Pablo Escobar
Pablo Escobar |
|---|
Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria (December 1, 1949 – December 2, 1993) gained world infamy as a Colombian drug lord. Escobar became so wealthy in the drug trade that in 1989 Forbes magazine had listed him as the seventh richest man in the world. He is widely considered to be one of the most brutally ruthless, ambitious and powerful drug dealers in history.
Life
Pablo Escobar began his criminal life as a teenage car thief and allegedly a tombstone robber[citation needed] in the streets of Medellín, Colombia (Escobar denied ever stealing tombstones). He eventually moved into the cocaine business and began building an enormous drug empire during the 1970s. During the peak years, it was alleged that he personally earned as much as two million dollars a day from drug trafficking[citation needed].
During the 1980s, Escobar became known internationally as his drug network gained notoriety; El Cartel de Medellín is said to have controlled a large portion of the drugs that entered into the United States, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic with cocaine brought mostly from Peru and Bolivia, as Colombian coca was initially of substandard quality. Escobar's product reached many other nations, mostly around the Americas, although it is said that his network reached as far as Asia.
Escobar bribed countless government officials, judges and other politicians, and he often personally executed uncooperative subordinates and had anyone he viewed as a threat assassinated. Corruption and intimidation characterized the Colombian system during Escobar's heyday. He had an effective, inescapable strategy that was referred to as plata o plomo; Spanish for money1 or lead, intended to mean "accept a bribe or face assassination." He was responsible for the killing of three Colombian presidential candidates who were all competing in the same election, as well as the bombing of Avianca Flight 203 and a Bogotá security building in 1989. Some analysts argue he was behind the 1985 storming of the Colombian Supreme Court by left-wing guerillas, which resulted in the murder of half the judges on the court. The Cartel de Medellín was also involved in a deadly drug war with its main rival, the Cartel De Cali, for most of its existence.
At the height of his empire, Escobar was estimated by Forbes magazine to be the seventh-richest man in the world2, with his company Medellín Cartel controlling 80 percent of the world's cocaine market. His organization had fleets of planes, boats, and expensive vehicles. Vast properties and tracts of lands were also controlled by the cartel under Escobar due to the almost limitless influx of cash during this period. Estimates are that the Medellín cartel was taking in up to $25 billion annually at its zenith.
While seen as an enemy of the United States and Colombian governments, Escobar was a hero to many in Medellín; he was a natural at public relations and he worked to create goodwill among Colombia's poor. A lifelong sports fan, he was credited with building soccer stadiums and sponsoring little league soccer teams in the city. He worked hard to cultivate his Robin Hood image and frequently distributed money to the poor. The population of Medellín often helped Escobar by serving as lookouts, hiding information from the authorities, or doing whatever else they could do to protect him.
In 1991, after declaring an end to a series of previous violent or terrorist acts meant to pressure authorities and public opinion, Escobar turned himself in to the Colombian government in order to avoid extradition to the United States or assassination by a rival cartel. Escobar was "jailed" in his own luxurious private prison, La Catedral, which he was allowed to build for his confinement in return for turning himself in. He negotiated an agreement with the Colombian government whereby he would be jailed for a mandatory five-year sentence and guaranteed no extradition to the United States. However, his "prison" was actually more of a country-club fortress, and he showed little regard for the sanctity of his sentence there. There have been allegations, many of them unconfirmed, that he was often seen outside of the jail: shopping in Medellín or at parties, soccer games, and other public places. After an account appeared in the local media showing photos of his lavish jail/residence and claiming that he had murdered several business associates (the Moncada brothers) when they came to meet him at La Catedral, public opinion forced the government to act. When the government attempted to move Escobar to another jail on July 22, 1992, he escaped, fearing that he would be extradited to the United States.
In 1992, United States Delta Force operators (and later Navy SEALs from SEAL Team Six) joined the all-out manhunt for the escaped kingpin. They trained and advised a special Colombian police task force, known as the Search Bloc, which had been created to locate Escobar and bring him to justice. Later, as the conflict between Escobar and United States and Colombian governments dragged on and the numbers of his enemies grew, a vigilante group known as Los Pepes (People Persecuted by Pablo Escobar), financed by Carlos Castaño, carried out a bloody campaign fuelled by thirst for vengeance in which more than 300 of Escobar's associates and relatives were slain and large amounts of his cartel's property was destroyed.
Some observers claim that members of the Search Bloc, and also of Colombian and United States intelligence agencies, in their efforts to find and punish Escobar, either colluded with Los Pepes or would have been moonlighting as both Search Bloc and Los Pepes simultaneously. This coordination would be conducted mainly through sharing intelligence in order to allow Los Pepes to bring down the organizational mountain that protected Escobar and his few remaining allies, but there are reports that some individual Search Bloc members may have directly participated in missions of the Los Pepes death squads. This brings into question the role the United States played in gathering intelligence on Escobar's organization, because some of it was later used by the Los Pepes organization in its crusade of summary executions. One of the leaders of Los Pepes was Diego Murillo (also known as "Don Berna", a former Medellín Cartel associate who became a drug kingpin and eventual leader of one of the most powerful factions within the AUC), who would have admitted to exchanging information with United States and Colombian agents. Don Berna currently takes part in the AUC negotiations with the government in San Ralito.[1] The level of awareness that United States authorities had regarding this sort of situation and the question of which, if any, would have been the proper reaction to it has occasionally been a matter of debate.
The war against Escobar ended on December 2, 1993, as he tried to elude the Search Bloc one more time. Using radio triangulation technology provided as part of the United States efforts, a Colombian electronic surveillance team found him hiding in a middle-class barrio in Medellín. A shootout between Escobar and the Search Bloc personnel ensued. Accordingly, how Escobar was killed during the confrontation has been debated, but it is known that he was cornered on the rooftops of Medellín and suffered gunshots to the leg, back, and the fatal one behind his ear by members of Colombian National Police. Also speculated around the death of Pablo Escobar was that a sniper from the US Army's Delta Force shot him behind the ear.
After Escobar's death, the Medellín Cartel fragmented and the cocaine market soon became dominated by the rival Cali Cartel, until the mid-1990s when its leaders, too, were either killed or captured by the government.
Media depictions
The cut-throat business nature of Escobar is depicted in 2001 drama film Blow (film) in which Escobar becomes a business contact of the main character George Jung.
The hunt for Escobar was documented in Mark Bowden's book Killing Pablo. A TV movie based on the book was titled The True Story of Killing Pablo[2], and a motion picture based on this book is scheduled for release sometime in 2007 [3]. Bowden has been criticized for providing what some consider a one-sided, jingoistic account however.
In addition, the plot and characters of the Tom Clancy novel Clear and Present Danger (and subsequent motion picture of the same name) are similar, featuring a Colombian drug lord named "Ernesto Escobedo"
Notes
- Note 1: In Spanish-speaking countries in South America, plata, which literally means silver is used as a colloquial expression for money.
- Note 2: This list only includes individuals who are alive at the time of publication. Pablo Escobar is no longer listed in it.
Trivia
- In the HBO series Entourage, the main character Vincent Chase seeks the lead role in "Medellin", a life story of Pablo Escobar.