21 years ago, 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 3rd child in a poor family, his fate has a lot of dramatic episodes, his path cannot be called righteous. Today we will tell you how a Colombian boy turned into the most influential person not only in Latin America, but in the entire 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 begin to terrorize entire cities and even countries. His name will scare politicians, law enforcement officials and international organizations. In the meantime, he was an average child who loved to wander around the streets of large cities. His native Rionegro could not boast of outlandish sights, so Pablo rushed 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 didn’t drink alcohol or smoke cigarettes, but bad company taught him to smoke Colombian hemp, and he carried this bad habit and addiction throughout his life, trying not to go too far and not ruin himself with harder drugs.
The need to have his own money forced the guy to resort to tricks. The parents could not afford to support their unemployed son, so he was denied pocket money. Pablo had no intention of going to work. For what? The mood in the poor neighborhoods of Medellin made it clear that there was no way to earn money through honest work. In this city, 90% of the population worked their butts off, but at the same time they could not climb out of the abyss of poverty. Young Escobar did not wish such a fate for himself. I had to start making easy money. The first crimes on the account of the future drug lord were the theft of tombstones 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 make a living by stealing expensive cars and reselling them for spare parts. But this quickly became boring for the new gang. Now they offered protection against car theft to owners of expensive cars. If they refused, then not even a day would pass before the car disappeared in an unknown direction.
And how do you think the local population treated a person from poor neighborhoods? Yes, they idolized the new gangster. Pablo was involved in extortion, kidnapping and murder of wealthy residents of Medellin, and at the same time did charity work. At the age of 22, he was already considered the city's main crime boss. He stole from the rich and built new houses for the poor. He understood perfectly well that you cannot be hated by all people, otherwise you will not remain at the top. And besides, he did not forget his roots. He is a poor man who in a few years became a real rich man. Colombian Robin Hood.
Drug lord
As soon as Pablo became king of Medellin, it seemed to him that this was not enough. He wanted all of Colombia. And so it happened. He controlled the entire drug trafficking of the country, not limited to hemp. Cocaine is what allowed him to skyrocket. Or rather, cocaine and entering the American market. The transshipment point in the Bahamas received, sorted and shipped tons of lethal powder to the states every day. And Escobar watched all this.
By the end of the 70s, Pablo owned 80% of all drug trafficking in the United States, and you can’t even imagine how angry this was with the local crime bosses. Those undesirable were quickly removed, and those who remained helplessly followed orders from above, baring their teeth at the back of the Colombian tycoon. Against the background of all these frauds, the work of law enforcement agencies and state authorities is completely invisible. What could they do? Put this criminal behind bars. But how? Pressure on the investigation, bribery of witnesses, murder of judges and heads of police stations - this is what the fight against Escobar has become. He was the king of North and South America, his power knew no bounds. It was possible to stop him only with the help of internal intrigues within the criminal family and the subsequent elimination of the “Colombian Robin Hood”. Everything was going that way.
“There is nothing more valuable than a promise made, and 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 got tired of coming up with machinations to bypass the Colombian government; in order to get rid of this thorn, it was necessary to penetrate the government itself and do its business from there. Having become the deputy congressman of the department, Pablo began to aim for the post of president of the country. Politicians did not like this at all, and an active campaign began against bringing to the leadership of the country a person who had profited from cocaine dollars. The officials understood that if early elections happened, Escobar would be elected by the poor, whom he groomed and cherished, built infrastructure for them and accepted all their complaints about the arbitrariness of the rich. But dissatisfied politicians and officials quickly came to their senses when, one after another, the main protagonists of their protest began to die - Rodrigo Lara Bonia, Carlos Valencia, Waldemar Franklin Contero.
A wave of terror named after Pablo Escobar swept across the country; it was in those days that he lost the support of ordinary people, because many innocent fellow citizens died during terrorist attacks. While officials settled into their holes with bated breath and nervous tics, the time has come for the government to act as a 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 never know which bullet will kill you. After all, names are not written on bullets.”
Pablo Escobar
Things got even worse for him when the US government received the right to extradite the gangster, which meant that Pablo faced the death penalty. Having agreed with the Colombian government to plead guilty to several minor offenses, Escobar ended up in prison, which became a resort for him. Visitors constantly came to him, he invited girls to his place, played football, and went to a disco. In general, this was not the place where the criminal was imprisoned; he rested there and at the same time conducted the affairs of his empire. The Colombian authorities, having seen enough of this outrage, decided to transfer Pablo to a real prison. True, they did not have time to implement the plans - he escaped.
“America is two hundred million idiots led by one million special agents.”
Pablo Escobar
In his freedom, the drug lord did not have everything so smoothly: an enormous number of enemies from other criminal groups, constant persecution 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 roofs of houses. But it was not there. One of the Los Pepes members, a sniper, wounded the drug lord in the leg, after which he collapsed to the ground. Then there was a shot in the back, and, going down, the shooter finished off the criminal with a shot in the head.
“Death cannot be deceived, but you can make friends with it.”
Pablo Escobar
This is how the Colombian Robin Hood ended his journey, who was actually executed by the very people about whom he had so feignedly cared all his life. People like Pablo Escobar don't live long and happy lives. But they remember them, they remember them well. Especially remembered by those whose relatives died from his senseless and merciless terrorist attacks.
Manuela Escobar Eneo(Spanish: Manuela Escobar Henao) - the daughter of one of the most famous and brutal criminals in history, a Colombian drug lord (Spanish: Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria; 12/01/1949 - 12/02/1993).
Today everyone calls her Juana, Juana Manuela Marroquin Santos(Spanish: Juana Manuela Marroquin Santos). Almost nothing else is known about her, only what kind of child she was before the death of the leader of the famous Medellin Cartel. Even her photos taken after 1993 were removed from all open sources.
No one knows exactly what kind of inheritance the drug mafia leader left to the family: we are talking about surviving real estate in different countries of South America, since the Colombian estates were burned or looted, and all assets were confiscated. Presumably, she, his beloved, became the heir to Escobar’s entire fortune, which was estimated at $20 billion on the day of his death. daughter Manuela.
Happy childhood
Manuela Escobar was born on October 6, 1984 in the city of Brownsville (USA, Texas). According to the recollections of some people close to their family, all these short years she grew up as a happy, carefree and spoiled child, she was the center of attention, a little princess for her father.
It is difficult to imagine that a man who in the minds of most people is associated with cruelty, without pity, all-consuming greed and fear, became so loving and gentle with his daughter.
She adored her father, he loved her so much that he was ready to fulfill all her desires, fulfill any whim. Whether it's a living giraffe or a cartoon character. Everything was very simple: if Manuela wanted something, she certainly got it!
One day a girl asked to give her a unicorn. Escobar bought a horse and ordered a cardboard cone in the shape of a horn to be stapled to its head. Wings were also sewn to the horse's back, as a result of which the animal died from an infection.
Escobar did not feel sorry for any money for the sake of his daughter; when her baby tooth fell out, the “tooth fairy” left a suitcase with $1 million near her crib, supposedly in exchange for her tooth. And when a girl asked her father how many billions he had, Pablo always answered her: “As much as the look of your eyes is worth, my princess!” They say that Escobar forced one of his mistresses, who became pregnant by him, to have an abortion only because the drug lord promised Manuela that she would always be his only daughter.
Mother and son were sent to an Argentine prison for 15 months. It is noteworthy that they spent longer “behind bars” than Pablo himself ever did. After this period, due to insufficient evidence, they were released.
From that moment on, the girl’s life changed dramatically again. Everyone found out who she was, what her real name was, and why she and her family ended up in Buenos Aires.
Only now, at the age of 16, did the girl find out what her father really did, because her family always hid the truth from her! For Juana Manuela this was a serious blow, because for her dad had always been the kindest and noblest person in the world.
Manuela Escobar a few weeks after her father's death
Since then, she has completely closed herself off from the public, plunging into melancholy and loneliness. She became a very withdrawn girl and practically stopped communicating with friends. She refused to return to school and almost never went outside, studying at home with private teachers.
Since 2000, practically nothing more is known about her. Since then, only the only photo, proving her physical existence, where she is depicted next to her mother and brother.
Unlike his older brother, Juan Pablo, now known as Juan Sebastian Marroquin Santos(Spanish: Juan Sebastian Marroquín Santos), who is actively involved in social activities, Manuela Escobar still prefers to remain in the shadows.
"Close your eyes, Princess"
In 2007, 14 years after Pablo's death, an Argentine journalist Jose Alejandro Castaño(Spanish: José Alejandro Castaño) allowed him to practice journalism by living for 20 days with Escobar's widow and son in their home in Buenos Aires. He also saw Juan Manuela several times.
Pablo Emilio Escobar is a notorious Colombian drug lord and leader of one of the most powerful criminal organizations the world has ever seen. At the peak of power in the 1980s, he turned his drug cartel into a real empire, which terrified not only competitors, but also entire states, and its field of activity extended over the entire globe. According to contemporaries, Escobar made billions of dollars from drug trafficking, kidnappings and contract killings, and under his command was an army of soldiers recruited from hardened criminals and equipped no worse than many national armies of that time.
But despite his wide field of activity, Pablo Escobar still went down in history under the title “King of Cocaine” or, if closer to the original, “King of Coke.” So far, no one has managed to surpass him in the scale of cocaine trafficking. According to US intelligence agencies, more than 80% of the total volume of cocaine smuggling in the world was carried out by Escobar and his cartel. According to the full inventory, which was carried out after the collapse of the Medellin cocaine cartel and the elimination of its key players, the net value of all assets, as well as movable and immovable property, amounted to about $30 billion! And caches of money and jewelry hidden in houses that once belonged to Escobar are periodically discovered today.
Childhood and early years of the future “King of Coke”
Young Pablo EscobarPablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria was born on December 1, 1949 in the small Colombian town of Rionegro in the family of a modest peasant and a school teacher. According to the recollections of those who were familiar with this quite respectable family, young Pablito was an ambitious boy and dreamed of a political career, and he even told all his friends and family that he wanted to become president. However, the unenviable financial situation of the family obviously put an end to these endeavors, and the boy, despite his age, understood this very well. Driven by the desire for a better life, he followed the path of the legendary Colombian “banditos”, about whom numerous legends were then formed. This is how the criminal career of the future “King of Coke” began. Pablo Escobar made his first money by reselling tombstones stolen from local cemeteries. Finding this work too difficult and thankless, he soon moved on to petty street theft and car theft. Here the young criminal made his first important contacts, which helped him get a job in a more serious business - smuggling contraband. Possessing an extraordinary mind and a natural commercial spirit, he quickly established a business and took a strong position in the smuggling cigarette market.
According to historians, it was this period of his life that became the very training ground that tempered Escobar and gave him the experience and skills for his further development as the future king of the drug mafia.
Medellin is the city where the career of the “King of Coke” began Already by 1971, Escobar led a large gang, which was put together from people from the city of Medellin, where the future drug lord now spent most of his time. Along with smuggling cigarettes, they engaged in murders and kidnappings. So, in the same 1971, Escobar and his assistants kidnapped and killed one of the largest Colombian industrial magnates, Diego Echevario. Interestingly, the local residents, most of whom were poor peasants, expressed great gratitude to Escobar and gave him full support, despite the cruelty with which the crime was committed. He devoted himself entirely to expanding his smuggling business and taking over the local drug market, which was then controlled by the Chileans.
The Making of an Empire - Plata o Plomo
The next bright episode of his life occurred in 1976, when, on the orders of Escobar, the police officer and the judge who issued a warrant for his arrest were eliminated. This happened after he was caught smuggling almost 40 pounds (18 kg) of cocaine. Shortly before, a local drug lord named Fabio Restrepo was killed on Pablo's orders, and Escobar took his place, joining forces with three other influential drug traffickers and creating the famous Medellin cocaine cartel. According to the CIA, he took about 80% of the total cocaine turnover in the world, subjugating almost all competitors and imposing a 25-30% “tax” on them. At the same time, the cartel actually turned into a mini-state with its own intelligence service, armed forces, research laboratories, and even an air and submarine fleet. This was a unique phenomenon, since before Escobar no one had ever used submarines for systematic drug smuggling.
Young Escobar with his wife Thus, by the beginning of the 80s, Pablo Escobar became perhaps the most influential person in Colombia, in fact having complete control over all government bodies, including local authorities, congress, police and courts. Thanks to this, despite the obvious criminal origin of his wealth, no official claims were made against Escobar.
Photo taken in one of the Medellin police stations, August 12, 1981 However, many simply had no choice, because, taking advantage of the weakness of the state machine, Escobar acted rudely and harshly, giving his victims an ultimatum: “Silver or lead” (“Plata o Plomo”). Simply put, those who did not want to take money and provide assistance died a difficult and painful death. Soon there were practically no people left willing to resist. In 1982, Escobar was elected to the Colombian Congress. Since then, he has actually concentrated economic, criminal and political power in the country in his hands, almost realizing his childhood dream.
Going underground and the Great Terror
However, Escobar's triumph did not last long. By January 1984, Justice Minister Rodrigo Bonia managed to expel the odious congressman from parliament, and then Escobar, who had been deprived of a significant amount of political power and, most importantly, the dream of the presidency, organized large-scale terror to show who the real master of Colombia was. . The first step was to eliminate the main culprit in Escobar's exclusion from politics - Rodrigo Bonia, who was shot in his car. After this event, the failed politician and part-time bloodiest gangster in Colombia was placed on the “Most wanted” list, and the police received an official warrant for his arrest.
Once underground, Escobar was no longer shy in choosing methods to counter his opponents and began to openly support the terrorist group Los Extraditables. Over the next two years, they managed to send to the next world more than five hundred police officers alone, while the total number of victims was in the thousands. Their number included both competitors and public figures, journalists and everyone else who dared to stand in the way of the drug mafia.
The point of no return and the decline of the empire
By this time, the cartel’s excesses began to plague not only the Colombians, but also their closest neighbors, and the scale of Escobar’s activities caused concern even in the United States, which was literally flooded with cheap cocaine from Colombia. The administration of President Reagan acted decisively and an agreement on cooperation and joint fight against drugs was quickly signed between the two countries, which had one important point - all caught drug lords must be extradited to the United States to serve their sentences there. At first, corrupt and intimidated officials, under pressure from bandits, tried to push a law banning this treaty through the Supreme Court, but Colombian President Vergilio Barco vetoed it, and the all-out fight against the drug cartels was continued with renewed vigor. As a result of this, Escobar lost his right hand man, Carlos Lehder, and several other loyal assistants. The Medellin cocaine cartel suffered significant damage, and the drug lord's revenge for this turned out to be truly terrible.
Pablo Escobar with his son in front of the White House After an unsuccessful attempt to conclude a truce with the country's authorities in exchange for guarantees of non-extradition to the United States, Escobar ordered his hitmen to execute politician Luis Galan, who demanded that the government take even tougher measures against drug cartels, Chief Justice Carlos Valencia and police colonel Voldemar Contero. Between 16 and 18 August 1989, all three were killed.
But this was not enough for Escobar. Reveling in his power and impunity, he, with the help of Los Extraditables, carried out 7 terrorist attacks that claimed the lives of 37 people (about 400 more people were maimed). Next (November 27, 1989), on the orders of Escobar, a plane with more than a hundred passengers on board was blown up. And although the drug lord’s main target was Cesar Trujillo, the future president of Colombia (by coincidence, he never flew on this flight), this method was chosen deliberately to create even more fear in the Colombian government and force it to make a deal.
A week later, Escobar's hitmen made an attempt on the life of secret police chief Miguel Marquez. The method of murder was also chosen to be as bloody as possible - bombing. As a result, 62 people were killed and about a hundred were injured. But by doing this, Escobar caused a completely opposite effect - if before these events there were still many people in the corridors of power who wanted to come to an agreement, then after that he was already considered a dangerous terrorist and a real raid was launched on him.
As a result of just one of the operations, the government confiscated nearly a thousand mansions and farms, 710 cars, 367 planes, 73 boats and more than 1,200 weapons. A large consignment of cocaine weighing 4.7 tons, already being prepared for sale, was also seized.
But, according to historians, Escobar made one of his most unforgivable mistakes later, when he began to compensate for losses, trying to impose a huge tribute on the cartels under his control and take away the share of competitors, mercilessly exterminating them. If initially Escobar’s “tax” was 25–30%, he tried to increase it to 65–70%, losing many loyal allies.
Rare photograph of the smiling "King of Coke" The final nail in the coffin of the empire of the “cocaine king” was driven by the war with the Cali drug cartel. Escobar tried to behead him, killing one of the leaders. But the killer failed to cope with the task, and in response, the “Cali” cartel dealt with Escobar’s cousin, Gustavo Gaviria. The cartel war that followed these events, although it claimed the lives of many innocent people, weakened the groups so much that Escobar found himself practically pinned against the wall and was forced to surrender.
La Catedral - Escobar's last hope
One can only guess how much money was entered into the right offices, but Pablo Escobar's lawyers managed to do the impossible. The fugitive, surrounded on all sides, not only was not killed during detention or executed by his competitors (after recent events, many of them dreamed of trying on a “Colombian tie” on Escobar), but also surrendered on his own terms, having negotiated a ban on extradition to the United States from the Colombian government . In 1991, he was solemnly escorted to the La Catedral prison, which was built by him and, in fact, was a luxurious and well-fortified castle.
Inside La Catedral there were gardens and decorative waterfalls, and the “prisoner” spent his free time in casinos, spa centers, bars and a nightclub, which were located right on the prison grounds. However, if he wanted, Escobar could easily go to the city if he wanted to attend a cinema or a football match. He also retained most of his “business” by conducting telephone negotiations through reliable people.
Moreover, having accumulated strength, Escobar even continued to attack competitors and insufficiently loyal partners. The most intractable were brought to him at La Catedral, where he personally tortured the unfortunates in specially equipped torture chambers. Moreover, according to the agreement, neither the police nor the army had the right to even approach the prison territory.
Escobar's fatal mistake, escape and death
If Escobar had shown a little more foresight, he had every chance of becoming the so-called eminence grise and reaching a whole new level. His money and connections were more than enough to partially bring his “business” out of the shadows, creating a cover for it in the form of legal companies engaged in the production of various kinds of goods. This is exactly what Escobar’s wiser and less greedy and arrogant competitors did. The latter was accustomed to absolute power and did not want to part with it, which ultimately led to his death.
Having learned that the situation in Colombia had not changed at all, and that the drug lord who had caused so much trouble was continuing his business on the same scale, the US government was furious and put hard pressure on the President of Colombia, demanding that the criminal be immediately extradited to the United States. And on July 22, 1992, such an order was issued. But Escobar was already aware of this and calmly left his “prison”, hiding in one of the newly acquired mansions. An unprecedented sum of $10 million was placed on his head at that time. Even the president of the country would have to work at least two centuries to earn that much money.
Despite the fact that Pablo Escobar was again in a state of siege, now his affairs were not so bad. And although he again incurred the wrath of the government, lost the support of a significant part of his allies and stirred up old grievances of his competitors, he had one important advantage - the absolute support of the ordinary population, which Escobar generously “fed” for many years. Therefore, he had no problems finding new workers and fighters for his personal army. But the “cocaine king” finally lost it too, having made the mistaken decision to repeat the great terror of the late 80s.
Thinking that he would again be able to intimidate the government and persuade it to cooperate, Pablo Escobar again began a merciless massacre. On January 30, 1993, he organized an explosion in Bogota, which killed more than two dozen people and seriously injured more than 70. And, worst of all, most of the victims were parents with children from ordinary working families. This terrorist attack completely ruined Escobar’s reputation and deprived him of the support of the poor class, and the title “King of Coke” was replaced by a less euphonious one - “Child Killer.” From that moment on, the days of the greatest of drug lords were numbered.
In addition to the police, competitors and embittered former associates, Escobar began to be threatened by a new enemy - the Los Pepes organization. If we translate this abbreviation name literally, it sounds like “people who suffered from Pablo Escobar.” Considering that due to the bloodthirstiness of the main boss of the Medellin drug cartel, more than 10 thousand people lost their lives, there were a lot of them. Each of the victims had relatives, friends and relatives who now thirsted for revenge.
Literally the next day after the bloody event in Bogota, Los Pepes found the place where Pablo Escobar was hiding and burned his house to the ground. After this, all the drug lord’s relatives and friends, as well as his closest associates, became the target of the hunt. Moreover, unlike the police, Los Pepes acted very cruelly, terrifying the bandits.
Participants in the raid on Escobar next to his body, December 2, 1993 The denouement came on December 2, 1993. The former “Cocaine King” and now the “Child Killer” was blocked in one of the houses in the Los Olibos quarter by joint teams of Colombian security forces, local police, Los Pepes and American agents from the NSA. The drug lord and his bodyguard still tried to shoot back, but this time the forces were unequal. Trying to escape, Escobar climbed onto the roof and was shot by a sniper.
The Escobar phenomenon
How did the famous drug lord, who in his cruelty could easily be compared with many bloodthirsty dictators of the 20th century, manage to remain free for so long, enjoying unprecedented support from the majority of the population? Historians believe that this phenomenon is associated with the exceptional talent for manipulation that Escobar possessed. He had a good feel for the socio-political situation that reigned in Colombia at that time and relied on the widest layer of the population - poor workers and farmers who were fleeced to the skin by commercial and industrial magnates and corrupt officials.
Escobar tried to create for himself the image of a “Colombian Robin Hood,” or the canonical “banditos” from urban legends, who robs the rich and gives gifts to the poor. He coped with this task brilliantly, buying the love of people in Medellin for many years. During this time, millions of dollars were spent on building parks, schools, sports stadiums, churches and even housing for the poor. His strategy worked and provided him with an endless supply of loyal servants, but only until the moment when he betrayed them too, making these people victims of his terror against the state.
The only ones to whom Escobar remained faithful until the very end were his wife Maria Victoria and children. He was always very kind and affectionate with them, trying to protect them from any dangers associated with his “profession.” According to the drug lord's son, Juan Pablo, one day he and his father had to flee home in a hurry to escape government agents and hide in the highlands for some time. Then, without much regret, he burned $2 million to light the fire and prepare hot food for those who were freezing.
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Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria is the most famous drug lord and terrorist from Colombia. He entered the world history textbooks as the most brutal 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).
Escobar earned an incredible fortune from selling cocaine; in 1989, Forbes magazine included him in the list of the richest people on the planet. With a capital of $25 billion, he took seventh place in 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 in Colombia after Bogota - Medellin - an entire quarter for the poor and more than ten football fields for children were built with his funds.
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 immediately decided for himself that in the future he would become the same “banditos”. No one could have imagined that after just a quarter of a century these naive childhood dreams would come true.
h2 Start of criminal activity
Pablo studied in a poor school, among children from the same poor 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 show up less and less in class. At the age of 16 he was expelled. Freed from school duties, Pablo Escobar embarked on a criminal path.
Pablo spent all his free time 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 stealing and reselling tombstones from local cemeteries. They soon moved on to more serious crimes - stealing luxury cars, which were then dismantled and sold for parts. Emboldened, Pablo Escobar even began offering car owners his patronage - 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 around him dozens of faithful assistants. Meanwhile, his gang's methods continued to become harsher and more disgusting.
El Patron
In 1971, when Escobar was 22 years old, his associates kidnapped a wealthy, disreputable landowner named Diego Echevario. They killed him after much torture and abuse. Local residents who worked for this industrialist perceived this act as heroism - they seriously hated Echevario. After this incident, among the poor he acquired the nickname “El Doctor” (in Spanish – “El Doctor”). Since then, Pablo Escobar began helping local poor people, spending his money to build inexpensive houses. He knew that in the future they would become a kind of human target between his gang and the state. Every day he became more popular.
Pablo Escobar's passport
Soon, Escobar's gang managed to intercept the production of cocaine from competitors from Chile. He was able to turn his trade into an incredibly successful business, with the help of which he earned a lot of money and became the biggest authority in the city. After some time, the activities of Pablo’s group expanded beyond Medellin. The daring El Doctor turned into the deadly "El Patron" (in Spanish - "El Patron") - the new nickname stuck with him until his death.
Cocaine business
Young hippies from America in the mid-1970s were already bored with marijuana. 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.
Still from the TV series Narcos. Pablo Escobar in front of a cocaine warehouse
With his animal cruelty, malice and tirelessness, El Pablo did not give his competitors a single chance to take a share of the drug trade market. As soon as Pablo learned about cases of criminal success among competition, he took away someone else’s business by force. Anyone who even indirectly tried to interfere with his activities went missing.
In just a few years of such aggressive business practices, Escobar's cartel began to run 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 profit went into his pocket.
Pablo Escobar had so much money that he did not have time to spend it - and he stopped perceiving the police and government power as a serious threat. So, in 1976, a drug lord was detained while attempting to illegally export a cocaine shipment. A couple of years later, the policeman who arrested him, along with the judge who issued the warrant for his arrest, 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 girl’s parents’ attempts to separate them, Escobar moved with her to Palmyra. In the spring of 1976, they formalized their relationship. Soon the drug lord's wife (who was only 14 years old at that time) gave birth to a son, Juan Pablo. More than three years after this, 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 deflower underage girls. According to 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 well-known journalist throughout Colombia, Virginia Vallejo. El Patron had a special connection with her - their romance lasted for 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 her life with Pablo Escobar, which became a bestseller.
Medellin cartel
In mid-1977, Pablo Escobar, along with several other major drug traffickers in Colombia, teamed up 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 whole world. To transport goods, the cartel used all possible means - even planes and submarines.
Pablo Escobar's authority has reached unprecedented heights. He easily bribed the police, courts, and officials. El Patron did not disdain blackmail. He was ready to do anything to achieve his goal,
Pablo Escobar's golden machine gun
Pablo spent part of his untold wealth on the construction of budget housing for the poor. The population reciprocated Escobar by electing him as a member of the National Congress of Colombia.
Not knowing where else to spend the money, Escobar bought everything he could get his hands on. His possessions included more than five hundred thousand hectares of land, more than thirty country residences, and 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 approximately 20 thousand hectares), he organized the largest zoo on the entire continent. Colossal sums were spent on delivering exotic animals here!
Political career
In early 1982, Pablo became a member of the Colombian Parliament. He seriously planned to become the president of the country.
Escobar was prevented from implementing his bold political plans by the Minister of Justice Rodrigo Lara Bonia, who organized a large-scale 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 football team
At the end of April 1984, Bonia's car was machine-gunned in the middle of Bogota's busiest street. This was the first time such an important Colombian politician was assassinated.
Terrorism
After the assassination of the minister, Escobar founded the terrorist organization Los Extraditables (in Spanish - Los Extraditables). Its members attacked politicians and law enforcement officers - anyone who refused to cooperate with Escobar.
People hired by El Patron captured the Palace of Justice in the center of the country along with several hundred people. The army managed to eliminate the terrorists, but more than a hundred innocent citizens died.
Consequences of the explosions organized by Escobar
In 1986, the country's authorities launched a large-scale operation to search for Jorge Luis Ochoa, one of the leaders of the Medellin cartel, who was offering a reward of $4 million 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 cocaine paste, about 50 tons of coca leaves, and 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 suffered at the hands of his people - including judges, journalists and police officers who did not want to cooperate with the cartel. On his orders, a plane with 107 passengers on board was blown up - with this operation, El Patron hoped to kill Cesar Gaviria, who was elected president of the country, but by luck he was unable to fly on 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 became involved in the capture of the criminal, and on June 19, 1991, Escobar was forced to surrender to the authorities. He admitted his guilt to only a couple of crimes - and then only on the condition that his punishment would be commuted.
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, a jacuzzi, a dance floor, a sauna and even a normal-size football field. The crime boss was constantly visited by friends, family and numerous lovers. Things reached the point of absurdity - Escobar could leave the prison at any time to visit brothels, restaurants and football matches.
"Prison" where Pablo Escobar was imprisoned
Despite his imprisonment, El Patron continued to lead 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 facility!
The death of Pablo Escobar - the end of the cocaine era
In July 1992, a drug lord escaped from prison. He behaved very carefully until December 1993, when he called his family and talked longer than expected. Thanks to this, the authorities were able to establish the location of Escobar.
Within an hour, his house was surrounded by law enforcement officers. Escobar didn’t even have time to come to his senses when they started knocking down the doors. Besides him, in the house there was his aunt and devoted assistant Alvaro, nicknamed Lemon (the police shot him first).
Climbing out the window, El Patron tried to escape from the police along the roofs of buildings. There he was shot - or he shot himself (the investigation was unable to establish the exact data). Law enforcement officers took the famous photo next to the corpse of the deceased crime boss - the photo of the bloody body with smiling police officers in the background appeared on the front pages of newspapers around the world. Thus ended an entire era of El Patron's rule.
Pablo Escobar was buried in the Montesacro cemetery in Medellin.
The largest drug lord in the history of mankind, Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria was born into a poor family in 1949. His teenage years were spent in poor neighborhoods of the city of Medellin, where ultra-left political views dominated and supported the Cuban Revolution. The influence of the street formed in the guy a hostile attitude towards the rich segments of the population, and it was then that a path began in his life, for which he and his close relatives would later have to pay harshly.
Theft
The most affordable money was tombstones from the city cemetery. Escobar erased the inscriptions on them and sold them to buyers from Panama. The income from such a trade was small, so in addition he began to sell marijuana. Possessing authority among those around him, he showed leadership abilities and created a group of like-minded people. The newly formed gang began to steal expensive cars, selling them for spare parts.
Colombian Robin Hood or Outlaw
Cocaine
Colombia was a poor country, but had an inexhaustible supply of vegetation containing cocaine. Cocaine bushes grew almost everywhere, and nearby there was an unlimited drug market - the USA.
In Colombia, the majority of the population lived below the poverty line, and in order to get rid of the feeling of hunger and find the strength to work, the local poor chewed the leaves of the Erythroxylum coca bush, which gave them strength for a while.
Escobar and his people decided to organize the sale of cocaine, acting as intermediaries in this matter. Buying cheap drugs from local manufacturers, they sold them at higher prices to American drug traffickers, and later they themselves began smuggling drugs into the United States.
Over the next 7 years of criminal activity, Escobar, teaming up with three other major drug traffickers, became the head of the most powerful Medellin cartel in the world. They used airplanes and even small submarines to distribute cocaine. A transshipment point was organized in the Bahamas, which included a pier, several gas stations and a hotel complex. His group was superior in numbers and weapons to the Colombian police. By 1979, the drug cartel was importing 80% of the total cocaine imported into the United States. Any other drug trafficker in Colombia could import drugs into the States at 35% of the cost.
Despite achieving unprecedented heights in the drug business and building the unshakable authority of the cocaine king, he continued to engage in charity work, which earned him the favor of the local population.
Family and love
At the beginning of building his empire, Pablo met a 15-year-old girl, Maria Victoria Henao Vallejo, with whom he began an affair. She subsequently became pregnant, but her parents were categorically against their marriage, wanting only happiness for their daughter and not seeing a happy future built on drugs and blood. In 1976, 3 months before the birth of the child, Escobar and Maria, despite their parents, got married. The born son was named Juan Pablo Escobar. A little over 3 years later, a daughter was born - Manuela Escobar Henao, whom her father simply adored.
Despite numerous extramarital affairs and even a serious affair with another woman, family came first for the drug lord, and his wife always supported him. Escobar himself was a caring father and husband, always tried to fulfill any wishes of his wife and children, and also paid a lot of attention to raising his son.
In an interview with RT, the son of a Colombian drug lord said that he grew up in the very epicenter of the drug trade and any drugs were available to him. And although almost everyone around him and even his bodyguard used them, only the upbringing of his father, who was able to convincingly explain the harm and consequences of drugs from the position of fatherly love, helped him resist the temptation.
Another bright personality was Pablo’s mistress, Virginia Vallejo Garcia. They met in 1983 and developed a very close relationship. They were the same age, but belonged to different social classes. While Escobar grew up poor and later built a drug empire, Virginia came from a wealthy and respected family. Her grandfather was the Colombian Ministry of Finance, and Vallejo received a prestigious education. Building her career, she rose from a simple journalist on local television to a board member of the ACL directors' association and subsequently got a job at the BBC. Under the patronage of her lover, she became the most popular TV star in the South American media industry.
According to unofficial data, Vallejo Garcia had an abortion. The motive for this was Pablo's promise to his daughter that she would be the only one.
Policy
Despite achieving unprecedented heights in the criminal business and building the absolute authority of the cocaine king, Pablo was engaged in charity work, which earned him the favor of local residents. Thanks to popular support, in 1982 he became a substitute congressman for Columbia. The drug lord's plans included taking the presidency, but he faced harsh condemnation and opposition from the Ministry of Justice of Lara Bonilla, who launched a campaign against investing “dirty” money in politics. As a result, the drug lord was expelled from Congress. Revenge was not long in coming, and 3 months later the minister was shot dead.
Terror
Even without access to the government, the drug lord's power in Colombia extended to all spheres of society. Officials, judges and police were bought, and those who tried to oppose were simply destroyed.
The situation worsened when the US President Reagan administration declared war on drugs. As a result, Colombia and the United States agreed to hand over drug lords to American justice. Police raids began across the country, many drug traffickers were detained, and some big bosses were handed over to American authorities. In response to this, the main Colombian drug lord created a terrorist organization - Los Extraditables. Armed militants attacked police stations, set up ambushes, and shot officials and judges. As a result, Colombia's Supreme Court overturned the extradition agreement. But the new president, Barco, blocked the court’s decision, renewing the agreements. Then serious persecution began on the part of the Colombian authorities, and one of the baron’s close associates was arrested. He himself was forced to go into hiding, and in 1989 he agreed to surrender in exchange for guarantees that he would not be extradited to the United States.
After the government refused to agree to the cartel's terms, a new wave of terror began. In a matter of days, the killers killed the chief judge, a police colonel and a well-known politician who was distinguished by his intransigence towards drug dealers. On the eve of the presidential elections, 7 explosions took place in 10 days in Bagota alone, killing 37 people and injuring almost 400. The explosion of an airplane caused a huge stir. On the orders of Pablo Escobar, a bomb was planted in a passenger Boeing of local airlines. The explosion killed more than 100 people. Falling plane debris also killed several people on the ground.
The government's response was new raids - arrests, destruction of coca plantations and secret drug laboratories. The war between the drug cartel and the government became widespread and the next step was two attempts to kill the head of the secret police. During the second attempt, a bomb explosion killed more than 60 people.
The government decided to create a special unit of the best police, military and intelligence agencies aimed at capturing the drug cartel. The group's action turned out to be effective. The drug lord's associates were detained one after another, but he himself escaped thanks to connections in the government and the support of the peasants. The next move of the drug cartel was the mass kidnapping of the richest people, and through their relatives pressure was exerted on the government. As a result, the extradition was cancelled.
Arrest
Having achieved the cancellation of extradition, Pablo decided to voluntarily surrender, but shortly before that he took care of his maintenance and specially built a prison with all the amenities - “La Catedral”. The arrest took place in 1991. Under a voluntary surrender agreement concluded with the government, he admitted to several minor crimes and was forgiven for the rest. The special unit was prohibited from approaching the prison closer than 3 km, and relatives and friends could visit him at any time.
La Catedral prison included a cultural and entertainment complex, a swimming pool, a sauna and a jacuzzi.
Being convicted, the baron often went to football matches and nightclubs, and the management of the drug business continued directly from prison. The government turned a blind eye, sighing with relief at the end of the terror. The showdown that took place within the cartel, during which two of his companions who robbed him were brought to Pablo’s prison for reprisals, outraged President Cesar Gaviria. He ordered the prisoner to be transferred to a real prison. Having learned about this, the drug lord fled.
At La Catedral, the cocaine king saw his family for the last time.
Bullying
A hunt was announced for Pablo. The Colombian authorities, together with the CIA, decided to eliminate the drug lord if possible upon arrest. In addition to the police, the military was involved in the case, as well as the rival Cali drug cartel. Los Pepes was also created, an organization that included people whose relatives suffered from the terrorist attacks. The organization burned estates that belonged to the drug lord and his relatives and terrorized everyone who had anything to do with his drug business.
Escobar's plans included declaring total war on all of Colombia and his enemies, but he was worried about the safety of his family. To free his hands, he decided to send them to Germany, but US intelligence agencies intervened and the plane with his relatives was turned around.
Death
In early December 1993, he made a telephone call to a family who were being held at the hotel as bait. Knowing that the intelligence services were waiting for this call, he continued the conversation for more than 5 minutes. As a result, the call was traced and the house was surrounded. During the shootout, the drug cartel was wounded by a sniper in the leg, the second shot was in the body, and the third was a control shot, the sniper fired in the head.
Funeral
Pablo Escobar is buried in the city of Itagui at the Monte Sacro cemetery. The funeral took place on December 3, 1993. More than 20 thousand Colombians came to the funeral, some to mourn and others to rejoice. During the funeral procession, the crowd tried to get closer to the coffin. As a result of the pandemonium that occurred, the coffin lid flew off, and thousands of hands reached out to touch the legend.
Family after the death of a drug lord
Escobar's wife and children now live in Argentina. The widow and children fled from persecution to Mozambique and wandered for some time in search of political asylum. Argentina sheltered them. The wife and children changed their surnames. Now their names are: wife - Maria Isabel Santos Caballero, daughter - Juan Manuela Marroquin Santos and son - Juan Sebastian Marroquin, although the drug cartel son recently returned his real name. Fate did not bring peace to the family in Argentina either; everyone had to pay for the sins of their father. At first, life began to improve, but it changed a lot. There was no more luxury, and the children began to study in a regular school.
Escobar's death was most difficult for his daughter. According to her mother, the girl slept in her father’s shirt for many years and kept a piece of his beard under her pillow.
The calm did not last long. In 2000, the baron's widow and son were arrested. They were charged with laundering money received from members of the Medellin cartel. As a result, they spent 15 months behind bars, and the trials lasted a total of 7 years. As a result, the charges were dropped.
There was no information about the girl from 2000 until 2007, until Argentine journalist Jose Alejandro Castaño spoke about her. Arriving at the widow's house, he happened to see her several times. Manuela has completely closed herself off from society and does not communicate with anyone.
The drug lord's mistress, Virginia, completely abandoned her TV career a year after his death. In 2006, she came to America and made a loud statement in which she accused four Colombian presidents of corruption. She also testified against former Justice Minister A. Santofimio. Only 5 years later, on the basis of her testimony, he was sentenced to 24 years in prison for organizing 4 murders. She also published a memoir, “Loving Pablo, Hating Escobar,” in which she revealed a love story and many facts from the life of the drug cartel. The book became a bestseller, and a film was made based on it, which will soon be released.
