Petrified Pablo

IT COULDN'T HAPPEN TO A NICER GUY. THAT, IN EFfect, was the response by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to growing signs that Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar Gaviria, a fugitive since July, is living in terror and squirming for a deal. Escobar's nemesis is a mysterious paramilitary group called Pepes, which may be a faction of the Medellin cartel that has turned on its longtime boss. Recently Pepes has launched a Mafia-style vendetta, even bombing the home of Escobar's mother. Said a DEA official: "He's facing his own medicine."

Escobar reportedly has agreed to turn himself in to Colombian authorities in return for the safe passage of his wife and two children to the U.S. DEA officials deny that the U.S. has agreed to such a deal. But any accord that is eventually cut with the Colombian government, they warn, could well portend a new narco era dominated by -- who else? -- Pepes.