Fugue State 1986 2025 Tv Show Review
Netflix’s latest Colombian TV series Fugue State 1986 (Original title: Estado de fuga 1986) is inspired by the 1986 Pozzetto massacre committed by Vietnam War veteran Campo Elías Delgado in Bogotá. The bloodiest shooting in Colombia by a lone gunman, the incident transpired over three locations. The series is directed by Carlos Moreno and Claudia Pedraza and stars Andrés Parra, Carolina Gómez, José Restrepo and Camila Jurado.
The release date of the Colombian thriller, 4 December 2025, coincides with the 39th anniversary of the Pozzetto massacre that took place in Bogotá, Colombia, in 1986. However, the dramatised series tells the story from a different angle. It explores the friendship between Jeremías, a war veteran and León, a young literature student and Jeremías’ mentee, as the latter finds out that his friend committed the gruesome massacre in Bogotá.
Fugue State 1986 is a captivating thriller that delves into the psychological triggers that often compel people to commit deadly acts.
Who was Campo Elías Delgado?
Trigger Warning: Mentions of self-harm
Campo Elías Delgado was born in Durania in 1934 to Rita Elisa Morales. As a young boy, he was traumatised by his father’s suicide and blamed his mother for the tragedy. As an adult, he moved to Argentina, got married and had two children, after which he served in the US army from 1975 to 1978. He stated that he was a Vietnam War veteran; however, this fact was not confirmed by the US authorities.
After the war, Delgado began living as a refugee in New York, when one day he was stabbed in the chest by a mugger; an incident which led him to return home to Colombia. In fact, after this, Delgado always carried a gun on his person. In Colombia, he lived in Bogotá, where he taught English lessons.
What happened on 4 December 1986?
Trigger Warning: Violence, murder
To understand the trajectory of Delgado’s crime on 4 December 1986, it’s important to look at what transpired the day before.
According to Colombian magazine Semana, on 3 December, Delgado visited the Banco de Bogotá to withdraw all his funds, which amounted to USD 49,896.93. The cashier gave him USD 47,896.50 in cash as a round-off when Delgado demanded the remaining 43 cents as well — a detail which helped the cashier recall him. On the same day, Delgado purchased a .32-calibre revolver and 500 rounds of ammunition.
On the afternoon of 4 December, Delgado visited the first location — apartment 304 of a building at 118th Street No. 40-11.
In apartment 304 lived Nora Becerra de Rincón and her daughter, Claudia. The next morning, when Claudia’s brother opened the apartment door, using the building’s security keys since no one had answered the door the night before, he found his mother and sister bound and gagged. The former had 4 stab wounds, and the latter had 22.
Next, Delgado went to the second location — the apartment he shared with his mother.
There, he shot his mother, Rita, after an argument, wrapped her body in newspaper, sprinkled gasoline on her and then lit a fire. As the apartment went up in flames, he moved to visit other apartments in the building. First, he visited 301, where he killed the residents, followed by apartments 302 and 101, leaving death and injury in his wake. On this rampage, Delgado killed many residents of the building, while some managed to escape, and some succumbed to their injuries in the hospital.
Now, before Delgado went to his third and final location, he made a pitstop at apartment 201 in a building at Carrera 28A No. 51-31. There, he visited Doña Clemencia de Castro, the wife of his closest friend. Delgado had known the family for over five years and even taught them English using novels. There, Doña Clemencia offered him a soft drink as the two conversed about her son Andreas, for whom Degaldo always had a soft spot. Then, towards evening, he bid goodbye to Doña Clemencia, stating that he had bought a one-way ticket and was going to the other end of the world.
After this stop, Delgado arrived at Pizzeria Pozzetto around 7 pm, a restaurant he frequented so often that the waiters recognised him. He ordered his usual meal and, for about two hours, drank multiple rounds and conversed with the waiter. Around 9 pm, he opened fire in the restaurant, shouting that it was a robbery. He went over to the people one by one, asked them to hand over their money, and as soon as they did, he shot them. Soon, the police caught up with his killing spree and ambushed him at the restaurant. They fired at Delgado.
What happened to Delgado?
Reports of Delgado’s death vary. Some reports claim that he was shot by the police, while other accounts state he died by suicide. According to the testimony of Johana Cubillos Garzón, who was at the restaurant that night and witnessed her sister die at Delgado’s hands, he shot himself.
She stated, “I saw everything; I was the only one watching. The madman was demanding cash and telling us to leave the bills on the tables while he ran around the room, shooting and killing. Suddenly, he stopped next to me, looked at me, and I thought he was going to kill me, but he didn’t. I thought he would shoot, but he didn’t. I don’t know why he didn’t kill me, but he had already murdered my sister. I watched him kill people, and I couldn’t do anything. Until the police arrived and broke a window, and then I saw the madman shoot himself and fall.”
The Netflix series inspired by the massacre follows the friendship between León and Jeremías. León is a literature student and aspiring writer, and Jeremías is an army veteran who believes in the power of words. The two men bond over their love for novels and literature. The series’ turning point comes when León finds out that Jeremías was behind the Pozzetto massacre.
But there’s another twist. León has no memory of what transpired in the days before the massacre, and if and how he is involved in it.
