old Females

Family:

Spouse/Ex-: David Stivel (m. 1978–1983), Fernando Borrero (m. 1969–1971)

father: Juan Vallejo Jaramillo

mother: Mary García Rivera

Journalists Colombian Women

More Facts

education: Anglo Colombian School

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Childhood & Early Life

Born on August 26, 1949, in Cartago, Valle del Cauca, Colombia, near her family’s ranch, Virginia Vallejo was the oldest of the four children of Juan Vallejo Jaramillo and Mary García Rivera. Her father was an entrepreneur. Her family was not only financially well-off, but was also politically powerful.

Her grandfather, Eduardo Vallejo Varela, was a minister of economy in the Colombian government from April 12, 1930 to 7 August. Her grandmother, Sofía Jaramillo Arango, could trace her family back to Alonso Jaramillo de Andrade Céspedes y Guzmán, a nobleman from Extremadura, Spain, who could trace his own lineage back to Emperor Charlemagne.

In 1950, Vallejo and her parents moved back to Bogotá, where the births of her younger siblings, brothers Felipe (1951) and Antonio (1955-2012), and sister Sofía (1957), occurred.

She began her education at the kindergarten run by President Carlos Lleras Restrepo’s sister, Elvira Lleras Restrepo. She then went on to study at the Anglo Colombian School, an institution with which she has a personal connection. It was co-founded by her great-uncle Jaime Jaramillo Arango, who was a professor of medicine and surgery, author, diplomat, and politician.

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Early Career & Marriages

Virginia Vallejo got her first job as an English teacher in 1967 in the Centro Colombo Americano in Bogotá. She worked there until the end of 1968. In 1969, she started teaching in the presidency of Banco del Comercio.

When Vallejo was 19 or 20 years old, she married for the first time. Her husband was Fernando Francisco, CEO of CBS Security and Data, Zamorano and Giovanelli. He was a widower and 25 years senior to Vallejo. The ceremony took place in a civil court in Venezuela. However, the marriage did not last beyond two years and they divorced in 1971.

By 1972, Vallejo was employed as the director of public relations of Cervecería Andina. It was during this period that she received the offer of a television program in which Carlos Lemos Simmonds and Aníbal Fernández de Soto served as directors.

She married her second husband, David Stivel, an Argentinean television, theatre and film director, and head of the Clan Stivel, in 1978. Stivel was living in Colombia at the time after he was exiled by the military junta of his native country. In 1981, she sought divorce from Stivel but the subsequent paperwork took two years to finish.

Media Career

There were three governmental television channels in Colombia until 1998. Two of those were commercial channels and one was for official use. The official channel was called Inravisión. It rented out time slots to programadoras, independent production houses that were often owned by prominent journalists and members of presidential families. This allowed her to work both as a news anchor and presenter of other types of programs.

She began her media career in 1972 as the presenter of ¡Oiga Colombia, Revista del Sábado’ and worked there for the next three years. Between 1973 and 1975, she was the host of musical shows ‘Éxitos 73’, ‘Éxitos 74 and ‘Éxitos 75’. In 1973, she joined TV Sucesos-A3 as a reporter and was promoted to the post of international editor in 1975, serving in that position until 1977.

She also served as the host of the quiz show ‘TV Crucigrama’, co-hosted a cooking show with celebrity chef Segundo Cabezas, and anchored a children’s TV show. Also in 1973, she was hired by TV magazine as a film critic.

In January 1978, she landed the job as the anchorwoman for the Noticiero 24 Horas. By then, she had become an internationally recognized media personnel and attended the inauguration of President Chiang Ching-kuo of Taiwan as an honoured guest of that government.

She received the Best Television Anchor of the APE, Asociación de Periodistas del Espectáculo (Association of Entertainment Journalists) award for three consecutive years (1978-80). She was also picked as the vice president of the Association of Colombian Announcers in 1978.

Between 1978 and 1985 and then between 1991 and 1994, Vallejo worked for Caracol Radio and other stations, exclusively covering the Miss Colombia pageant. She was cast in Gustavo Nieto Roa’s directorial venture ‘Colombian Connection’ (1979). From 1979 to 1980, she worked with her then-husband David Stivel in RTI Productions’ ‘¡Cuidado con las Mujeres!’.

Collaborating with fellow journalist Margot Ricci, Vallejo created ‘TV Impacto’, her own programadora, in 1981. That year, she went to Israel to do a program on The Holy Land at the invitation of the government of the country. She visited London, England to cover the royal wedding of Prince Charles and Diana Spencer. She was the only Colombian journalist to be present at the wedding.

In the same year, she underwent a rhinoplasty, which was performed by the famous Brazilian plastic surgeon Ivo Pitanguy. She was offered a chance to star in a Hollywood film but she declined because of her already busy schedule.

In 1984, she was hired as the international editor of Grupo Radial Colombiano and a year later, she began her tenure as the anchorwoman of Telediario. She was featured on the covers of ‘Bazaar’ and ‘Cosmopolitan’ in 1985. ‘Elenco’ magazine dubbed her as “The Symbol of an Era”.

From 1988 to 1991, she attended Institut für Journalismus in Berlin, pursuing an economic journalism degree on a scholarship from the German government. After she returned to her home country, she was cast in the telenovela ‘Sombra de tu Sombra’. She began serving as one of the members of the board of directors of the Association of Colombian Announcers from that year as well.

In October 1994, she retired from Colombian media after opening the South American branch of a US-based multilevel company named Neways International. In 1999, she was listed among the top ten sexiest Colombian women in the millennium issue of ‘Hombre’ magazine.

From 2009 to 2010, Vallejo was a columnist for the Venezuelan newspaper ‘6to Poder,’ which served as the mouthpiece for the opposition in the country. However, former President Hugo Chávez forced the newspaper to shut down and imprisoned its editor.

Relationship with Pablo Escobar

Virginia Vallejo interviewed drug lord and narco-terrorist Pablo Escobar in January 1983, and was the first journalist to have the dubious honour. Filmed at the Medellín garbage dump, the interview garnered criticism as people thought that it humanized Escobar who, during the interview, extensively talked about his charity project Medellín Sin Tugurios (Medellin without slums).

Prior to the interview, Escobar was a minor celebrity in his country. In 1982, despite being married at the time, he reportedly declared “I want her” after seeing Vallejo on television. They met later that year and eventually became lovers. Escobar already had a reputation for his ruthlessness and bloody lifestyle. However, he could be charming and had a sense of humour. These were the qualities Vallejo found herself attracted to.

As for Escobar, the relationship proved to be a useful one. The interview made him a national phenomenon. He became so popular that the newspapers started calling him “the Robin Hood of Medellín”. Whether Escobar had true feelings for Vallejo is a matter of debate. Many believed that he was simply using her to elevate himself to the national stage.

In 1987, Vallejo’s relationship with Escobar came to an end. Escobar’s son has claimed that his father cut all his ties with Vallejo after finding out that he was not her only lover. He recounted the last time he saw her. She was outside the gate of one of their estates, sobbing, while the guards of her erstwhile lover did not let her into the compound.

By the early 1990s. Escobar’s popularity and fame had considerably decreased. Vallejo did not fare any better. Escobar had a symbiotic relationship with the elites of his country. They would take his money and ignore all his illegal activities. These elites shunned her completely and she eventually vanished from the public spectre.

Dispute with Neways International

Virginia Vallejo joined Neways International in 1994 and within the first 18 months, made their Colombian and South America operations successful by setting up about 22,500 independent distributors. Three years later, she was hailed as the first Colombian independent distributor to receive the rank “Diamond.” However, in 1998, her contract with the company was cancelled by the owners, Thomas and Leslie DeeAnn Mower, and subsequently was given to their children.

Vallejo then filed a commercial lawsuit against Neways International. However, the case would go on for 14 years before the presiding judge closed it. The Mowers would be indicted in an unrelated case in 2003 and would be sentenced to 36 months in jail in March 2005.

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Political Asylee in the US

During her time with Escobar, Vallejo had witnessed his interactions with the Colombian elites. In July 2006, the former senator and justice minister Alberto Santofimio, who served as the link between Escobar and the Colombian ruling class, was being tried because of the conspiracy in the assassination of the presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galán. Vallejo came forward and agreed to give her testimony to Attorney General Iguarán but the presiding judge and the Inspector General Maya Villazón immediately shut down the case.

Realizing the danger she was in, Vallejo reached out to the US embassy, asking for protection. In return, she promised that she would give them all the information she had on the Mower family and on the connection between the Cali cartel bosses and people in the Colombian government. She left Colombia for Miami in a special flight arranged by the DEA, arriving on July 18, 2006. She was eventually granted political asylum in the US on June 3, 2010.

Later Life

Since 2006, Vallejo has testified in two major cases. In the reopened case of the Palace of Justice siege (November 6 & 7, 1985), which resulted in the death of more than 100 people, including 11 Supreme Court Justices, her testimony, provided in July 2008, implicated the military and President Belisario Betancur. In July 2009, she gave her testimony in the reopened case of the assassination of presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galán.

Vallejo published her memoir, ‘Amando a Pablo, odiando a Escobar’ (‘Loving Pablo, Hating Escobar’) in 2007 through Knopf Doubleday in the US and Canongate in the UK. The 2017 Spanish drama film ‘Loving Pablo’ was based on the book. Spanish actor Penelope Cruz portrayed her in the film. The role of Escobar was played by Javier Bardem. The film premiered at the 74th Venice International Film Festival.

Virginia Vallejo Biography