I’m Not Dead

Latino USA

Futuro Media and PRX

Society & Culture

4.9 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 9 May 2025

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the early 70s, Miguel Angel Villavicencio was focused on making his most ambitious dream possible: to become a famous singer in Bolivia and across the world. And he was halfway there—his love songs were on the radio and he was appearing on TV. But to take his singing career truly international, he needed money. So he decided to work for Bolivia’s most powerful drug cartel in the 80s—a major supplier for Pablo Escobar. Choosing this path would lead him on a journey of self-destruction, unexpected betrayal and finally, redemption.

Latino USA is the longest-running news and culture radio program in the U.S., centering Latino stories and hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa.

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This story originally aired in January of 2019.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	When I founded Futuro, I imagined a home for journalism with radical transparency.
0:06.5	I wanted a newsroom where I wasn't the only Latina behind the mic.
0:12.1	Now Futuro is becoming a home for more voices than ever.
0:17.9	Help grow this future by joining our new membership program. You'll get exclusive interviews,
0:24.2	whole season binges. Behind the scenes, Chiseme, shape the future of storytelling. Join Futuro
0:32.0	Plus. Visit our website, Futuromediagroup.org slash join plus.
0:38.5	And not you buy you. In 1986, musician Miguel Angel Villavicencio was sitting with his friends at a restaurant
0:57.0	in a small town in El Chapade, Bolivia's tropical region.
1:01.0	At the time, this place was also an epicenter for cocaine production.
1:07.0	The owner of the restaurant interrupts his conversation and tells Miguel Angel that someone at the door is looking for him.
1:13.6	He gets up slowly, he starts walking toward the door and...
1:16.6	The first bullet went through his jaw before he even hit the ground.
1:23.6	The second bullet hit his spine.
1:26.6	He lay stunned on the ground, and when
1:29.3	he tried getting up, he noticed that his legs weren't responding. To make sure that he was dead,
1:34.9	the gunman fired two more times.
1:55.0	From Futromedia and PRX, it's Latino USA. I'm Maria Inofosa. Today, a Bolivian drug smuggler and his long road to redemption.
2:03.4	Producer Andres Caballero brings us the story of Vigelange via Vicencio, whose dreams of becoming the next Julio Iglesias turned into a personal battle for forgiveness and survival.
2:13.8	Here's Andres with our story. It first aired in 2019.
2:18.4	His friends immediately threw him in the back of a pickup and rushed him through the jungle
2:22.6	to the nearest hospital.
2:24.5	And by the way, we hired an actor to translate Miguel Angel's words.
	...

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