Drug lord or Robin Hood? All in white: the life and death of Pablo Escobar
Pablo Emilio Escobar. Biography. 50 Photos
Twenty two years ago, in Colombia, the authorities, together with national special agents, neutralized the king of the drug business, Pablo Escobar.
Pablo Emilio Escobar became famous in the criminal world as an influential authority, went down in history as the most unprincipled and ruthless criminal of that period. Cold-bloodedly cracking down on representatives of the law (prosecutors, journalists), exterminating police departments, he arbitrarily tormented and tortured his victims.
Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria was born in 1949, December 1. In the town of Rionegro, in the family of an ordinary farm owner. He was the 3rd child of Hasus Dari Escobar and Hemilda Gaviria. The boy's mother was a simple school teacher.
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Escobar's "exploits" in the 20th century covered almost all the territorial possessions of Colombia, and the whole world.
Despite all the cruelty and composure, for most Colombians, Pablo was a kind of Robin Hood. He became the personification of Latin American dreams. Latin Americans who fought with him consider him a "great man"
All free hours, young Pablo was on the streets of the city. The poor neighborhoods of Melellin were a natural breeding ground for criminality and vice.
Already at that time, young Escobar began to steal gravestones from the local cemetery. Erasing epitaphs from monuments, he sold them to speculators. The track record of deeds was replenished, drug trafficking, theft and forgery of lotteries
Subsequently, Pablo organized a gang that hijacked prestigious and expensive cars. In order to resell them for spare parts.
By his 21st birthday, Pablo already had many associates. Acts criminal group became more and more sophisticated, limitless and cruel. Car theft changed to kidnapping (kidnapping for ransom).
History has preserved information that Pablo Escobar and his men kidnapped Diego Echevario in 1971, who at that time was a major industrialist from Colombia. After much torture and attempts to squeeze money out of the rich man, he was simply killed.
At the same time, Pablo Escobar did not hide his involvement in this high-profile case and even stated it openly. Thus, he earned even more prestige among the poor people of Medellin, who even arranged a holiday in honor of this event. And Pablo Escobar received the respectful nickname "El Doctor". This is how another Robin Hood appeared.
With the money stolen from the rich, Pablo Emilio built houses for the poor, thereby winning their appreciation.
All these "feats" Pablo performed at the age of 21. And a year later, Medellin no longer knew a cooler and more famous crime boss than Pablo Escobar. Escobar's criminal business expanded, as did the size of his gang. He was no longer satisfied with only kidnapping and extorting money from them. From now on, Escobar began to take an interest in drugs and devoted himself to the cocaine trade until the end of his life.
His activity on the trade in cocaine began with the purchase of drugs from manufacturers and their resale to smugglers. And they have already thrown the powder into America. With determination and willingness to go to any lengths to achieve his goals, Pablo Escobar did not leave competitors. Any lucrative criminal case did not go unnoticed by Escobar. Pablo has no competitors left. He became the sole owner of all cocaine in the country. And no one dared to stand in his way.
All this allowed Pablo to organize the delivery of cocaine to the United States himself, and his assistant Carlos Leider equipped a point in the Bahamas, which was a trans-shipment point for all drug trafficking.
The case was well organized. Everything about cocaine was under control. Anyone who wanted to engage in drug trafficking, one way or another was forced to unfasten the cocaine king 35% of the cost of the exported drug consignment. And Pablo, in turn, guaranteed the delivery of the powder safe and sound. Under Pablo Escobar, the Colombian jungle was a kind of hideout for cocaine laboratories.
The crime bosses of different countries of the old formation have a rule "Do not have a family." The reason is that the family, as it were, fetters and makes us vulnerable. This is exactly what happened to Escobaro when he was 27 years old. Succumbing to the charm, or whatever, his girlfriend Maria Victoria Eneo Viejo, Pablo married her. Most likely this happened due to Maria's pregnancy, since a month after the wedding she gave birth to a son, who was named Juan Pablo. We must say right away that after 3 years, Pablo Escobar also had a daughter. She was named Manuela. All this made the gangster very vulnerable.
Nevertheless, he was still very strong. And in 1977, Pablo teams up with three major drug dealers. A kind of organization was created, later called the Medellin cocaine cartel.
Escobar, Brothers Ochoa Vazquez Jorge Luis (right with hat), Juan David and Fabio
By the summer of 1977, there was no one more powerful in Colombia than Pablo. His cartel had everything at its disposal: money, planes to transport cocaine to the states, chemical laboratories for drug production. They even had submarines with which they transported cocaine. The cartel has spread its networks on half the world. For 17 years, Escobar's cocaine was available in Colombia, Peru, the United States, Europe, Peru, Bolivia, Honduras and Canada.
If we consider that during these years there was no cocaine in the USSR, and if there was, then in a very modest amount, it turns out that only Pablo Escobar was engaged in all the cocaine in the world. Escobar bought everyone. Judges, police officers, politicians. They all received money from the cocaine king. Those who could not be bought were intimidated, killed, blackmailed. But the organization continued to operate smoothly. Money flowed like a river. Rock stars and Hollywood actors threw themselves out of windows, shot themselves, hanged themselves. And Forbs magazine in 1989 calculated that Pacblo Escobar's fortune was $ 47,000,000,000.
But Pablo did not sit on his money. Part of the funds he still spent on the arrangement of life for the poor people of Medellin. It was thanks to him that stadiums, free houses (Pablo Escobar's quarters) were built in the city, as well as new roads were laid. It is not known what prompted him to such generous gestures. Maybe it was a desire to atone for their sins? Vryatli. Pablo himself grew up in a poor family. Most likely it was a kind of revenge on the rich and a desire to turn over all the foundations of that time. This pushed him to war with the entire rich world.
The wealth of Pablo Escobar
Let's take a closer look at the personal wealth of the cocaine king. Maybe someone is interested in it. Pablo Escobar owned 500,000 hectares of land and 34 estates. 40 rare cars. We have already talked about submarines and airplanes above.
Main estate
Escobar's most beloved estate had 20 lakes. 6 pools were not enough for him. And in the "backyard" there is a small airport. There was also a zoo on the estate, to which animals from all over the world were brought. This zoo still exists today. You can visit it for a small fee of 20,000 pessos.
Entrance to the zoo
Maybe evil tongues and slander, but there is a legend that the far corners of the estate witnessed the owner's sexual orgies, which were attended by all his friends and young Colombian girls. By the way, the girls lived there and formed a kind of harem. For his harem, Pablo subscribed to the best hairdressers and cosmetologists in both Europe and Italy. Not life but a fairy tale. All you have to do is constantly kill someone.
Pablo Escobar in politics
As you probably already know from the movies, all criminals, sooner or later, want to legalize their wealth and "tie up with the past." So it was with Escobar. He ran for election in 1982 and at the age of 32 became Deputy Congressman of the Colombian Congress. But this is too shallow for a man like Pablo. His goal is to become President of Colombia. Moreover, the support of the poor population is provided to him.
Who knows, maybe this was the first step that Pablo took in the wrong direction ... Maybe he still sold his cocaine all over the world if he hadn't got into politics.
The first who stood with Pablo on the way to the presidency was Rodrigo Lara Bonia. The then Minister of Justice. He launched a campaign against Pablo, relying on the fact that he was pouring dirty cocaine money into his election campaign. This has paid off. The cocaine king was expelled from the Colombian Congress. This put a bold cross on his political career. We all already understand what Pablo Escobar has undertaken in this regard. It was 1984.
On April 30, the Mercedes in which the Minister of Justice was traveling was shot at point-blank range. The minister could not be saved. Never before has an official of this level been killed in Colombia.
A short war in Colombia
As a result of the murder of the Prime Minister by Escobar, the drug lord became interested in the United States. The war on drugs was initiated by the Administration of the President of the United States of America. With the consent of then President Ronald Reagan, the war on drugs was not limited to the United States. Drug dealers began to be driven around the world. For the sake of capturing Pablo Escobar, an agreement was concluded with Colombia, which pledged to hand over all drug dealers to US justice. As a result, this served as a pretext for a small war.
Since Pablo simply did not want to surrender into the hands of justice, and his influence was very large, a group of people who were ready to stand up for him to death fought against Colombian police officers and officials.
In an effort to change the laws of the country and avoid extradition to the United States, Pablo Escobar and other major drug dealers armed their army with machine guns, portable rocket launchers, and grenades. As a result of their actions, the Palace of Justice in the capital of the country, Bogotá, was seized and all documents that in one way or another related to the extradition of criminals were destroyed.
In response, the state brought in a significant portion of the army, which surrounded the Palace. In 27 hours, during which the siege and storming of the palace lasted, 97 people died, including 11 judges. The assault was carried out using special forces groups, helicopters and tanks.
Something Pablo Escobar still achieved. The Supreme Court was forced to overturn the extradition of drug lords to America. But this did little to help Pablo, as the Supreme Court decision was vetoed by the President of Colombia. I had to hide further.
The war is gaining momentum
In 1987, Pablo Escobar had to part with his closest assistant, Carlos Leider. In spite of everything, he was still extradited to the United States.
Life has ceased to be so comfortable and stable. In 1989, realizing that justice is no longer so easy to buy, Pablo makes another deal with him. Its main condition is not to extradite it to the United States. But the Colombian government refuses and the war continues.
On August 16 of the same year, Judge Carlos Valencia is killed, and a day later, Police Colonel Waldemar Franklin Conter is killed. Events are starting to unfold very rapidly. On August 18, after the judge of the Supreme Court of Colombia and the police colonel, Luis Carlos Galán is sent famous politician in Colombia. They take him out for promising to rid Colombia of drug dealers if he becomes president.
The presidential elections were approaching. The wave of murders was gaining momentum. In the capital Bogota, explosions rang out almost every day. In just two weeks they were counted 7. They claimed the lives of 37 people. Along the way, another 400 were injured. The forest is being cut - chips are flying.
The culmination of this whole epic was the explosion of a Boeing 727. The plane was blown up on November 27, 1989. Onboard there were 107 people along with the crew. But these people died completely in vain, since Cesar Gaviria Trujillo, the future president of Colombia, who was going to fly this flight, canceled the flight.
This could no longer be tolerated and the drug dealers were tackled tightly. The government organized raids all over the country. All drug dealers were hunted. These raids helped to destroy a significant portion of drug laboratories. All cocaine plantations that could be found were burned. But Pablo nevertheless made 2 attempts to kill Miguel Masa Márquez, who was the chief of the Colombian police and part-time general. On December 6, 1989, as a result of the second attempt on his life, 62 people were killed. About a hundred were injured. By the new 1990, Pablo could be proud of being the most wanted drug dealer in the United States.
The Colombian government created a special "Special Search Group", the main purpose of its activities was the search and capture of Pablo Escobar. This group included the most experienced specialists from the best police units, professionals from the military, special agents and employees of the prosecutor's office. The high professionalism and well-coordinated activities of all members of this organization, which was led by Colonel Martinez, made it possible, during a successful operation, to capture Pablo Escobar's closest associates.
In the late 80s, during a police raid, a ranch was surrounded, where, according to agents, at that moment there were drug cartel bosses Gilberto Rendon and Jose Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha. During the shootout, the first of them and Rodriguez's son Freddie were shot dead, and his father, Rodriguez Gacha, took his own life by shooting himself.
In the immediate aftermath of this unprecedented action, Escobar's men orchestrated the kidnapping of some of Colombia's richest and most influential people. The drug lord assumed that through influential relatives of the hostages it would be possible to influence government officials in order to cancel the agreement regarding the extradition of criminals. And this plan was a success for the mafiosi with brilliance, the officials made concessions and the extradition of the cocaine king was canceled.
In the summer of 1991, when Escobar no longer feared extradition to the United States of America, he agreed to plead guilty to some minor scams, on the condition that he would not be charged with his other more serious crimes. Conclusion Escobar served with a prison called "La Catedral", which was built at his expense.
During his so-called "release", Escobar never ceased to be the main leader of the cocaine business, which brought in multibillion-dollar revenues. There was a case when the drug lord found out that his partners in the cocaine business dared to pocket some of the income while the boss was absent for a “good reason”, so to speak. This Escobar could not forgive, it was ordered to deliver the violators to his residence, namely to the prison "La Catedral". There, the guilty companions were subjected to cruel torture, Escobar himself personally drilled kneecaps for his victims and was engaged in pulling out nails, then an order was received to kill the negligent partners and get rid of the corpses. As you know, Escobar personally carried out one murder of a man.
Such an act was an obvious overkill, in the middle of the summer of 1992, Colombian President Cesar Gaviria signed a decree transferring Escobar to a regular prison. However, Escobar was aware of the government's plans in advance and escaped. In the photo - the image of the prison "La Catedral".
And now the drug lord was on the other side of the lattice, but enemies were hiding around and there were fewer and fewer shelters where one could feel safe. The American and Colombian governments were determined to put an end to one of the biggest bosses of the Colombian mafia and its famous Medellin cocaine cartel for good. The decision was made to pursue Escobar to the end and not take him alive if possible.
In order to destroy the Medellin cocaine cartel in Colombia, a special organization "Los Pepes" functioned, the name of which consisted of the initial letters of the phrase "Perseguidos por Pablo Escobar", which means "Pursued by Pablo Escobar". Members of this organization were residents of Colombia, whose relatives were killed by Escobar's people. For a short period of time, as a result of the activities of this organization, Escobar's criminal empire suffered significant losses, many of Escobar's people were killed by members of the organization, the drug lord's family was persecuted and attacked, his estates were burned as a result of arson.
Pictured is the prison "La Catedral"
In October 2009, Escobar's son Sebastian Marrokamn told the story that, somehow hiding from the police, Escobar and his children ended up high in the mountains, they were caught by a very cold night. Then, in order to warm his children a little and cook food on the fire, the famous cocaine king threw about two million paper dollars into the fire. In the photo - a picture of Pablo Escobar with his daughter Manuela.
In October 1993, Escobar's cocaine business began to fall apart. However, this was not at all what worried the drug lord most of all, who kept thinking about his loved ones, with whom he had not seen for about a year.
In December 1993, when Escobar reached the age of 44, he broke down and made one single call to his family. He understood perfectly well that he was being followed, which is why the call was very short, so that he did not have time to get into the field of view of his pursuers. The photo shows a picture of Escobar with his family.
So, he contacted his family on December 2 and stayed in touch with his son Juan for about 5 minutes. The agents of special services who hunted Escobar for a long time, of course, expected that someday the drug lord would contact his loved ones. After this call, it was established that Escobar was in the Los Olibos quarter of Medellin. The building where he was located was surrounded by the police in a matter of minutes.
The door was knocked down and special forces rushed into the building, where they were met with heavy fire from firearms, which was led by Escobar's personal bodyguard El Limon. Soon he was wounded, and he could no longer continue the fight, then the drug lord himself appeared at the window instead of him. Firing back on the move, Escobar climbed onto the roof and tried to escape from the chase, but he was "removed" from the roof by a sniper, whose bullet hit him right in the head, Escobar died immediately.
Now the participants of the raid began to climb the roof to make sure of the death of the drug lord and began to photograph his corpse in order to capture this valuable "trophy". Later, these photographs were seen by the whole world. This is how Robin Hood from Columbia left this mortal world, who was sentenced to death and carried out by the simple people he allegedly cared about throughout his career as a cocaine king.
Thousands of Colombians flooded the streets of Medellin on December 3, 1993 to see the famous drug lord, someone to say goodbye and mourn, and someone to gloat. About 20,000 Colombian citizens attended the funeral of the controversial leader of the cocaine cartel.
At the moment when the coffin with Escobar's body began to be carried through the streets of Medellin for further burial, such unrest began in the crowd that they can be safely called Khodynka in Colombian. The people carrying the coffin of the late drug lord were simply swept away and pushed aside. The lid of the coffin was ripped off and a thousand human hands reached out to the body of the already deceased cocaine king in order to touch the legend that once lived once again.
According to the evil irony of human rumor, which came up with a version that Escobar kept his cash and precious products within the walls of the estate, the villa of the famous cocaine billionaire suffered a sad fate. After his death, the godfather's estate was dismantled brick by brick by Colombian peasants and taken away in an unknown direction.
The famous prison "La Catedral" is now also destroyed, the vast estates of Escobar are overgrown with weeds, the once luxurious cars are completely rusted. The widow of the drug lord and his heirs live in Argentina, his brother practically lost his sight, as a result of an exploded bomb that was sent to him by letter to prison.
But even today, if you ask people about Pablo Escobar on the Medellin streets in the heart of the slums, believe me, you will not hear anything bad about him.
Pablo Escobar's images are sold on Colombian streets alongside those of Che Guevara. In some places in Colombia, he is revered as a saint, and pilgrimages are made to his grave. In the tourism business of Colombian Medellin, the legend of the "cocaine king" is widely popular, the museum of which is visited by tens of thousands of tourists every year.
Pablo Escobar: Modern Robin Hood, or the most violent drug lord in human history?
Those who used cocaine in the 80s of the last century, one way or another, used the product of Pablo Escobar.
(From the documentary)
On December 1, 1949, the richest (later) in history billionaire criminal Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria was born, whose name has long been associated with drugs, in particular with cocaine.
Pablo Escobar is assigned quite a few high-profile titles and titles, in which he did not give anyone any doubt for a second. Here are just a few of them: “legendary criminal”, “cocaine king”, “global drug dealer”, “world's first criminal billionaire”, etc.
Adolescent years
Pablo Escobar grew from a petty bully to the most influential and powerful drug lord in human history.
Escobar began his criminal activities as a teenager, in the slums of the village of Rio Negro, 27 kilometers from Medellin, the second most important Colombian city.
His mother was a teacher, and his father was a simple peasant. At a relatively young age, Pablo got involved with a bad company, started stealing bicycles, and was involved in petty crimes.
Pablo Escobar earned his first money on tombstones that he stole from the local cemetery. I erased the existing inscriptions from them, and then resold them.
Realizing the further futility of this type of activity and losing all interest in it, young Escobar organized a criminal gang, in which he and his associates were engaged in stealing cars for their subsequent sale for parts.
In March 1976, Pablo Escobar married his 15-year-old girlfriend Maria Victoria Eneo Viejo, who had previously been with him. A month later, they had a son, Juan Pablo, and three and a half years later, a daughter, Manuela. 
This is what Pablo Escobar's son Juan looks like now.
Founding of the cocaine cartel
Soon, Pablo Escobar saw a huge prospect in the drug business, which subsequently brought him billions of dollars in profits.
In 1977, Escobar, with three major drug dealers, organizes the famous and most powerful drug union that ever existed - the Medellin cocaine cartel, which creates its own drug trafficking network, which even includes submarines and airplanes.
The lion's share of the drugs came to the United States. At that time (80s), the sale of 1 kg of cocaine brought the merchant up to $ 5,000 in net profit.
Escobar's cartel transported about 95 tons of powder a year to the United States, which meant about $ 3 billion in annual revenue for the cocaine king.
The drug lord owned his own cocaine laboratories located in the jungle of Colombia, which he himself built to expand the drug empire.
Political activity 
Pretty soon the cocaine king realized the importance political power to develop his business, and in 1982 he was elected to the Colombian Congress as Deputy Representative for the Department of Antioquia. Thanks to this combination of circumstances, Pablo Escobar received parliamentary immunity and continued to build his cocaine empire.
However, in 1984, despite all the advantages that politics gave him, Escobar decided to retire from political activity, realizing that it was easier to get what he needed by simply bribing "corrupt" Colombian officials and judges.
Colombian "Robin Hood" of the present
Escobar was very smart and understood that if he enlisted the support of the people (ordinary poor people, residents of his hometown of Medellin), then this could serve as an excellent guarantee of safety and protection from the Colombian authorities, who were constantly hunting him.
The poor simply idolized Escobar because he helped the homeless - he built hospitals, churches, stadiums, schools, shelters for the helpless who died on the street, paved roads and erected whole neighborhoods for the poor, which were popularly called "Pablo Escobar's Slums" ...
Indeed, to some extent, the most cruel drug dealer in the history of mankind really helped the poor, which was a truly amazing phenomenon and invaluable care for them, that is why they idolized him.
The property of the drug lord
Escobar made an incredible fortune on the drug business; in 1989, Forbes magazine estimated the fortune of the cocaine king at $ 30 billion (!).
Pablo Escobar had a ranch of 3000 hectares, owned 34 estates and 40 vintage Rolls-Royce cars. On the territory of the drug lord's estate there were 20 artificial lakes, 6 swimming pools, as well as a small private airport.
By order of Escobar, a personal zoo was set up on the territory of his estate, in which there were 120 antelopes, 30 buffaloes, 3 elephants and 2 rhinos, 6 hippos. There is still an interesting story about one hippopotamus Matilda, which was continued after the death of the owner, Pablo Escobar.
The arrest of Pablo Escobar
In the 1980s, many Colombians said: "We now have 4 powers - the President, Congress, the Supreme Court and Pablo Escobar."
At that time, Escobar's drug cartel controlled 80% of the cocaine in the country.
However, after 12 high judges were killed on the orders of Pablo Escobar, in August 1989, the Colombian government declared a real war on the most cruel and powerful drug lord in human history.
Within a few months, the cocaine king felt the first significant blow to his previously untouched business.
Almost all the property of the drug lord was confiscated, some of his accomplices were arrested, and Escobar himself was forced to flee. 
During this period, he very rarely remained in one place for more than one or two days, fearing arrest by the Colombian government.
Escobar responded to government operations with even greater cruelty - he organized a bloody campaign of terror that lasted 5 months.
During this period, on the orders of Pablo Escobar, Luis Carlos Galana, one of the leading candidates for the presidency of Colombia, who promoted a violent fight against drugs, was killed.
In November 1989, Escobar commits the worst crime in his entire criminal career: orders the destruction of a commercial flight, resulting in the death of 107 people on board.
In 1990, Pablo Escobar struck a deal with the Colombian government: he would surrender and serve a short sentence in a convenient prison built especially for him in his hometown of Medellin. The government had to ensure that he would not surrender him to the US authorities.
But this was only a trick of the drug lord, who did not even think of surrendering to the Colombian authorities. However, the government decided to hold a demonstrative arrest of Escobar - just for show. The drug lord was placed in the prison "La Catedral", specially built for him, reminiscent of a luxurious estate.
The cocaine king's prison had all the necessary amenities. And even more: a disco, a swimming pool, a jacuzzi and a sauna, and in the courtyard there is a large football field, where professional players came to play with Escobar himself. There was even a telescope so that Escobar could look at his daughter, who remained in the city, chatting with her on the phone. After some time in prison, the police discovered that, while in prison, Escobar not only conducts business, but also continues to terrorize the authorities.
Death of the cocaine king
By the early 90s, Pablo Escobar was considered one of the richest people on the planet. His fortune was estimated at at least $ 5 billion (according to official figures).
As a result of numerous terrorist attacks, the cocaine king and his gang killed more than 1000 people: about 400 police officers, several dozen judges and politicians and civilians.
Pablo Escobar entered world history as the most daring, ruthless and powerful drug lord of all times and peoples. 
Death overtook the cocaine king on the roof of a suburban home on December 2, 1993, after being shot in the head by a Colombian police sniper. At that time, Pablo Escobar had just turned 44 years old. 
Kirill Aizetullin
It's hard to imagine life in the heart of Colombia's criminal empire... However, more recently, some 20-25 years old back town Medellin in Colombia was the most dangerous city on the planet... This status was assigned to the city due to the fact that in those years the city was captured and was in power, expelled from the government, Pablo Escobar, a strange figure, but interesting from a historical point of view.
The life story of the world famous eccentric Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar a (full name: Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria, years of life: December 1, 1949 - December 2, 1993) to this day continues to attract the attention of many people around the world. A lot has already been written about him, and in 2014 another feature film was shot. "Lost heaven" With Benicio Del Toro starring. This film does not reflect even half of the horror in which the Colombians lived in those years.
Benicio Del Toro, Paradise Lost
During his lifetime, Pablo Escobar was an ambitious and cruel man. For his deeds stretch rivers of blood, which washed the city of Medellin and its surroundings for many years in a row. The Colombians who lived in Medellin in those years were simply afraid to live. The authorities were bribed by Escobar and worked for him, so ordinary Colombians had no protection from the terror organized by the most bloodthirsty drug lord of our time. In our time, the city of Medellin no longer poses a great danger. Lately everyone more tourists can be seen on its streets. Russian emigrants also took a fancy to Medellin for its mild climate and convenient infrastructure.
On the Internet you can find information on excursions who are now in Medellin in the places of the odious drug lord... If you ask a question, then such an excursion can be easily organized by yourself. So we decided to independently visit the most iconic places associated with the life of Pablo Escobar.
To begin with, I will say that you yourself Colombians are not eager to remember and talk about Escobar, since many of them still remember that terrible time that they had to endure, and strive to forget it as soon as possible. This is understandable. It’s probably even indecent to ask anyone in Colombia about Pablo Escobar and the horrors of those days, especially in Medellin. Of course, the years go by, and a lot is gradually erased in the memory. For young Colombians, this is all part of history.
Sometimes it seems to me that in their desire to forget about the tyranny of the era of Pablo Escobar and his associates, Colombians have now gone too far. I'm talking about the fact that, every week, from Wednesday to Sunday, the streets in Medellin are buzzing with the sounds of the fiesta. until 3 am... This was impossible to imagine in 80s of XX century... Everyone, as if, continues to rejoice in Escobar's regime that has sunk into the past, plunging into the abyss of endless fun. Medellinians massively arrange noisy parties in numerous restaurants and taverns of the city forgetting, or simply ignoring those who want to sleep at night. If it were not for the legislative ban on the work of entertainment establishments before 3 hours nights in Colombia, they would probably walk around all day long.
For me, this revelry is very similar to an expression of joy that the hard times of the drug war in Medellin led by Pablo Escobar are over... The remaining drug cartels have left the city, and are hiding far away in the mountains and forests. Or maybe it's just a manifestation of a different trait Colombian character- idleness and cheerful disposition. The first one that I clearly remember a trait of Colombians is optional... Promising, offering, and not doing is the norm in many Latin American countries, but in Colombia we have encountered this feature many times. At first it is annoying, then you get used to it and do not pay attention.
Echoes of that high-profile era of the drug cartels of the time of Pablo Escobar, which still continue to operate in Colombia, can be found today. So, at discos in a crowd of vacationers, you can see people sniffing white powder, and it is legally allowed to carry some small dose of drugs, and there is no death penalty for this, as in some Asian countries.
So, we began our excursion into the history of Medellin at that time from the end of historical events - we decided to visit cemetery Gardens of Montesacro (Cementerio Jardines Montesacro) in Medellin, since Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria, his brother, parents and bodyguards who died with him are buried here.
The operation to find and arrest Escobar was carried out jointly with the American special services and lasted more than a year. Pablo and his most devoted associates managed to hide from them for a long time. But one day he was identified by a phone call, he called his son the next day after his 44th anniversary and made a serious mistake that cost him his life - he stayed on the line 5 minutes.
In one of the following posts I will write in more detail about the place where Pablo Escobar was killed.
To get to the cemetery Cementerio Jarnines Montesacro in Medellin, you need to take the metro to the station Itagüí(on the blue line), and, without going over (attention here!) the river Rio medellin, exit the metro via the footbridge.
Itagüí Metro Station marked on Google maps not where it really is!
Metro station on Google maps Itagüí and Cementerio Jardines Montesacro are on different banks of the river Rio medellin, and if you look at the Google map, you will see that the cemetery Montesacro Gardens and metro station Itagüí are very close to each other, and this is not true! In reality, it is quite far from the metro to the cemetery (about 2-3 km).
The Google Maps error could cost someone a visit to Escobar's grave if you choose to visit it yourself.
The real Itagüí metro station in Medellin is still there on Google maps! It is not connected to any of the marked metro lines in the city, and is indicated on the map as Metro Estación Itagüí... And the metro station itself Itagüí, and the cemetery Montesacro Gardens are on the same bank of the river Rio medellin.
Itagüí metro station is very close to the street Calle 50 in the place where Calle 50 goes across the river Rio medellin.
So that you do not get lost, below I quote detailed description route from Itagüí metro station to the Cementerio Jarnines Montesacro where Pablo Escobar is buried.
So, we leave the subway at the station Itagüí, we do not cross the river, but we go along Calle 50 in the opposite direction from the river to the street Autopista Del Sur(Freeway Sur, another name - Carrera 42) meters 200 .
At the crossroads and Calle 50 see metal bridge across Autopista Del Sur (Carrera 42), this is a pedestrian bridge. If you walked along Calle 50, then here you need to turn left and, better, cross the street, as there is a wide and comfortable sidewalk on the opposite side of the street. Along the street Autopista Del Sur (Carrera 42) from the metro side Itagüí In some places there is no sidewalk at all, and you will have to walk along the side of the carriageway with cars rushing along it at high speed. Therefore, let's move on. In addition, the cemetery itself will be on the same side.
Without turning anywhere, we go straight all the time. On the street Autopista Del Sur (Carrera 42) some buses are running, the routes of which we have not figured out. The area here resembles an industrial zone, the streets are deserted, but there is a lot of transport.
Minutes in 20 you will see a fenced area located on a hill. We reach the checkpoint with a gate, this is entrance to the Cementerio Jarnines Montesacro cemetery.
A motor road leads to the top, and right from the fence to the right there are steps for pedestrians - here we go. We go up the steps, and the first thing we see is gray Chapel building.
Tomb of Pablo Escobar is at the walls of this Chapels at the cemetery Montesacro Gardens... To see the grave of a self-proclaimed king Pablo Escobar, Capella you need to completely bypass the right side. At the moment when we approached her, several Colombians were standing at the grave of the drug lord. Yes Yes! Colombians also come here to honor the memory of their hero. And it is true! For many Colombians who lived in Medellin during times of troubles, Pablo Escobar was a real hero- he helped the poor, built schools and hospitals for them. Probably, the families of these people are grateful to the drug lord, and do not see in him the monster that he seems to the whole world.
Escobar's grave modest, and in fact it is just a small tombstone on which his name, date of birth and date of death are engraved.
Everything.
There are no pretentious tombstone sculptures made of rare stone here.
Montesacro Gardens Cemetery the place is quite well-groomed and modern, it is positioned as ecological cemetery, which can be visited even with pets. The administration of the cemetery unobtrusively informs about this - all over the cemetery there are small flags calling to come here with their pets, and in return only asks to remove excrement after them.
And, of course, this cemetery is strikingly different from most classical cemeteries in Latin America.
If from the Chapel with the grave of Pablo Escobar move along the footpaths counterclockwise, then the next thing we will see is Columbarium building.
You can go there and walk along the rows, along which small openings are built into the walls, where there are urns with the ashes of the deceased citizens of Medellin.
Inside Columbarium, a security guard forbade taking photographs.
Near Columbarium, to the left of it, under a canopy, there is a wooden sculpture Cristo De Los Andes ("Christ of the Andes") work Jose Horacio Betancur.
This again surname Betancur (Betancourt), with which we are familiar since Cuba. The surname Betancourt in Latin America belongs to a noble family. And in Cuba, we stayed at Casa Particulares, whose owners are also named Betancourt. The atmosphere in that house was somewhat different from other houses in Cuba. The behavior and the way the hostess behaved was like an aristocratic become. Maybe just a coincidence.
At the cemetery Montesacro Gardens harmony and grace reign. The bushes and grass on the lawns between the tombstones are neatly trimmed, and colorful butterflies hover over the cemetery.
Even on a weekday, in the midst of the day, there are people here, but there are not so many of them to be a problem. Fortunately, the size of the cemetery allows everyone to scatter in different corners.
A little bit farther - the building of the Pantheon of Eternal Memory (Panteon de la Eterna Memoria), and behind it peeps out an ordinary residential building. It is unlikely that sufficiently wealthy people live in this house so close to the cemetery. Calm and quiet, there is no dusty highway under the windows, and only a peaceful view opens up from the windows of the apartments in this house.
Inside Pantheon still managed to take a few photos. Here is antique hearse, into which at one time they harnessed horses, and a coachman with a mute face, sitting somewhere up there, was taking his passenger on his last journey.
There are not many people in the Pantheon either. In the sense of a living people. The marble slabs along the walls are decorated with flowers brought by relatives and friends of the buried.
Maybe the residents of that residential building were specially moved here in order to constantly remind them of the frailty of life? After all, the other side of the house windows overlook part of the cemetery Montesacro Gardens called "Forest of Life" (Bosque de Vida)... Any glance from the windows of this residential building is a reminder of the corruption of life that surrounds a person every moment of his life. Cheerful, you will not say anything.
In this small, relatively new, as can be seen from the unsigned tombstones, the garden Bosque de vida, everyone can buy a place for their final resting place.
Here in the cemetery there is a little cute service - you can pre-choose a shady spot under the overgrown bushes of spathiphyllum (spathiphyllum), under an Indian mango tree, under bushes with blue-orange flowers.
Or at all, if you want, you can buy out a plot of land with a gate completely fenced off by a stone wall and equip it as you wish.
For example, like the patio of a house in London.
At the time of our visit to the cemetery Montesacro Gardens v March 2015, under "Tree of life" growing in the middle of this wonderful garden Bosque de vida, many more unsold places. And the fenced-off areas are still free in some places. Here and there in the park-cemetery there are such tufted birds, they quickly run between graves and look like little dinosaurs looking for something to profit from.
In the middle of the cemetery stands mass grave with the "People" monument.
In total, we spent about an hour at the cemetery. 3 ... Time seems to stop here, and one does not feel that heavy and sad aura that I feel in cemeteries in Russia. Montesacro Gardens Cemetery- it is like an enterprise, a park in which people work to maintain cleanliness and order in their domains. I wonder if they are financed by the state or is it a completely commercial structure that pays for itself by selling small plots of land in the future and eternal ownership? And if so, what related services do they provide to their regular customers?
Back to the metro station Itagüí we went the same way as we went to the cemetery. We were caught by a little rain, the heat subsided a little.
I already wrote about this, but I will repeat myself. In Colombia, it is not recommended to lean against the walls of buildings, fences and poles to the height of the human causal organs. This is due to the fact that Colombians do not hesitate to relieve small needs where they feel like it. I'm talking about commoners and ill-mannered people, if you look at them from the height of European civilization, people. When asked about this massive Colombian phenomenon, my Colombian friends in Medellin shrugged their shoulders and replied that they had nothing like this in their country, and they had never seen anything like it. But I myself have personally seen more than once how a man walks along the street in the city, stops and begins to relieve himself, not paying any attention to passers-by and vehicles. In the old part of Medellin, in general, it seems to me that the walls of buildings absorb urine for centuries- this can be seen from the unambiguous, sometimes fresh, smudges on the walls and felt by the persistent smell of urea. This happens during the day, in the evening, at any time of the day. The human body cannot relieve itself on a schedule. So I wanted it and that's it! What to do? He turned to a tree or a fence, unbuttoned his fly and let the whole world rest. By the massiveness of this phenomenon Colombia can only be compared with Guatemala, and the rest of the countries are not too far behind.
This time, with a camera in my hands, I found one such pisuna in Medellin on the street Carrera 42 in the middle of the day. We walked from the cemetery to the subway. Everything would be fine, but the warning sign next to it seems to hint that he does not care whether they look at him or not.
Generally, Colombia in this regard, it also reminds me India where poor and uneducated people do not hesitate at all and relieve even greater need in crowded places. Well, I was impatient! Che !? Put them in your pants? Sometimes you travel like this in India by train, look out the window, enjoy the beauty of the local landscapes ... And here you are! The picture changes dramatically, and you already see something else - men and women squatting in rows are doing their job and looking at the train. And you - on them. And they went to the train. A strange sight.
Let's leave this topic, vile for Puritan society, and let's go wherever we are. the house where the father of the Colombian drug business, Pablo Escobar, lived.
We took the subway to the station Aguacatala, and went up the hill along the road. The area is quite decent and quiet.
At the intersection of streets Carrera 44 and Calle 15 Sur and there is a house that Escobar built for myself and my family.
Here he lived for some time, continuing to create his own, terrifying Medellin, affairs. After Escobar killed in 1993 year, the house was ransacked and is now in complete desolation. The Medellin authorities still do not know what to do with this house, so it continues to decay from year to year.
Without noticing anyone, we decided to try to move the gate in order to enter the territory and take a few shots. Hearing the hysterical creak of the gate, from somewhere from the depths of the courtyard of the terrible house a guard in uniform appeared and said that the entrance was prohibited. We answered that we are from Russia and we are doing a reportage for, and that we would like to take a couple of pictures closer. The guard surrendered without a fight and let us in on 5 minutes.
This is the main entrance to Pablo Escobar's house.
Is it richly decorated for those times? Or did the richest man on the planet of those times just lack taste?
In the lobby there are 3 elevator. The ceilings are very low. Of course, there is no greatness in all this now. And was it really there?
There was no way to wander around the house due to the time limit issued by the house guard, so inside I made another shot through the gap in the door leading to the next room. What this strange room is, I do not know.
In general, the architecture of the building is of absolutely no interest. So, they were noted in one more Escobarovsk place.
In the backyard of Escobar's house there is a huge dish antenna. There were no mobile phones in those years; the antenna could serve for satellite communications.
And in the basement of the house there is garage... The entrance to the garage is very inconvenient. It is necessary to drive in and out of it carefully because of the wall, which stands directly opposite the entrance to the garage.
Pablo Escobar was a renowned collector vintage cars, they were all here. Probably, something from the collection could have survived, this good rests somewhere in the backyard of one of Escobar's admirers.
The courtyard of the house has its own playground... You can imagine how the guards and other retinue of the drug lord whiled away the time in anticipation of the next brilliant plans of the villain.
There is an inconspicuous wooden structure in the far corner of the courtyard. Now there are ruins from it. From a distance it can be seen that the interior of this building is finished with ceramic tiles.
Not to say that all this is gorgeous, but on a grand scale. Indeed, in Colombia, some people still live in wooden and cardboard boxes, and the social gap between rich and poor Colombians is increasing from year to year.
Well, since we are here, in this part of the city, at the same time we decided to visit another attraction of Medellin - El Castillo palace (Fortress)... In general, a lot to tell how we walked around him for hours 3 , I won't. I can only say that we were pretty exhausted that day, since this area is located on the hills, and all this time we walked up and down through the sweltering heat and everything around El Castillo.
Ask for directions to El Castillo somehow there was no one, there were no passers-by along the way. Exhausted and tired, we still found this palace El Castillo... It is located, as it were, in the center of a large, secured park residential area, through which it is impossible to pass through, since the parks and squares near the houses are surrounded by fences with checkpoints, like at the house of Pablo Escobar.
Approaching the entrance of the fortress, we learned that El Castillo museum closes in 20 minutes, paid entrance. We twisted a little at the entrance, looked at the palace from afar and trudged to the metro.
If not for casual passers-by, they would again wander around this quarter of an hour 3 ... And this despite the presence of a map on which this entire huge residential area was marked with one green spot, which we initially took for a park. There is a park there, of course, but don't ask how to get into it.
In the elite, so to speak, district of the city, in its very center, on the way to the metro we met cows grazing freely in a huge field surrounded by a barbed wire fence.
All the way back we hardly spoke, as any movement of muscles, even of the tongue, seemed heavy and difficult. But at home when we arrived at our station Estadio, we unanimously decided to pamper ourselves after such an eventful walking tour that took the whole day - in the supermarket EXITO we bought the famous Medellin Tres Leches cake (Three Milk), and soda!
And with such pleasure they trampled half of Tres leches for two, washed down with hissing bubbles that taste like Pinocchio. Traditional Colombian delicacy, cake Tres leches- this is a sponge cake generously soaked in sweet liquid cream, on top with a layer of condensed milk, covered with whipped cream, and a little bit of chocolate with coffee powder. They say that it is in Medellin that it is recommended to try this dessert. Made!
I wanted to describe in one post all the events of this week, but it turned out already voluminous material, and the week turned out to be intense, that is still a week.
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Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria is a famous drug lord and terrorist from Colombia. He entered the textbooks of world history as the most cruel criminal of the twentieth century. He was born on December 1, 1949 in a small town called Rionegro, and on December 2, 1993, he was killed in Bogota (in the Los Olibos area).
On the sale of cocaine, Escobar earned a breathtaking fortune - in 1989, Forbes magazine included him in the list of the richest people in the world. With a capital of $ 25 billion, he took the seventh line of the ranking.
According to some estimates, in total, the drug lord killed about 10 thousand people. Despite this, Escobar was considered a criminal with a code of honor: for example, in the largest city of Colombia after Bogotá - Medellin - he financed a whole neighborhood for beggars and more than ten football fields for children.
Childhood
Pablo Escobar was born in 1949 in the provincial town of Rionegro. For his peasant parents, he became the third child. The boy's father was a poor farmer, and his mother worked as a school teacher.
In his youth, Pablo could spend hours listening to stories about the famous Colombian criminals - "banditos". Like Robin Hood, these people took money from the rich and gave it to the poor. Little Escobar for himself immediately decided that in the future he would become the same "banditos". No one could have imagined that after only a quarter of a century, these naive childhood dreams will come true.
h2 Initiation of criminal activity
Pablo studied in a poor school, among children from the same impoverished families. He and his classmates openly supported the Cuban Revolution - most of the children had left-wing political views. In high school, Escobar became interested in marijuana and began to appear less and less in class. At the age of 16, he was expelled. Freed from school duties, Pablo Escobar embarked on a criminal path.
Everything free time Pablo spent in the criminal areas of Medellin - this city was considered the criminal capital of Colombia. Together with his friends, he organized a small business of theft and resale of gravestones from local cemeteries. Soon they turned to more serious crimes - the theft of elite cars, which were then disassembled and sold for spare parts. Emboldened, Pablo Escobar even began to offer his patronage to car owners - those who refused to pay tribute to his group quickly lost their vehicles.
From hijacking and racketeering, Escobar gradually moved on to kidnapping and even murder. At the age of 21, Pablo gathered dozens of loyal assistants around him. Meanwhile, his gang's methods continued to grow harsher and ghoulish.
El Patron
In 1971, when Escobar was 22 years old, his associates kidnapped a wealthy, infamous landowner named Diego Echevario. They killed him after much torture and abuse. The locals who worked for this industrialist took this act as heroism - they seriously hated Echevario. After this incident among the poor, he got the nickname "El Doctor" (in Spanish - "El Doctor"). Since then, Pablo Escobar began to help local beggars, spending his money to build inexpensive houses. He knew that in the future they would become a kind of living target between his gang and the state. He became more popular every day.
Pablo Escobar's passport
Soon, Escobar's gang managed to intercept the production of cocaine from competitors in Chile. He was able to turn the trade in them into an incredibly successful business, with the help of which he earned a lot of money and became the largest authority in the city. After some time, the activities of Pablo's group went beyond Medellin. The daring El Doctor turned into the deadly "El Patron" (in Spanish - "El Patron") - a new nickname stuck with him until his death.
Cocaine business
Young hippies from America were already bored with marijuana in the mid-1970s. There was a need for a more powerful and effective drug - cocaine. El Patron built his criminal empire on its sale. Buying it from manufacturers, Escobar organized resale to smugglers for shipment to the States.
Shot from the TV series Narcos. Pablo Escobar in front of a cocaine warehouse
With his animal cruelty, anger and indefatigability, El Pablo did not give competitors a single chance to take a share in the drug market. As soon as Pablo found out about cases of criminal success in the midst of competition, he forcibly took away someone else's business. Anyone who even indirectly tried to interfere with his activities went missing.
In just a few years of this aggressive conduct, Escobar's cartel began to fuel the entire drug trade in Colombia. Without El Patron's demand, it was impossible to start selling cocaine abroad, and for each batch sold, 35% of the profits went into his pocket.
Pablo Escobar had so much money that he did not have time to spend it - and the police and state power he ceased to be perceived as a serious threat. So, in 1976, the drug lord was detained while trying to illegally export a cocaine consignment. A couple of years later, the police officer who arrested him, along with the judge who issued the arrest warrant, were already dead.
Pablo Escobar's women
In 1974, when El Patron was 24 years old, he began dating a thirteen-year-old girl, Maria Victoria. To stop the attempts of the girl's parents to separate them, Escobar moved with her to Palmyra. In the spring of 1976, they formalized their relationship. Soon the wife of the drug lord (who at that time was only 14 years old) gave birth to a son, Juan Pablo. More than three years later, the couple also had a daughter named Manuela. 
Escobar with his wife and children
Throughout his life, Pablo Escobar had a huge number of mistresses. It is known that he was a pedophile - he especially liked to deprive underage girls of virginity. By the most conservative estimates, El Patron had about four hundred women. For them, the drug lord had a real harem. Each of his passions (by the way, some of them were actresses, famous journalists, winners of beauty contests and popular fashion models) had a personal home with a unique design.
One of his most popular mistresses was the journalist Virginia Vallejo, known throughout Colombia. El-Patron had a special connection with her - their romance lasted five whole years (not every concubine of a crime boss managed to maintain interest in herself for so long). In 2007, she published an autobiography about life with Pablo Escobar, which became a bestseller.
Medellin cartel
In mid-1977, Pablo Escobar, along with several other major drug dealers in Colombia, united to form the Medellin cartel. Its head was, of course, El Patron. From that moment on, he owned the most powerful financial and cocaine empire in the world. To transport the goods, the cartel used every possible means - even airplanes and submarines.
Pablo Escobar's authority reached unprecedented heights. He easily bribed the police, courts, officials. El-Patron did not disdain blackmail either. He was ready to go to any lengths to achieve his goal,
Pablo Escobar's Golden Assault Rifle
Pablo spent part of his untold wealth on the construction of budget housing for the poor. Escobar was reciprocated by the population by electing him as a member of the National Congress of Colombia.
Not knowing where else to spend the money, Escobar bought everything that he came across. In his possession, there were more than five hundred thousand hectares of land, more than thirty country residences, forty antique cars. The main residence of El Patron had several dozen artificial lakes, six swimming pools and even a private airport.
In one of his estates (with an area of about 20 thousand hectares), he organized the largest zoo on the entire continent. It took colossal sums to deliver exotic animals here!
Political career
In early 1982, Pablo became a member of the Colombian Parliament. He was seriously planning to become the president of the country.
Escobar's ambitious political plans were thwarted by Justice Minister Rodrigo Lara Bonia, who launched a massive campaign against the drug lord. As a result, in early 1984, El Patron was expelled from Congress. Of course, revenge on the minister was a matter of time.
Escobar with the local soccer team
At the end of April 1984, Bonia's car was shot at from a machine gun in the middle of the busiest street in Bogota. This was the first time that such an important Colombian politician was killed.
Terrorism
After the assassination of the minister, Escobar founded the terrorist organization Los Extraditables (in Spanish - Los Extraditables). Its members carried out attacks on politicians and law enforcement officers - everyone who refused to cooperate with Escobar.
The men hired by El Patron captured the Palace of Justice in the center of the country, along with several hundred people. The forces of the army managed to eliminate the terrorists, but more than a hundred innocent civilians died.
The aftermath of the explosions organized by Escobar
In 1986, the country's authorities launched a large-scale operation to find Jorge Luis Ochoa, one of the leaders of the Medellin cartel, who offered a $ 4 million reward for the head of the American ambassador. Within ten days, more than two thousand people were arrested throughout the country, 2 tons of cocaine, 10 tons of coca paste, about 50 tons of coca leaves, as well as hundreds of tons of various weapons were confiscated.
After the assassination of the minister, Escobar hid in the shadows, but he still managed to unleash large-scale terrorist operations in Colombia. In less than a few years, about a thousand people have suffered at the hands of his people - including judges, journalists and police officers who did not want to cooperate with the cartel. On his order, a plane with 107 passengers on board was blown up - with this operation, El Patron hoped to kill Caesar Gaviry, who was elected president of the country, but by a happy coincidence he could not fly this flight.
In December 1989, police chief Miguel Marquez was attacked. As a result, 62 people died from the explosion, and more than a hundred people were seriously injured.
Detention
The American government was involved in the capture of the criminal, and on June 19, 1991, Escobar was forced to surrender to the authorities. He admitted his guilt only in a couple of crimes - and then on condition that his punishment would be mitigated.
The deadliest terrorist on the planet ended up in a prison that he himself had built years earlier. It was called "La Catedral" (in Spanish - "La Catedral") and was equipped no worse than a five-star hotel: on its territory there was a large swimming pool, jacuzzi, dance floor, sauna and even a football field for normal size... Friends, family and numerous mistresses constantly dropped in to the crime boss. The matter reached the point of absurdity - Escobar could at any time go outside the prison to visit brothels, restaurants and football matches.
"Prison" in which Pablo Escobar was sitting
Despite his imprisonment, El Patron continued to run the drug cartel. It is known that once drug dealers who were caught stealing his money were brought to his prison. For several hours, he brutally tortured them - right in the correctional institution!
The death of Pablo Escobar - the end of the cocaine era
In July 1992, the drug lord escaped from prison. He behaved very carefully until December 1993, when he called his family and spoke for longer than the allotted time. Thanks to this, the authorities were able to establish the location of Escobar.
For an hour, his house was surrounded by law enforcement officers. Before Escobar had time to recover, they began to kick in the doors. In addition to him, his own aunt and devoted assistant Alvaro, nicknamed Limon, was in the house (the police shot him first).
Crawling out the window, El Patron tried to hide from the police on the roofs of buildings. There he was shot - or he shot himself (the investigation was unable to establish accurate data). Law enforcement officers took the famous photo next to the corpse of the deceased crime boss - a photo with a bloody body in front of smiling police officers appeared on the front pages of newspapers around the world. Thus ended the whole era of El Patron's rule.
Pablo Escobar was buried in the Montesacro cemetery in Medellin.
21 years ago, the Colombian authorities, together with international law enforcement agencies, eliminated one of the most powerful players in the criminal world, the king of drug trafficking - Pablo Escobar. This man was the third child in a poor family, his fate has a lot of dramatic episodes, his path cannot be called righteous. Today we will tell about how Colombian boys became the most influential person not only in Latin America, but throughout the Western Hemisphere.
Born into a family of a farmer and a teacher
In 1949, a completely healthy boy was born. As a child, it was impossible to imagine that years would pass, and Pablo would terrify entire cities and even countries. His name will scare politicians, law enforcement officers and international organizations... In the meantime, it was the average child who loved to wander the streets of large cities. His native Rionegro could not boast of outlandish sights, so Pablo raced 27 km from home to the capital of the Antioquia department called Medellina. This is how his childhood passed and this is how his youth began. He did not drink alcohol, did not smoke cigarettes, but a bad company taught him to smoke Colombian cannabis, and he carried this bad habit, addiction throughout his life, trying not to go too far and not ruin himself with heavier drugs.
The need to have money of his own made the guy go for tricks. Parents could not afford to support their unemployed son, so he was denied pocket money. Pablo had no intention of going to work. What for? The mood in the poor quarters of Medellin made it clear that honest work could not make money. In this city, 90% of the population worked hard to sweat, but at the same time they could not get out of the abyss of the poor. Young Escobar did not wish such a fate for himself. Had to start making easy money. The first crimes on the account of the future drug baron were the theft of gravestones and their subsequent sale to Panamanian resellers. Further more - cigarettes, hemp, jewelry. As a result, having put together a small gang of like-minded people, Pablo began to trade in stealing expensive cars and reselling them for parts. But this quickly bored the new gang. Now they offered car theft protection to owners of expensive cars. If they refused, then not even a day passed as the car disappeared in an unknown direction.
And what is your opinion of the local population towards a native of poor neighborhoods? They idolized the new gangster. Pablo was engaged in extortion, kidnapping and murder of the wealthy residents of Medellin, and in parallel with charity. At 22, he was already considered the city's main criminal authority. He stole from the rich and built new homes for the poor. He perfectly understood that one cannot be hated by all people, otherwise one cannot stay on top. And besides, he did not forget his roots. He is a poor man who has become a real rich man in a few years. Columbian Robin Hood.
Drug lord
As soon as Pablo became king of Medellin, this was not enough for him. He needed all of Colombia. And so it happened. He controlled all drug traffic in the country, not limited to cannabis. Cocaine is what allowed him to skyrocket. Rather, cocaine and entry into the American market. The transshipment point in the Bahamas received, sorted and dispatched tons of deadly powder to the states every day. And Escobar was watching all this.
By the end of the 70s, Pablo owned 80% of all drug traffic in the United States, and you can't even imagine how angry local crime bosses were. The unwanted were quickly removed, and the rest helplessly carried out orders from above, biting their teeth in the back of the Colombian tycoon. Against the background of all these machinations, the work of law enforcement agencies and state authorities is completely invisible. What could they have done? Put this criminal behind bars. But how? Pressure on the investigation, bribery of witnesses, murder of judges and chiefs of police stations - this is what the fight against Escobar has become. He was the king of the North and South America, his power knew no bounds. It was possible to stop it only with the help of internal intrigues within the criminal family and the subsequent elimination of "Columbian Robin Hood". Everything went to that.
"There is nothing more valuable than a given promise, and there is nothing more shameful than breaking it."
Pablo Escobar
Political activity, the beginning of the fall, the end of the road
At a certain stage, Escobar was tired of inventing frauds bypassing the Colombian government, in order to get rid of this splinter, it was necessary to penetrate into the power itself and from there do his own affairs. After becoming deputy congressman of the department, Pablo began to aim for the post of president of the country. The politicians did not like this at all, and an active campaign began against attracting a person who profited from cocaine dollars to the country's leadership. The officials understood that early elections would happen, and Escobar would be elected by the poor, whom he cherished and nurtured, built infrastructure for them and accepted all their complaints about the tyranny of the rich. But the disgruntled politicians and officials quickly got in line when the main protagonists of their protest - Rodrigo Lara Bonia, Carlos Valencia, Waldemar Franklin Contero - began to die one after another.
A wave of terror named after Pablo Escobar swept across the country; it was in those days that he lost the support of the inhabitants, because many innocent fellow citizens died during terrorist attacks. While officials with a sinking heart and nervous tics sat in their holes, the time has come for the government to act as the guarantor of the safety of its population. A series of arrests and raids on drug cartel enterprises took place across the country. Escobar received serious losses, his business began to collapse, and civil strife began within the criminal empire.
“You will never know which bullet will kill you. After all, names are not written on bullets. "
Pablo Escobar
Things went even worse for him when the US government received the right to extradite the gangster, which meant that Pablo was facing the death penalty. After agreeing with the Colombian government to plead guilty to several non-serious offenses, Escobar went to prison, which became a resort for him. Visitors constantly came to him, he called girls to him, played football, went to a disco. In general, this was not a place of imprisonment for a criminal, he rested there and at the same time conducted the affairs of his empire. The Colombian authorities, having seen enough of this arbitrariness, decided to transfer Pablo to a real prison. True, they did not have time with the implementation of their plans - he fled.
"America is two hundred million idiots, led by one million special agents."
Pablo Escobar
At large, the drug baron was not so smooth: an unmeasurable number of enemies from other criminal groups, constant pursuit by special agents and, most interestingly, the self-organized movement "Los Pepes" - victims of Escobar's crimes. It was they who became direct participants in his detention and executioners. One day, the police intercepted a telephone conversation between Escobar and his family. Having quickly determined the address where the call came from, they went to the place of detention. The whole house was surrounded. Only Pablo and his personal bodyguard were inside. During the arrest, the bodyguard was wounded, and Escobar decided to hide from pursuit on the rooftops. But it was not there. One of the Los Pepes members, a sniper, wounded the drug baron in the leg, after which he collapsed to the ground. Then there was a shot in the back, and, having gone down, the shooter finished off the criminal with a shot in the head.
"Death cannot be fooled, but you can befriend it."
Pablo Escobar
This is how the Columbian Robin Hood ended his journey, who was actually executed by the very people about whom he had been so pretentiously concerned all his life. People like Pablo Escobar do not live long and happy life... But they are remembered, well remembered. Especially remembered by those whose relatives died from his senseless and merciless terrorist attacks.
