Rafael cardona biography

And every year or so, they would have to uproot their false lives and start new ones. Her one steady companion throughout her teens was a white Palomino horse Mermelstein had bought her. The isolation quickly proved too much for one relative. Arturo, Hernandez's soft-spoken brother whom Salazar had forced to scrub Chino's brains up a decade earlier, was relocated with his wife and son to Nashville despite not speaking a lick of English.

Using a protected witnesses' switchboard, Arturo reached Hernandez and confessed thoughts of suicide. On November 10,Hernandez and Mermelstein contacted the Marshals Service to try to get him emergency counseling but were told it would have to wait until Arturo's case manager returned from vacation. The next day, Arturo hanged himself inside a closet in his apartment.

The suicide turned Hernandez against her husband. After Mermelstein returned from prison, they bickered constantly and she threatened divorce. Marshals to take an illicit road trip with school friends to Disney World. She headed to Florida for good. Hernandez left soon after, taking teenage Ana with her back to Colombia. Luis had shipped out even earlier.

As far as he was concerned, his father was a snitch who had screwed his family in order to save himself. He declined the government's protection and disappeared into freedom. InLuis was arrested in Miami. Then 31, Luis had lived opulently in a Miami Beach condo, keeping nothing in his own name. Luis was convicted of cocaine conspiracy. On May 29,Mermelstein spoke at his son's sentencing in a federal courthouse in Miami.

His testimony that day was sealed, but a law enforcement official with knowledge of the proceedings recalls that Mermelstein blamed himself.

Rafael cardona biography

The way Luis was raised, he hardly had a choice, Mermelstein testified. Luis was sentenced to 17 and a half years but was released in He and Mermelstein never saw each other again. Mermelstein's daughters received news of their isolated father via rare word-of-mouth bulletins: Max has published a memoir. It's not selling, though, because he can't exactly go on a book tour.

Mermelstein left the Witness Protection Program after Escobar was killed. Mermelstein has moved back to Florida — somewhere in the middle of the state. Inyear-old Ana heard Mermelstein was testifying in Miami, against drug lord Ochoa. She hadn't seen him since her mother had taken her to Colombia a decade earlier. When she arrived at the federal courthouse downtown, the cadre of U.

Marshals protecting Mermelstein wouldn't let her through, but she passed on to him a photo of her newborn daughter, Gabriela, and an invitation to the baby's christening. Mermelstein showed up at the church and rekindled his relationship with his daughters. He even briefly moved into Ana's Florida house, where his ex-wife Hernandez was also rafael cardona biography — all under false names, like characters in a slapstick sitcom.

When Mermelstein was done testifying, he headed back to Kentucky. Max Mermelstein was toothpick-skinny, at pounds less than half of his former weight. He was covered in tacky gold jewelry and wearing blue jeans and a worn polo shirt. His baseball hat and sneakers bore the same logo: a billiards eight ball. As Mermelstein got comfortable, palming a Parliament cigarette out of its pack, Mason shook like a leaf next to him.

She had just learned that her old Catholic friend Wes Barclay was a Jewish guy named Max Mermelstein who once wrote a book. That, of course, was just the beginning. Mermelstein spent many hours over the next five days in that conference room as Tabor's tape recorder rolled. Tabor wanted to know everything, from minute details about smuggling, to his favorite movie The Silence of the Lambsto his opinion of Cocaine Cowboyswhich Mermelstein had watched on DVD.

They subsisted on room service, Chinese food and a delivery from LongHorn Steakhouse. Mermelstein chugged cups of Starbucks white chocolate mocha, his favorite drink. Mermelstein put up no fight in negotiations over his film rights. While Tabor filmed one afternoon, Mermelstein grabbed a Mont Blanc pen and signed away his rights, a cigarette wedged between his fingers.

After one of the sessions with Tabor, Mermelstein headed to the oncologist's office. Mermelstein already knew he had cancer of the lung, liver and bone. That day, his doctor gave him bad news: He'd be lucky to live another month. He died on September There will be no visitation. Max Mermelstein received a thousand-word eulogy in The Washington Post.

For the rafael cardona biography time in more than two decades, his real name was openly used. About 20 relatives attended the ceremony, most of them relocated by the Witness Protection Program. Tabor was also there, along with Gregorie. When it came time for a speech in remembrance of Mermelstein, heads swiveled to the back of the church, where Tabor sat.

Times Los Angeles Times. The New York Times. Retrieved November 16, January 12, The Washington Post. Yahoo Entertainment. Hidden categories: Articles with short description Short description is different from Wikidata Pages using infobox person with multiple employers Articles with hCards. Toggle the table of contents. Rafa Salazar.

Rafa was killed just three days after The Miami Herald published a feature regarding his relationship with Max Mermelstein. Cardona, thirty-five, died in a spray of automatic weapons fire by assassins who also killed his twenty-eight-year-old secretary. Later, Colombian police speculated the Cardona murder was a Cali job, the first killing in the War of the Cartels.

Then Pablo decided to do business in New York. They failed. Hitler was charged with treason and convicted, receiving a sentence of 5 years. He served under 1 year in jail. First released in Decemberit was originally dubbed "Disney's Folly" but the premiere received a standing ovation from the audience. Rafael Rosa-Cardona's Family Tree.

Rafael Rosa-Cardona Oct - Jan Rafael's Friends. Friends of Rafael Friends can be as close as family.