Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria (December 1, 1949 – December 2, 1993) was a Colombian drug lord, narcoterrorist and politician, who was the founder and sole leader of the Medellín Cartel . Escobar, also known as ‘the king of cocaine’, was one of the richest criminals in history. By the time of his death, he had amassed an estimated net worth of $30 billion – equivalent to $70 billion in 2022 – while his drug cartel monopolized cocaine. trade to the United States in the 1980s and early 1990s.
Born in Rionegro and raised in Medellín, Escobar briefly studied at Medellín’s Universidad Autónoma Latinoamericana but left without graduating; instead, he began to engage in criminal activities, selling illegal cigarettes and counterfeit lottery tickets, and participating in car thefts. In the early 1970s, he began working for various drug smugglers, often kidnapping people and holding them for ransom.
In 1976, Escobar founded the Medellín Cartel, which distributed cocaine powder, establishing the first smuggling routes from Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador, through Colombia and eventually to the United States. Escobar’s infiltration of the US created an exponential demand for cocaine and by the 1980s Escobar was estimated to be directing monthly shipments of 70 to 80 tons of cocaine into the country from Colombia. As a result, he quickly became one of the richest people in the world, but constantly fought against rival cartels at home and abroad, leading to massacres and murders of police officers, judges, local residents and prominent politicians.
In the 1982 Colombian parliamentary elections, Escobar was elected as an alternate member of the Chamber of Deputies as part of the Liberal Party. This made him responsible for community projects such as the construction of houses and football fields, which made him popular among the locals of the towns he visited. However, Escobar’s political ambitions were thwarted by the Colombian and American governments, who routinely pushed for his arrest, with Escobar widely believed to have orchestrated the bombings of Avianca Flight 203 and the DAS building in retaliation.
In 1991, Escobar surrendered to authorities and was sentenced to five years in prison on a host of charges, but struck a no-extradition deal with Colombian President César Gaviria, with the option of being housed in his own home-built jail. The cathedral. In 1992, Escobar escaped and went into hiding as authorities tried to move him to a more standard shelter, sparking a nationwide manhunt. As a result, the Medellín Cartel collapsed and in 1993 Escobar was murdered in his hometown by the Colombian National Police, a day after his 44th birthday.
Escobar’s legacy remains controversial; Although many denounce the heinous nature of his crimes, he was seen as a “Robin Hood-like” figure to many in Colombia because he provided many benefits to the poor. His murder was mourned and his funeral was attended by more than 25,000 people. Moreover, his private estate, Hacienda Nápoles, has been transformed into a theme park. His life has also inspired or been widely dramatized in film, television and music.
Early life
The city of Medellín, where Escobar grew up and began his criminal career
Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria was born on December 1, 1949 in Rionegro, Antioquia. He was the third of seven children and grew up in poverty in the neighboring city of Medellin. His father was a small farmer and his mother was a teacher. Escobar dropped out of high school in 1966 just before his 17th birthday, before returning two years later with his cousin Gustavo Gaviria . At that point, the harsh life on the streets of Medellin had polished them into gangster bullies in the eyes of teachers. The two dropped out of school after more than a year, but Escobar did not give up. After forging a high school diploma, he briefly attended college with the aim of becoming a criminal lawyer, politician, and eventually president, but had to give it up due to lack of money.
Early
Escobar began his criminal career with his gang by stealing tombstones, sandblasting their inscriptions and reselling them. After leaving school, Escobar began joining gangs to steal cars. Escobar soon became involved in violent crimes, employing criminals to kidnap people who owed him money and demand ransoms, sometimes tearing up ransom notes even if Escobar had received the ransom. His most famous kidnap victim was businessman Diego Echavarria, who was kidnapped and eventually murdered in the summer of 1971. Escobar received a $50,000 ransom from the Echavarria family; his gang became known for this kidnapping.
Medellín Cartel: International Drug Routes
Escobar had been involved in organized crime for a decade when the cocaine trade began to spread in Colombia in the mid-1970s. Escobar’s meteoric rise attracted the attention of the Colombian Security Service (DAS), which arrested him in May 1976 when he returned from drug trafficking in Ecuador. DAS officers found 39 kg of cocaine in the spare wheel of Escobar’s car. Escobar managed to change the first judge in the trial and bribed the second judge so that he was released along with other prisoners. The following year, the officer who arrested Escobar was murdered. Escobar similarly continued to bribe and intimidate Colombian law enforcement agencies. His carrot-and-stick strategy of bribing officials and political candidates in Colombia, in addition to sending assassins to kill those who rejected his bribes, became known as “silver or lead,” meaning “money or death.” . The Medellín Cartel and the Cali Cartel both managed to bribe Colombian politicians and campaigned for both the conservative and liberal parties. Therefore, Escobar and many other Colombian drug lords pulled strings at every level of the Colombian government, as many of the political candidates they financially supported were ultimately elected. Although the Medellín Cartel was not founded until the early 1970s, it expanded after Escobar met several drug lords at a ranch in April 1978 and by the end of 1978 had transported some 19,000 kilos of cocaine to the United States.
Rise to Notoriety
Powder cocaine was manufactured, packaged and sold by Pablo Escobar and his associates, and eventually distributed to the US drug market.
Soon, demand for cocaine in the United States soared, leading Escobar to organize more smuggling shipments, routes, and distribution networks in South Florida, California, Puerto Rico, and other parts of the country. He and cartel co-founder Carlos Lehder worked together to develop a new transshipment point in the Bahamas, an island called Norman’s Cay, about 220 miles southeast of the Florida coast. Escobar and Robert Vesco bought most of the land on the island, including a 1 kilometer airstrip, a port, a hotel, houses, boats and planes, and they built a refrigerated warehouse to store the cocaine. According to his brother, Escobar did not purchase Norman’s Cay; it was instead a sole undertaking of Lehder. From 1978 to 1982, this was used as a central smuggling route for the Medellín Cartel. With the enormous profits this route generated, Escobar was soon able to purchase 20 square kilometers of land in Antioquia for several million dollars, on which he built the Hacienda Nápoles. The luxurious home he created included a zoo, a lake, a sculpture garden, a private arena and other amenities for his family and the cartel.
Escobar at the height of his power
Escobar was also involved in philanthropy in Colombia, paying handsomely for the staff of his cocaine laboratory. Escobar has spent millions developing some of Medellín’s poorest neighborhoods. He built residential complexes, parks, football stadiums, hospitals, schools and churches. Escobar also entered politics in the 1980s, participating in and supporting the formation of the Liberal Party of Colombia. In 1982 he successfully entered the Colombian Congress. Although he was only a deputy, he was automatically granted parliamentary immunity and the right to a diplomatic passport under Colombian law. At the same time, Escobar gradually became a public figure, and because of his charity work he was known as ‘Robin Hood Paisa’. He once claimed in an interview that his fortune came from a bicycle rental company he founded when he was 16 years old.
In Congress, the new Minister of Justice, Rodrigo Lara-Bonilla, had become Escobar’s opponent and accused Escobar of criminal activities from the first day of Congress. Escobar’s arrest in 1976 was investigated by Lara-Bonilla’s subordinates. A few months later, liberal leader Luis Carlos Galán expelled Escobar from the party. Although Escobar fought back, he announced his retirement from politics in January 1984. Three months later, Lara-Bonilla was murdered.
The Colombian judiciary was a target of Escobar in the mid-1980s. While bribing and killing several judges, the wanted Escobar requested in the fall of 1985 that the Colombian government grant his conditional surrender without extradition to the United States. The proposal was initially answered in the negative, and Escobar subsequently founded and implicitly supported the Los Extraditable Organization, which aims to combat extradition policies. The Los Extraditable Organization was subsequently accused of participating in an attempt to prevent the Colombian Supreme Court from reviewing the constitutionality of Colombia’s extradition treaty with the United States. In support of the far-left guerrilla movement of November 6, 1985 that attacked the Colombian courthouse and killed half of the Supreme Court judges. In late 1986, the Colombian Supreme Court declared the previous extradition treaty illegal because it was signed by a presidential delegation and not the president. Escobar’s victory over the judiciary was short-lived, with new President Virgilio Barco Vargas quickly extending his agreement with the United States.
Escobar still harbored a grudge against Luis Carlos Galán for expelling him from politics, so Galán was assassinated on Escobar’s orders on August 18, 1989. Escobar then placed a bomb on Avianca Flight 203 in an attempt to assassinate Galán’s successor, César Gaviria Trujillo, who missed the plane and survived. The explosion killed all 107 people. Because two Americans were also killed in the bombing, the American government immediately began to intervene.
La Catedral prison
After the murder of Luis Carlos Galán, the government of César Gaviria took action against Escobar and the drug cartels. Ultimately, the government negotiated with Escobar and convinced him to surrender and cease all criminal activity in exchange for a reduced sentence and preferential treatment during his captivity. Escobar ended a series of previous acts of violence designed to put pressure on authorities and public opinion and surrendered to Colombian authorities in 1991. Before he surrendered himself, the extradition of Colombian citizens to the United States was prohibited by the recently adopted Colombian Constitution. of 1991. This law was controversial because it was suspected that Escobar and other drug barons had influenced the members of the Constituent Assembly in passing the law.
Escobar was locked up in what would become his own luxurious private prison, La Catedral, with a football field, a giant dollhouse, a bar, a jacuzzi and a waterfall. Reports of Escobar’s continued criminal activities while in prison began to surface in the media, prompting the government to move him to a more conventional prison on July 22, 1992. Escobar’s influence allowed him to discover the plan in advance and successfully escape. , evading the police for the rest of his life.
Death
Search Bloc members celebrate over Escobar’s body on December 2, 1993. His death ended a 16-month search.
The grave of Pablo Escobar and family in Monte Sacro Cemetery, Itagüí
Escobar faced threats from Colombian police, the US government and his rival, the Cali Cartel. On December 2, 1993, Escobar was found in a house in a middle-class residential area of Medellin by Colombian special forces using technology supplied by the United States. Police attempted to arrest Escobar, but the situation quickly escalated into gunfire. Escobar was shot dead while trying to escape from the roof. He was hit by bullets in the torso and feet, and a bullet that struck him in the head and killed him. This led to debate as to whether he committed suicide or was shot and killed.
Aftermath of his death
Shortly after Escobar’s death and the subsequent fragmentation of the Medellín Cartel, the cocaine market was dominated by the rival Cali Cartel until the mid-1990s, when its leaders were assassinated or captured by the Colombian government. The Robin Hood image that Escobar had cultivated had a lasting influence in Medellín. Many there, especially many of the city’s poor whom Escobar had helped during his lifetime, mourned his death, and more than 25,000 people attended his funeral. Some of them consider him a saint and pray to him for divine help. Escobar was buried in the cemetery of Monte Sacro.
Testimony of Virginia Vallejo
On July 4, 2006, Virginia Vallejo, a television host who dated Escobar from 1983 to 1987, offered Attorney General Mario Iguarán her testimony in the trial of former Senator Alberto Santofimio, who was charged with conspiracy in the assassination on presidential candidate Luis Carlos in 1989. Galan. Iguarán acknowledged that although Vallejo had contacted his office on July 4, the judge had decided to close the trial on July 9, several weeks before the expected closing date. The action was seen as too late.
On July 18, 2006, Vallejo was brought to the United States on a special Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) flight for “security reasons” due to her cooperation in high-profile criminal cases. On July 24, Colombia’s RCN Television broadcast a video in which Vallejo had accused Santofimio of inciting Escobar to eliminate presidential candidate Galán. The video was seen by 14 million people and played an important role in the reopened case of Galán’s murder. On August 31, 2011, Santofimio was sentenced to 24 years in prison for his role in the crime.
Role in the siege of the Palace of Justice
Escobar financed the communist guerrilla M-19 for the attack on the Colombian Palace of Justice.
Of Escobar’s biographers, only Vallejo has provided a detailed explanation of his role in the 1985 siege of the Palace of Justice. The journalist stated that Escobar had financed the operation, which was carried out by M-19; but she blamed the military for the killing of more than 100 people, including 11 Supreme Court magistrates, M-19 members and cafeteria workers. Her statements prompted the reopening of the case in 2008; Vallejo was asked to testify, and many of the events she had described in her book and testimony were confirmed by the Colombian Truth Commission. These events led to further investigation into the siege that resulted in the conviction of a senior former colonel and a former general, who were later sentenced to 30 and 35 years in prison respectively for the enforced disappearance of the detainees after the siege. Vallejo would subsequently testify in Galán’s murder. In her book Amando a Pablo, odiando a Escobar (Loving Pablo, Hating Escobar), she had accused several politicians, including Colombian presidents Alfonso López Michelsen, Ernesto Samper and Álvaro Uribe, of having ties to drug cartels.
Relatives
Escobar’s widow (María Henao, now María Isabel Santos Caballero), son (Juan Pablo, now Sebastián Marroquín Santos) and daughter (Manuela) fled Colombia in 1995 after failing to find a country that would grant them asylum. Despite Escobar’s numerous and constant infidelities, Maria continued to support her husband. Members of the Cali Cartel even played their recordings of her conversations with Pablo for their wives to demonstrate how a woman should behave. This attitude turned out to be the reason the cartel did not kill her and her children after Pablo’s death, even though the group demanded (and received) millions of dollars in reparations for Escobar’s war against them. Henao even successfully negotiated for her son’s life by personally guaranteeing that he would not retaliate against the cartel or participate in the drug trade.
Sebastián Marroquín (born Juan Pablo Escobar) is an outspoken critic of his father’s violent actions.
After escaping first to Mozambique and then to Brazil, the family settled in Argentina. Living under her assumed name, Henao became a successful real estate entrepreneur until one of her business partners discovered her true identity and Henao absconded with her earnings. Local media were alerted and after being exposed as Escobar’s widow, Henao was imprisoned for eighteen months while her finances were investigated. Ultimately, authorities were unable to link her money to illegal activities and she was released. According to her son, Henao fell in love with Escobar “because of his mischievous smile [and] the way he looked at [her]. [He] was affectionate and sweet. A great lover. I fell in love with his desire to help people and his compassion for their hardships. We [drove] to places where he dreamed of building schools for the poor. From [the] beginning, he was always a gentleman.” María Victoria Henao de Escobar, with her new identity as María Isabel Santos Caballero, continues to live in Buenos Aires with her son and daughter. On June 5, 2018, Argentine federal judge Nestor Barral accused her and her son, Sebastián Marroquín Santos, of money laundering together with two Colombian drug traffickers. The judge ordered the seizure of assets worth approximately $1 million each.
The documentary Sins of My Father (2009) by Argentinian filmmaker Nicolas Entel describes Marroquín’s attempts to ask forgiveness on behalf of his father from the sons of Rodrigo Lara, the Colombian Minister of Justice who was assassinated in 1984, and from the sons of Luis Carlos. Galán, the presidential candidate who was assassinated in 1989. The film was shown at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival and premiered in the US on HBO in October 2010.
In 2014, Marroquín published Pablo Escobar, My Father under his birth name. The book provides first-hand insight into the details of his father’s life and describes the fundamentally disintegrating effect of his death on the family. Marroquín wanted to publish the book in hopes of clearing up any inaccuracies regarding his father’s excursions in the 1990s.
Escobar’s sister, Luz Maria Escobar, also made several gestures in an attempt to make up for the drug lord’s crimes. These included making public statements in the press, leaving letters on the graves of his victims and, on the twentieth anniversary of his death, organizing a public memorial for his victims. Escobar’s body was exhumed on October 28, 2006 at the request of some of his relatives to take a DNA sample to confirm the alleged paternity of an illegitimate child and remove all doubt about the identity of the body found next to his parents had been buried. for 12 years. A video of the exhumation was broadcast by RCN, angering Marroquín, who accused his uncle, Roberto Escobar , and cousin, Nicolas Escobar, of being “merchants of death” by broadcasting the video.
Hacienda Nápoles
After Escobar’s death, the farm, zoo and citadel of Hacienda Nápoles were given by the government to low-income families under a law called Extinción de Dominio (Domain Extinction). The property has been converted into a theme park surrounded by four luxury hotels overlooking the zoo.
Escobar Inc
In 2014, Roberto Escobar co-founded Escobar Inc with Olof K. Gustafsson and registered the rights of successor-in-interest to his brother Pablo Escobar in California, United States.
Hippos
Escobar kept four hippos in a private menagerie at Hacienda Nápoles. They were deemed too difficult to grab and move after Escobar’s death, and were therefore left behind on the unkempt estate. By 2007, the animals had multiplied to 16 and had begun roaming the area in search of food in the nearby Magdalena River. In 2009, two adults and a calf escaped from the herd and after attacking people and killing livestock, one of the adults (named “Pepe”) was killed by hunters with permission from local authorities. In early 2014, there were reportedly 40 hippos in Puerto Triunfo, in the Antioquia department, of the original four belonging to Escobar. Without management, the population size is likely to more than double in the next decade.
The National Geographic Channel produced a documentary about them titled Cocaine Hippos. A report published in a Yale student magazine notes that local environmentalists are campaigning to protect the animals, although there is no clear plan for what will happen to them. In 2018, National Geographic published another article on the hippos, which found that there was disagreement among environmentalists over whether they had a positive or negative impact, but that conservationists and locals – especially those in the tourism industry – were largely in favor were of their constant presence.
By October 2021, the Colombian government had begun a program to chemically sterilize the animals.
Apartment demolitions
On February 22, 2019, at 11:53 a.m. local time, Medellín authorities demolished the six-story Edificio Mónaco apartment building in the El Poblado neighborhood, where, according to retired Colombian general Rosso José Serrano, Escobar planned some of his most brutal attacks .
The building was originally built for Escobar’s wife, but was destroyed by a Cali Cartel car bomb in 1988 and has remained vacant ever since, becoming an attraction for foreign tourists seeking Escobar’s physical legacy. Mayor Federico Gutierrez had pushed for the building to be razed and a park built in its place to honor the thousands of cartel victims, including four presidential candidates and some 500 police officers. Colombian President Ivan Duque said the demolition “means that history will not be written in terms of the perpetrators, but through the recognition of the victims,” hoping that the demolition would show that the city has evolved significantly and is more has to offer than the legacy that remains. by the cartels.
Private life: Family and relationships
In March 1976, 26-year-old Escobar married María Victoria Henao, who was 15. The relationship was discouraged by the Henao family, who considered Escobar socially inferior; the couple fled. They had two children: Juan Pablo (now Sebastián Marroquín) and Manuela.
In 2007, journalist Virginia Vallejo published her memoir Amando a Pablo, odiando a Escobar (Loving Pablo, Hating Escobar), in which she describes her romantic relationship with Escobar and her lover’s ties to various presidents, Caribbean dictators and high-ranking dictators. profile politicians. Her book inspired the film Loving Pablo (2017).
A drug distributor, Griselda Blanco, is also said to have had a clandestine but passionate relationship with Escobar; Several entries in her diary associate him with the nicknames “Coque de Mi Rey” (My Coke King) and “Polla Blanca” (White Rooster).
Properties
After becoming wealthy, Escobar created or purchased numerous residences and safe houses, with the Hacienda Nápoles gaining considerable fame. The luxury home featured a colonial house, a sculpture park and a complete zoo with animals from different continents, including elephants, exotic birds, giraffes and hippos. Escobar also planned to build a Greek-style citadel nearby, and although construction of the citadel had begun, it was never completed.
Escobar also owned a home in the US under his own name: a 6,040-square-foot pink waterfront mansion located at 5860 North Bay Road in Miami Beach, Florida. The four-bedroom estate, built in 1948 on Biscayne Bay, was seized by the US federal government in the 1980s. The dilapidated building later became the property of Christian de Berdouare, owner of the fast food chain Chicken Kitchen, who bought it in 2014. De Berdouare would later hire a documentary film crew and professional treasure hunters to search the building before and after demolition. , for everything related to Escobar or his cartel. They found unusual holes in floors and walls, as well as a safe stolen from the hole in the marble floor before it could be properly examined.
Escobar also owned a huge Caribbean retreat on Isla Grande, the largest of the cluster of 27 coral cluster islands that form Islas del Rosario, about 35 km from Cartagena.
The site, now half-demolished and overrun by vegetation and wildlife, contained a mansion, apartments, courtyards, a large swimming pool, a helicopter landing pad, reinforced windows, tiled floors and a large but unfinished building to the side of