AUGUST 23-30, 1999 VOL. 154 NO. 7/8

Milestones

By HANNAH BEECH

KILLED. JAIME GARZON, 39, Colombian satirist and journalist, by two gunmen on motorcycles who pumped five bullets into him; in Bogotà. An active proponent of Colombia's peace process, Garzon received official accolades for successfully mediating the release of several hostages over the past two years, and his keen impersonations of Colombian politicians won him fans among the common folk.

APPOINTED. CARLA DEL PONTE, 52, tenacious Swiss attorney general, as prosecutor of the United Nations war crimes tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia; in New York. Having succeeded in rooting out money-laundering and Russian organized crime in Switzerland, Del Ponte will inherit a demoralized court that has been criticized for its snail's pace in Rwanda and for its lack of big-name Balkan arrests like Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, Serb President Radovan Karadzic and military commander Ratko Mladic.

DIED. JEAN DRAPEAU, 83, strong-willed ex-mayor of Montreal who transformed the Canadian metropolis from disreputable relic to financial and cultural capital; in Montreal. A flamboyant populist, Drapeau endowed the city with a subway system and a professional baseball team during his nearly 30-year rule. But his proudest--and costliest--accomplishments were the splashy Expo '67 and the 1976 Olympic Games. Although Montrealers are still paying for the latter extravaganza, Drapeau remained unconcerned about the expense: "Two thousand five hundred years ago Pericles too was criticized for building the Acropolis."

DIED. ERNESTO MELO ANTUNES, 65, member of a socialist coterie that instigated Portugal's 1974 bloodless Carnation Revolution, toppling a 40-year rightwing dictatorship; in Sintra, Portugal. Melo Antunes helped author the junior army officers' revolt that handed democracy to one of Europe's poorest nations and helped it enter the global economy after centuries of relying on its costly colonies for trade and raw materials.

DIED. JENNIFER PATERSON, 71, half of the cream-and-butter-loving Two Fat Ladies who spiced their hit British television cooking show with paeans to caloric excess; in London. A chain-smoking eccentric who disdained nouvelle cuisine, Paterson and partner Clarissa Dickson Wright unrepentantly championed cholesterol-laden dishes, joking: "We're still waiting to walk into a vegetarian restaurant and ask for the meat option."

DIED. VICTOR MATURE, 86, Hollywood screen idol whose beefcake physique presaged the rise of muscle-bound stars like Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger; near San Diego, California. With his hunky looks and impassive expression, the bass-voiced actor added heft to many roles, playing the loincloth-clad lead in Samson and Delilah, a heavy-drinking gambler in My Darling Clementine and an imposing Greek slave in The Robe.