The truly amusing part about the story of Carlos is that he wasn’t a very good terrorist. His one major successful operation was the seizure of an OPEC meeting in the early seventies. He was believed to have been responsible for orchestrating the Olympic massacre and a number of other high profile terrorist actions.
After his capture and trial in France it slowly came to light that Carlos was more of a clumsy braggart than anything else. His notoriety is entirely the work of agencies like the CIA and Interpol. These agencies used Carlos as a scapegoat and justification for increased funding for years. He was reported to be a master of disguise who never let his picture be taken, despite giving a television interview during the OPEC debacle.
Apparently, these same agencies knew of Carlos’s location for many years. He had “retired” to
Sudan to live with his wife.
Extradition was nearly impossible though and he served better as a
monster in the closet to the western intelligence community. Every time a terrorist was unrecoverable or identification and extradition was unreasonable, it became the work of the feared
Jackal.
In the early nineties Sudan began looking to normalize trade relations with western European countries. France saw its chance and included extradition of Carlos as part of the deal. Sudan agreed and he was soon taken prisoner. At his trial it became evident, despite Carlos’ objections to the contrary, that he was not responsible for many of the actions attributed to him. He was revealed to be an egomanical braggart who had assumed the life of a revolutionary terrorist in order to impress women and upset his family.