Octavio Bermeo Valencia, a 55-year-old Colombian, recently recounted his incredible story as a former Cali Cartel member who repented and became a pastor in France. In an exclusive interview with French online media LEGEND, Valencia reflected on his extraordinary life, from the violence of the Cali Cartel to his new mission spreading love as a pastor.
Modest origins and the call of the Cartel
Valencia was born in Cali in 1969 into a modest family of seven children with a baker father and stay-at-home mother. He grew up during a time of extreme violence which was marked by the rise of Colombia’s Medellín and Cali drug cartels. From a young age, he was exposed to a number of extreme events. Drug-related massacres were frequent and he personally witnessed a local gang fight that left several dead and injured. Later, he narrowly escaped death himself when being robbed by a local gang.
It was through family ties, however, that Valencia entered the world of crime. His brother-in-law was a prominent member of the Cali Cartel. Impressed by the easy money and luxurious lifestyle it funded – including motorcycles, trucks and refrigerators – he was soon drawn into the criminal world. He obtained his first gun at age 15.
After his brother-in-law was assassinated in Spain, where he had sought refuge during Colombia’s drug wars, Valencia decided to take his place in the Cartel. With the help of his aunt, the wife of another core cartel member, he contacted his brother-in-law’s associates, who gave him his first mission at just 18 years old: managing a coca plantation and cocaine processing lab.
A young Colombian in the Cali Cartel
During his years in the Cali Cartel, Valencia rubbed shoulders with its top leaders and lived in a world of extreme violence, excess, and parties. “When you join a cartel, there’s always this sense of omnipotence: the parties, the guns, the money, the power,” he says.
However, in the world of drugs, power always goes hand in hand with danger. “It’s a world where death lingers,” Valencia recalls. “The same person who smiles at you and gives you money can just as easily order your death for their own amusement.”
Valencia quickly carved out a place for himself within the violent world of the cartels and thought he had found his life’s path. “I thought I had found a family and real friends in that world. The kind where you’re willing to die for each other,” he says. Still, he was aware of the harsh realities of the lifestyle. “There’s a real philosophy behind the expression ‘plata o plomo’ [‘money or lead,’ i.e. bullets] that reflects the life of the cartels and Colombians of my time. Nothing is free. Behind everything, there are consequences. Life has a price.”
As the head of a coca farm, Valencia faced numerous challenges, from the climate of the Colombian rainforest to the constant threats from the military and rival armed groups.
One day, his camp was attacked by the Colombian army. “We heard the helicopters approaching. Everyone panicked,” he recalls. “My so-called friends fled without warning or helping me.” Although he managed to escape, this experience led him to question his place in the criminal world for the first time.
The beginning of repentance: The miracle on the road
Valencia’s true life-changing moment came when he was tasked with transporting a coca leaf harvest to a laboratory. “It was a huge sign of trust. If we succeeded, I already saw myself climbing the cartel ranks,” he said. After about an hour of walking, his companion stopped abruptly. “Octavio, say your prayers. We’re dead,” he told him. About 50 meters ahead, guerrilla fighters were hidden by the roadside, aiming at them.
“I thought I was going to die,” Valencia recalls, visibly emotional. As his life flashed before his eyes, he began to pray, vowing to change his life if he survived. He continued walking toward what seemed like certain death. For some reason, however, the guerrillas did not react. Although they kept their weapons trained on Valencia and his colleague, the guerrillas allowed them to walk past and continue on their way.
After recovering from the shock of the incident, where he and his colleague alternated between laughter and tears, Valencia realized that the event was miraculous, a sign of divine intervention. “I understood that maybe there was someone up there trying to tell me this wasn’t my path, that there was another plan for me,” he says.
Valencia decided to abandon his mission for the Cali Cartel. Seizing the opportunity during a camp relocation to a nearby village, he and a companion tied up the other cartel members, stole their money, and fled. He returned to his hometown of Cali, where he hid for several months at his parents’ house.
Repenting from the Cali Cartel and new life as a pastor
Over the course of several years, Valencia grew closer to God, though he continued some illicit activities. “The past was always near. I was taking my first steps in faith, but my brother was still involved in drug trafficking,” he says.
At 27, he finally left Colombia for Spain. There, in a church, he met his Guadeloupean-French wife, whom he followed to Guadeloupe and married in 1998. After relocating to France, the once Cali Cartel member repented and swore to redeem himself for his past life.
“I realized that God had forgiven me. After that, I forgave myself, and I said, now my hands will serve others,” he recalls.
“I wanted to make amends. Because of everything I had done with cocaine, many young people died,” he admits. With his family, he settled in Chambéry, in the French Alps, where he became a pastor in an Evangelical church.
Today, the pastor and reformed Cali Cartel member helps people through faith and by sharing his life story, guiding young people to stay on the right path. “Sometimes parents come to me and say, ‘Talk to my child, give them advice.’ Behind these kids, there’s suffering and a need for recognition. They just need guidance and someone to show them the right way.”