Pablo Escobar
Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria (
December 1,
1949 â€"
December 2,
1993) gained world infamy as a
Colombian drug dealer. Escobar became so wealthy in the drug trade that in 1989
Forbes magazine had listed him as the seventh richest man in the world. He is widely considered to be one of the most brutally ruthless, ambitious and powerful drug dealers in history.
Pablo Escobar began his criminal life as a teenage car
thief in the streets of
MedellĂn,
Colombia. There are stories that Escobar stole headstones from graveyards, but this seems unlikely when his superstitious nature is considered. He eventually moved into the
cocaine business and began building an enormous
drug empire during the
1970s. His reputation grew after a well known Medellin drug dealer named Fabio Restrepo was murdered in 1975 ostensibly by Escobar, from whom he had purchased 14 kilos of cocaine, and all of Restrepo's men were informed that they now worked for Pablo. In May of 1976 Escobar and several of his men were arrested after returning from a drug run to
Ecuador. As the case against Pablo was being made he tried to bribe the judge but was unsucessful. After many months of legal wrangling Pablo had the two arresting officers killed and the case was dropped. It was here that he began his pattern of dealing with the authorities by either bribing them or killing them.
During the
1980s, Escobar became known internationally as his drug network gained notoriety;
El Cartel de MedellĂn is said to have controlled a large portion of the drugs that entered into the United States,
Mexico,
Puerto Rico, and the
Dominican Republic with
cocaine brought mostly from
Peru and
Bolivia, as Colombian coca was initially of substandard quality. Escobar's product reached many other nations, mostly around the
Americas, although it is said that his network reached as far as
Asia.
Escobar bribed countless government officials, judges and other politicians, and he often personally executed uncooperative subordinates and had anyone he viewed as a threat assassinated. Corruption and intimidation characterized the Colombian system during Escobar's heyday. He had an effective, inescapable strategy that was referred to as
plata o plomo;
Spanish for
money1 or lead, intended to mean "accept a bribe or face assassination." He was responsible for the killing of three Colombian presidential candidates who were all competing in the same election, as well as the bombing of
Avianca Flight 203 and a
Bogotá security building in
1989. Some analysts argue he was behind the
1985 storming of the Colombian Supreme Court by left-wing guerillas, which resulted in the murder of half the judges on the court. The Cartel de MedellĂn was also involved in a deadly drug war with its main rival, the
Cartel De Cali, for most of its existence.
At the height of his empire, Escobar was estimated by
Forbes magazine to be the seventh-richest man in the world
2, with his company MedellĂn Cartel controlling 80 percent of the world's cocaine market. His organization had fleets of planes, boats, and expensive vehicles. Vast properties and tracts of lands were also controlled by the cartel under Escobar due to the almost limitless influx of cash during this period. Estimates are that the MedellĂn cartel was taking in up to $25 billion annually at its zenith.
While seen as an enemy of the United States and Colombian governments, Escobar was a hero to many in MedellĂn; he was a natural at
public relations and he worked to create goodwill among Colombia's poor. A lifelong sports fan, he was credited with building
soccer stadiums and sponsoring little league soccer teams in the city. He worked hard to cultivate his
Robin Hood image and frequently distributed money to the poor. The population of MedellĂn often helped Escobar by serving as lookouts, hiding information from the authorities, or doing whatever else they could do to protect him.
In
1991, after declaring an end to a series of previous violent or
terrorist acts meant to pressure authorities and public opinion, Escobar turned himself in to the Colombian government in order to avoid
extradition to the United States or assassination by a rival cartel. Escobar was "jailed" in his own luxurious private prison,
La Catedral, which he was allowed to build for his confinement in return for turning himself in. He negotiated an agreement with the Colombian government whereby he would be jailed for a mandatory five-year sentence and guaranteed no extradition to the United States. However, his "prison" was actually more of a country-club fortress, and he showed little regard for the sanctity of his sentence there. There have been allegations, many of them unconfirmed, that he was often seen outside of the jail: shopping in MedellĂn or at parties, soccer games, and other public places. After an account appeared in the local media showing photos of his lavish jail/residence and claiming that he had murdered several business associates (the Moncada brothers) when they came to meet him at
La Catedral, public opinion forced the government to act. When the government attempted to move Escobar to another jail on
July 22,
1992, he escaped, fearing that he would be extradited to the United States.
In 1992, United States
Delta Force operators (and later
Navy SEALs from
SEAL Team Six) joined the all-out manhunt for the escaped kingpin. They trained and advised a special Colombian police task force, known as the
Search Bloc, which had been created to locate Escobar and bring him to justice. Later, as the conflict between Escobar and United States and Colombian governments dragged on and the numbers of his enemies grew, a
vigilante group known as
Los Pepes (People Persecuted by Pablo Escobar), financed by Carlos Castaño, carried out a bloody campaign fuelled by thirst for
vengeance in which more than 300 of Escobar's associates and relatives were slain and large amounts of his cartel's property was destroyed.
Some observers claim that members of the Search Bloc, and also of Colombian and United States intelligence agencies, in their efforts to find and punish Escobar, either colluded with
Los Pepes or would have been moonlighting as both Search Bloc and
Los Pepes simultaneously. This coordination would be conducted mainly through sharing intelligence in order to allow
Los Pepes to bring down the organizational mountain that protected Escobar and his few remaining allies, but there are reports that some individual Search Bloc members may have directly participated in missions of the
Los Pepes death squads. This brings into question the role the United States played in gathering intelligence on Escobar's organization, because some of it was later used by the
Los Pepes organization in its crusade of summary executions. One of the leaders of
Los Pepes was Diego Murillo (also known as "Don Berna", a former MedellĂn Cartel associate who became a drug kingpin and eventual leader of one of the most powerful factions within the
AUC), who would have admitted to exchanging information with United States and Colombian agents. Don Berna currently takes part in the AUC negotiations with the government in San Ralito.[
1] The level of awareness that United States authorities had regarding this sort of situation and the question of which, if any, would have been the proper reaction to it has occasionally been a matter of debate.
The war against Escobar ended on
December 2,
1993, as he tried to elude the Search Bloc one more time. Using radio triangulation technology provided as part of the United States efforts, a Colombian electronic surveillance team found him hiding in a middle-class
barrio in MedellĂn. A shootout between Escobar and the Search Bloc personnel ensued. Accordingly, how Escobar was killed during the confrontation has been debated, but it is known that he was cornered on the rooftops of MedellĂn and suffered gunshots to the leg, back, and the fatal one behind his ear by members of Colombian National Police.
After Escobar's death, the MedellĂn Cartel fragmented and the cocaine market soon became dominated by the rival Cali Cartel, until the mid-
1990s when its leaders, too, were either killed or captured by the government.
In
March,
1976 Pablo married Maria Victoria Henao Vallejo who was only 15 at the time. Because of her age Escobar had to get a special dispensation from a
bishop in order to marry her. Together they had two children; Juan Pablo and Manuela.
In spite of being married Escobar had many affairs and had a special liking for teenage girls.
The cut-throat business nature of Escobar is depicted in
2001 drama film
Blow in which Escobar becomes a business contact of the main character
George Jung.
The hunt for Escobar was documented in
Mark Bowden's book
Killing Pablo. A TV movie based on the book was titled
The True Story of Killing Pablo[
2], and a
motion picture based on this book is scheduled for release sometime in
2007 [
3]. Bowden has been criticized for providing what some consider a one-sided, jingoistic account however.
In addition, the plot and characters of the
Tom Clancy novel
Clear and Present Danger (and subsequent
motion picture of the same name) are similar, featuring a Colombian drug lord named "Ernesto Escobedo"
*
Note 1: In
Spanish-speaking countries in
South America, plata, which literally means
silver is used as a colloquial expression for money.
*
Note 2: This list only includes individuals who are alive at the time of publication. Pablo Escobar is no longer listed in it.
* In the HBO series
Entourage, the main character Vincent Chase seeks the lead role in "Medellin", a life story of Pablo Escobar.
* In the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, the airport is named Escobar International.
*
George Jung &
Ochoa*
Blow (film)
