PABLO ESCOBAR. ADMIRED OR HATED IN COLOMBIA

September 30, 2024

PABLO ESCOBAR, ADMIRED OR HATED IN COLOMBIA  By: Jaime Rincon

 

It is no secret that Pablo Escobar is perhaps the best-known Colombian character in the world and is the first thing many think of when Colombia is mentioned. Its history is fascinating, books have been written about him and also films, series and documentaries have been made, but what do Colombians think about it?

Before talking about the concept of Pablo Escobar that Colombians have, let's make a brief summary of this character's life, in case you are not clear.

Pablo was the leader of a drug trafficking organization known as the Medellín cartel, which was dedicated to exporting cocaine to the USA and other countries between the late 1970s until 1993, when he died. When he began trafficking drugs, he already had an extensive criminal “career,” based on theft of motorcycles, cars and banks and later, liquor and cigarette smuggling.

When the cartel managed todominate the cocaine market, he could amass a fortune so large that he was said to have been the richest man in the world. This allowed him to buy all kinds of luxuries, properties, eccentricities and even people. He bought a large part of the Colombian government, police and media to use them in his favor.

He also bought people and that is why we know of alleged favors and gifts that he gave to poor communities in the city of Medellín, such as the Pablo Escobar neighborhood, located on the mountain in the center-east of the city where he built hundreds of houses that were given to poor families. He was also responsible for the construction of sports fields and supporting various projects in the neighborhoods of Medellín and Envigado, the town where he grew up and which is part of the Medellín metropolitan area.

Until then everything sounds good and this is the part of the story that is highlighted in many of the series and stories that are told around the world, but this was just a strategy to gain the support and protection of the people who were left in debt. For example, many young men who received his favors were forced to grab a gun and a motorcycle and become part of his army of murderers, his “sicarios” or hitmen. Many were forced and others were simply attracted by money, which was abundant and brought power, luxury and women.

Many girls were taken for his doll collection, and for having dates with the drug trafficker, they received expensive gifts and large sums of money. Ambition took over the neighborhoods of Medellín and created a culture of easy money and total forgetfulness of human values; Life or dignity did not matter, as long as the pockets were full.

Thus, gang wars and shootings began to occur daily, due to competition to make it forward in the criminal organization. The dead were left out and the survivors climbed one more step.

Pablo's ambition had no limits and he even wanted to be the president of Colombia to have total control. This made him begin a political career, where through bribes, he won a position in the Congress of the Republic in 1982. It seemed like a great plan, when in reality it was their biggest mistake, because when a stranger appeared in Congress, the other politicians investigated where this character had come from and with what money he financed his campaign, which made them discover that among them there were a drug lord.

Thus Escobar went from being a congressman who supported social projects in Medellín, to a criminal wanted by justice so the persecution began.

Furthermore, another cartel was founded in the city of Cali that wanted the profits from drugs and this unleashed a war between the gangsters of Medellín and Cali. Murders increased and car bombs appeared.

The power of the drug traffickers was immense and they practically did whatever they wanted in the country, so the tool that the government had to scare them was the so-called “extradition treaty” with the USA, which consisted of sending any drug trafficker captured in Colombia to a prison in the USA, since they were also required by the justice system of that country. The men of the Medellín cartel did not like that and decided to declare war on Colombia, now placing their car bombs in public places in order to kill civilians, as a way to pressure the government to cancel the extradition. Furthermore, his hitmen murdered anyone who was contrary to them; They killed judges, ministers, presidential candidates, in addition to civilians who had nothing to do with the conflict.

This was a period of unlimited violence that peaked between 1988 and 1990. In several places in Colombia, but especially in Medellín, where people lived under fire. Every day, in addition to the shootings in the street, bombs extinguished the lives of dozens of people each time. Death was breathing down our necks at all times for the inhabitants of Medellín, who had to study or work and try to lead a life in the midst of this war.

At the end of the 90s, the situation became complicated for Escobar, when César Gaviria was elected president, whom he had tried to kill by exploding a plane in mid-flight, where the candidate was supposed to travel, but who did not board at the last minute. Gaviria formed an elite police group to pursue Pablo and with technology and intelligence of the DEA and CIA, they began major operations where they arrested or ended the lives of several members of the cartel.

Pablo felt surrounded and made a deal with the government, where he surrendered to justice on the condition that they would allow him to build his own prison, arguing that going to a normal prison would put him in great danger. The government accepted and so Pablo built his famous prison called “The Cathedral.”

He designed it himself and had it built in the place he knew best in the world, the Envigado mountain, south of Medellín. He controlled the guards and no one, not even the government, could enter there without his permission. Even the only images that were released of “The Cathedral” were photos taken from a long distance and that way, it did look like a prison.

In 1991 he moved there with other trusted men. For the innocent Colombians, everything seemed fine, until the truth became known:

Photos were published of celebrities at parties inside “The Cathedral”, which even had a nightclub. Professional soccer players were seen playing with Pablo on his professional soccer field. It was learned that part of the deal was to confess crimes in exchange for a reduced sentence, and although what he confessed was minimal and he did not even acknowledge the murders, his sentence was 5 years. In addition, he demanded to change the political constitution of Colombia so that the extradition of Colombians abroad was prohibited.

Colombia realized that everything was a theater staged so that the drug trafficker could avoid a prison in the USA and after living for 5 years in his mansion “The Cathedral”, he would remain free and unpunished. That is why the press and the people exerted great pressure for the government to correct its mistake and finally in 1992 they decided to transfer Pablo to a real prison.

At the same time that this was happening, an internal conflict began in the Medellín cartel, as Pablo demanded that his partners pay him a kind of tax for the trafficked drugs, even though he was no longer “working” as before. . The differences were so strong that they left several high-level drug traffickers dead, including Messrs. Galeano and Moncada, who were murdered inside “The Cathedral” and part of their bodies were served on plates during a BBQ so that other drug traffickers eat them without knowing what they were doing. Pablo Escobar reached this level of madness.

So much pressure caused the drug lord to escape from his luxury prison and go underground again, but unlike in the past, he did not have as much money, people, or power; Things were getting more and more difficult for him.

Finally, on December 2, 1993, one day after his 44th birthday, he was found in a house west of Medellín, where he was surrounded and finally fell dead, trying to escape on the roof of the house. The official version says that a police officer shot him and his family's version says that he committed suicide when he felt surrounded; in any case, that is where the life of the mythical drug lord ended.

Returning to our topic, and now knowing everything that Pablo Escobar caused in Colombia and especially in Medellín, what do you think is the concept of someone who lived through that time about this character? Could it be that Colombia remembers more the houses and soccer fields that Pablo gave or the dead and the bombs?

I am not going to directly answer the question so that you can draw your own conclusion, but I will give you tools to conclude:

Today, in the place where Escobar had his home for himself and his family, which was an 8-story mansion called “Mónaco Building” and which was a symbol of the power of drug trafficking, there is a memorial park called Inflection Park, dedicated to the victims of the drug lord, which are estimated to have been 46,612 dead. The name of the drug trafficker is nowhere to be found there, but there are the names of several of the brave people who defended Colombia from him and were murdered. There is also a wall with 46,612 holes, which look like bullet holes and which represent those who fell in this war.

It is also true that T-shirts and objects with Pablo's face are sold on the streets of Medellín and that Pablo Escobar tours are offered, but this is a way of taking advantage of the interest that foreigners show in the drug lord. It does not represent an admiration of the locals for Ecobar. Most of us do not agree with this and in fact, at this moment the Colombian congress is discussing a possible ban on the sale of these items.

Regarding Pablo Escobar's tour, it is something that at Kachay Colombia we do not do, out of respect for Medellín. As this is an important part of history, we do visit the Inflection Memorial Park on our Medellin city tour, but we consider that in addition to being unnecessary, that so called tour is a scam because the places visited are not worth it.

You are free to think in the way you prefer and if you want, you can do Pablo's tour and wear a t-shirt with his face on it, but it is good for you to know that for us Colombians it is talking about a period of time that left us with pain, trauma and bad reputation around the world. It is inevitable that many people arrive in Medellín eager to talk about Pablo Escobar, but in a short time they realize that there is much more here than remembering that character. It is not without reason that Medellín is the number 1 tourist destination in Colombia at this time and this is due to its kind people, art, beautiful places inside and outside the city, its gastronomy, innovation, among many other things. Let yourself be surprised by Medellín and leave behind the stereotype that the media has shown you.

I leave one final thought: would you go to New York with an Osama Bin Laden t-shirt? or would you start a conversation about Hitler while in Israel?