It's hard to imagine life in the heart of a criminal empire in Colombia. However, more recently, some 20-25 years old back, city Medellin in Colombia was the most dangerous city on the planet. This status was given to the city due to the fact that in those years the city was captured and was in power, expelled from the government, Pablo Escobar, a strange figure, but interesting from a historical point of view.
The life story of the world-famous eccentric Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar A ( full name: Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria, years of life: December 1, 1949 – December 2, 1993) to this day continues to attract the attention of many people around the world. A lot has already been written about him, and in 2014 another Feature Film « Lost heaven» With Benicio Del Toro V leading role. This film does not reflect even half of the horror in which the Colombians lived in those years.
Benicio Del Toro, "Paradise Lost"
During his lifetime, Pablo Escobar was ambitious and cruel man. Rivers of blood flow behind his deeds, with which the city of Medellin and its environs were washed for many years in a row. The Colombians who lived in Medellin in those years were simply afraid to live. The authorities were bribed by Escobar and worked for him, so ordinary Colombians had no protection from the terror staged by the most bloodthirsty drug lord of our time. In our time, the city of Medellin no longer poses a great danger. IN Lately more and more tourists can be seen on its streets. Russian emigrants also chose Medellin for its mild climate and convenient infrastructure.
On the Internet you can find information on excursions who are now in Medellin in the places of the odious drug lord. If you ask yourself, then such an excursion can be easily organized by yourself. So we decided to visit the most iconic places associated with the life of Pablo Escobar on our own.
To begin with, I will say that Colombians are not eager to remember and talk about Escobar, as many of them still remember the terrible time that they had to endure, and strive to forget it as soon as possible. This is understandable. It is probably even indecent to ask someone in Colombia about Pablo Escobar and the horrors of those days, especially in Medellin. Of course, the years fly by, and much is gradually erased from memory. For young Colombians, all this is already part of history.
Sometimes it seems to me that in their desire to forget the tyranny of the era of Pablo Escobar and his associates, the Colombians have now gone too far. I'm talking about how, every week from Wednesday to Sunday, the streets in Medellin are buzzing with the sounds of a fiesta. until 3 am. This was unimaginable in 80s of XX century. Everyone, as if, continues to rejoice at the Escobar regime that has sunk into the past, plunging into the abyss of endless fun. Medelliners massively arrange noisy parties in numerous restaurants and taverns of the city, forgetting, or simply ignoring those who want to sleep at night. If not for the legislative ban on the work of entertainment establishments until 3 hours nights in Colombia, they would probably walk around for days on end.
For me, this revelry is very similar to expression of joy for Hard times drug wars in Medellin led by Pablo Escobar ended. The remaining drug cartels have left the city and are hiding far away in the mountains and forests. Or maybe it's just a manifestation of another trait Colombian character- idleness and cheerful disposition. The first one that I clearly remember a feature of Colombians is an optional. To promise, to offer something and not to deliver is the norm of communications in many Latin American countries, but in Colombia we have come across this feature many times. At first it's annoying, then you get used to it and don't pay attention.
Echoes of that high-profile era of the drug cartels of the times of Pablo Escobar, which still continue to operate on the territory of Colombia, can be found now. So, at discos, in a crowd of vacationers, you can see people sniffing white powder, and it is legally allowed to carry some small dose of drugs with you, and for this there is no death penalty as in some Asian countries.
So, we started our excursion into the history of Medellin of those times from the end historical events we decided to visit cemetery Montesacro Gardens (Cementerio Jardines Montesacro) in Medellin, since Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria, his brother, parents and bodyguards who died with him are buried here.
The operation to search for and detain Escobar was carried out jointly with the American intelligence services and lasted more than a year. Pablo with his most devoted associates managed to hide from them for a long time. But one day he was calculated by phone call, he called his son the day after his 44th anniversary and made a serious mistake that cost him his life - he remained on the line 5 minutes.
In one of the following posts I will write more about the place where Pablo Escobar was killed.
To get to the cemetery Cementerio Jarnines Montesacro in Medellin, you need to take the metro to the station Itagui(on the blue line), and, not passing (attention here!) river Rio Medellin, on the footbridge to get out of the subway.
Itagui metro station on Google maps it is not marked at all where it actually is!
Subway station on google maps Itagui And Cementerio Jardines Montesacro are on different banks of the river. Rio Medellin, and if you look at the Google map, you will see that the cemetery Montesacro Gardens and metro station Itagui are very close to each other, and this is not true! In reality, from the metro to the cemetery is quite far (about 2-3 km).
A Google Maps mistake could cost someone a visit to Escobar's grave if you decide to visit it yourself.
There is still a real Itagüí metro station in Medellin on Google maps! It is not connected to any of the designated subway lines in the city, and is marked on the map as Metro Estacion Itagui. And the metro station itself Itagui and a cemetery Montesacro Gardens are on the same bank of the river Rio Medellin.
Itagui metro station is very close to the street Calle 50 in the place where Calle 50 goes across the river Rio Medellin.
So that you do not get lost, below I give detailed description of the route from the Itagüí metro station to the cemetery of Cementerio Jarnines Montesacro where Pablo Escobar is buried.
So, we leave the subway at the station Itagui, we don’t cross the river, but we go along Calle 50 in the opposite direction from the river to the street Autopista Del Sur(Sur Freeway, another name - Carrera 42) meters 200 .
at the crossroads and Calle 50 see metal bridge through Autopista Del Sur (Carrera 42), this is a footbridge. If you were walking along Calle 50, then here you need to turn left and, better, cross the street, since on the opposite side of the street there is a wide and convenient sidewalk. Along the street Autopista Del Sur (Carrera 42) from the subway Itagui there are no sidewalks at all in places, and you will have to walk along the side of the roadway with cars rushing along it at high speed. Therefore, let's move on. In addition, the cemetery itself will be on the same side.
Without turning anywhere, we go straight all the time. On the street Autopista Del Sur (Carrera 42) There are some buses, the routes of which we have not figured out. The area here resembles an industrial zone, the streets are deserted, but there is a lot of transport.
Minutes through 20 you will see a fenced area located on a hill. We reach the checkpoint with the gate, this is entrance to the Cementerio Jarnines Montesacro cemetery.
upstairs leads highway, and immediately from the fence to the right there are steps for pedestrians - we are here. We go up the stairs, and the first thing we see is gray Chapel building.
Grave of Pablo Escobar located at the walls of this Chapels at the cemetery Montesacro Gardens. To see the tomb of the self-proclaimed king Pablo Escobar, Chapel you need to completely bypass the right side. At the moment when we approached her, several Colombians were standing at the grave of the drug lord. Yes Yes! Colombians also come here to honor the memory of their hero. And it is true! For many Colombians who lived in Medellin during troubled times, Pablo Escobar was a real hero He helped the poor, built schools and hospitals for them. Probably, the families of these people are grateful to the drug lord, and do not see in him the monster he is presented to the whole world.
Escobar's grave modest, and in fact it is just a small tombstone, on which his name, date of birth and date of death are engraved.
All.
There are no pretentious tomb sculptures made of rare stone here.
Cemetery Montesacro Gardens the place is quite well maintained and modern, it is positioned as ecological cemetery which can be visited even with pets. The cemetery administration unobtrusively informs about this - small flags are installed throughout the cemetery, calling for people to come here with their pets, and in return only asks to clean up the excrement after them.
And, of course, this cemetery is strikingly different from most classical cemeteries in Latin America.
If we move counterclockwise from the Chapel with the grave of Pablo Escobar along the footpaths, then the next thing we will see is columbarium building.
You can go there and walk along the rows, along which small openings are built into the walls, where there are urns with the ashes of the deceased citizens of Medellin.
Inside the Columbarium, the guard forbade taking photographs.
Next to the Columbarium, to the left of it, under a canopy, there is a wooden sculpture Cristo De Los Andes ("Christ of the Andes") work Jose Horacio Betancur.
This one again surname Betancur (Betancourt), with which we are familiar from Cuba. The surname Betancourt in Latin America belongs to a noble family. And in Cuba we stayed in Casa house Particulares, whose owners also have the name Betancourt. The atmosphere in that house was somewhat different from the rest of the houses in Cuba. The behavior and the way the mistress kept herself looked like an aristocratic one. Maybe just a coincidence.
At the cemetery Montesacro Gardens harmony and grace reign. The bushes and grass on the lawns between the tombstones are neatly trimmed, colorful butterflies flutter over the cemetery.
Even on a weekday at the height of the day there are people here, but there are not so many of them that this is a problem. Fortunately, the size of the cemetery allows everyone to scatter in different angles.
A bit further - building of the Pantheon of Eternal Memory (Panteon de la Eterna Memoria), and behind it looks out an ordinary residential building. It is unlikely that sufficiently wealthy people live in this house so close to the cemetery. Calm and quiet, there is no dusty highway under the windows, and only a peaceful view opens from the windows of apartments in this building.
Inside Pantheon I did manage to take a few photos though. Here is vintage hearse, in which horses were harnessed at one time, and a coachman sitting somewhere up there with a mute face was taking his passenger on his last journey.
There are few people in the Pantheon either. I mean, living people. Marble slabs along the walls are decorated with flowers brought by relatives and friends of the buried.
Maybe the residents of that residential building were specially relocated here in order to constantly remind them of the frailty of life? After all, the other side of the window of the house overlooks part of the cemetery Montesacro Gardens called "Forest of Life" (Bosque de Vida). Any look from the windows of this residential building is a reminder of the perishability of being that surrounds a person every moment of his life. Have fun, don't say anything.
In this small, relatively new garden, as can be seen from the unsigned tombstones, Bosque de Vida, everyone can buy a place for their last resting place.
Here in the cemetery there is a nice little service - you can choose a shady place for yourself in advance under the overgrown spathiphyllum bushes (spathiphyllum), under the Indian mango tree, under the bushes with blue-orange flowers.
Or at all, if you want, you can buy a plot of land with a gate completely fenced off by a stone wall and equip it as you wish.
For example, like the patio of a house in London.
When we visited the cemetery Montesacro Gardens V March 2015, under "tree of life" growing in the middle of this wonderful garden Bosque de Vida, many more unsold seats. Yes, and fenced off areas in some places are still free. Here and there in the park-cemetery there are such birds with a crest, they quickly run between the graves and look like small dinosaurs looking for something to profit from.
In the middle of the cemetery mass grave with the monument "People".
In total, we spent about an hour at the cemetery. 3 . Time seems to stop here, and that heavy and sad aura that I feel in cemeteries in Russia is not felt. Cemetery Montesacro Gardens- it's like an enterprise, a park in which people work, maintaining cleanliness and order in their possessions. I wonder if they are funded by the state or is it a completely commercial structure that pays for itself by selling small plots of land into the future and eternal possession? And if so, what other related services do they provide to their regular customers?
Back to metro station Itagui we went the same way that we went to the cemetery. We caught a little rain, the heat subsided a little.
I already wrote about this, but I will repeat. In Colombia, it is not recommended to lean against the walls of buildings, fences and poles up to the height of the human causative organs. This is due to the fact that the Colombians are not shy to relieve a small need where they feel like it. I'm talking about commoners and ill-mannered people, when viewed from above European civilization, of people. When asked about this mass Colombian phenomenon, my Colombian friends in Medellin shrugged their shoulders and answered that they had nothing like it in their country, and they had never seen anything like it. But I personally have seen more than once how a man walks down the street in the city, stops and begins to relieve himself, not paying any attention to passers-by and vehicles. In the old part of Medellin, it seems to me that the walls of buildings have been absorbing urine for centuries.- this can be seen from the unambiguous, sometimes fresh, smudges on the walls and is felt by the persistent smell of urea. It happens during the day, in the evening, at any time of the day. The human body can not relieve itself according to a schedule. That's what I wanted and that's it! What to do? He turned to a tree or a fence, unzipped his fly and let the whole world rest. By the mass nature of this phenomenon Colombia can only be compared with Guatemala and other countries are not too far behind.
This time I caught one of them with a camera in my hands. pisuna in Medellin on the street Carrera 42 in the middle of the day. We walked from the cemetery to the subway. Everything would be fine, but the nearby warning sign, as it were, hints at the fact that he doesn’t care if they look at him or not.
All in all, Colombia In this regard, it also reminds me India, where poor and uneducated people are not shy at all and relieve even great need in crowded places. Well, it sucked! What!? Put on pants? Sometimes you travel like this in India by train, look out the window, enjoy the beauties of local landscapes ... And here you are! The picture changes dramatically, and you already see something else - men and women squatting in rows doing their job and looking at the train. And you are on them. And they are on the train. A strange sight.
Let's leave this topic, vile for Puritan society, and let's go to where we are. the house where the father of Colombian drug dealer Pablo Escobar lived.
We took the subway to the station Aguacatala and went up the hill on the road. The area is quite decent and quiet.
At the intersection of streets Carrera 44 And Calle 15 Sur and there is a house that Escobar built for himself and his family.
Here he lived for some time, continuing to create his own, terrifying to Medellin, business. After Escobar killed in 1993 The house was ransacked and is now in complete disrepair. The authorities of Medellin still do not know what to do with this house, so it continues to deteriorate from year to year.
Not noticing anyone, we decided to try to move the gate in order to enter the territory and take a few shots. Hearing the hysterical creak of the gate, from somewhere in the depths of the courtyard scary house a uniformed guard appeared and said that entry was prohibited. We replied that we are from Russia and we are doing a report for, and that we would like to take a couple of pictures closer. The guard surrendered without a fight and let us inside on 5 minutes.
This main entrance to Pablo Escobar's house.
Decorated richly for those times? Or was the richest man on the planet of those times simply no taste?
In the lobby are 3 elevator. The ceilings are very low. Of course, there is no greatness in all this now. And was it?
It was not possible to wander around the house due to the time limit issued by the house guard, so inside I took another shot through the gap in the door leading to the next room. I don't know what this strange place is.
In general, the architecture of the building is of absolutely no interest. So, we noted in one more Escobarovsk place.
In the backyard of Escobar's house there is a huge dish antenna. mobile phones in those years it was not, the antenna could serve for satellite communications.
And in the basement of the house is garage. The entrance to the garage is very inconvenient. You need to drive in and out of it carefully because of the wall standing directly opposite the entrance to the garage.
Pablo Escobar was a famous collector rare cars they were all here. Probably, something from the collection could be preserved, this good rests somewhere in the backyard of one of Escobar's admirers.
In the courtyard of the house there is a playground. One can imagine how the guards and other retinue of the drug lord whiled away the time waiting for the next brilliant plans of the villain.
In the far corner of the courtyard stands an inconspicuous wooden structure. Now ruins remain of it. From a distance it can be seen that the interior of this building is finished with ceramic tiles.
Not to say that all this is chic, but on a grand scale. Indeed, in Colombia, some people still live in wooden and cardboard boxes, and the social gap between rich and poor Colombians is increasing from year to year.
Well, since we are here, in this part of the city, at the same time we decided to visit another attraction of Medellin - Palace of El Castillo (Fortress). In general, a lot to tell how we walked around it for hours 3 I won't. I can only say that we were pretty exhausted that day, since this area is located on the hills, and all this time we went up and down through the sweltering heat and all around El Castillo.
Ask for directions to El Castillo somehow there was no one, there were no passers-by along the way. Completely exhausted and tired, we still found this palace El Castillo. It is located, as it were, in the center of a large, well-to-do park residential area, through which one cannot pass through, since the parks and squares near the houses are surrounded by fences with a checkpoint, like at the house of Pablo Escobar.
Approaching the entrance of the fortress, we learned that El Castillo Museum closes in 20 minutes, paid entrance. We twirled a little at the entrance, looked at the palace from afar and trudged to the subway.
If it were not for random passers-by, then again they would have wandered around this quarter of an hour 3 . And this is despite the presence of a map on which this entire huge residential area was marked with one green spot, which we initially took for a park. Of course, there is also a park there, but don’t ask how to get into it.
In the elite, so to speak, district of the city, in its very center, on the way to the metro, we met cows freely grazing on a huge field surrounded by a barbed wire fence.
All way back we hardly spoke, since any movement of the muscles, even the tongue, seemed heavy and difficult. But at home, when they arrived at their station Estadio, we unanimously decided to treat ourselves after such an intense walking tour that took all day - in the supermarket EXITO we bought the famous medellin Tres Leches (Three Milk) cake, and soda!
And with such pleasure they scammed half TresLeches for two, washing down with sizzling bubbles that taste like Pinocchio. Traditional Colombian treat, cake TresLeches- This is a biscuit generously soaked in sweet liquid cream, topped with a layer of condensed milk covered with whipped cream and a little bit of chocolate with coffee powder. They say that it is in Medellin that it is recommended to try this dessert. Made!
I wanted to describe all the events of this week in one post, but it turned out to be a voluminous material, and the week turned out to be saturated, that is still a week.
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Pablo Emilio Escobar. Biography. 50 photos
Twenty-two years ago, in Colombia, the authorities, together with national special agents, neutralized the king of the drug business, Pablo Escobar.
Pablo Emilio Escobar became famous in the criminal world as an influential authority, went down in history as the most unprincipled and merciless criminal of that period. Cold-bloodedly cracking down on representatives of the law (prosecutors, journalists), destroying police departments, he arbitrarily tormented and tortured his victims.
Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria was born on December 1, 1949. In the town of Rionegro, in the family of an ordinary farm owner. He was the 3rd child of Hasus Dari Escobar and Hemilda Gaviria. The boy's mother was a simple school teacher.
Video
Escobar's "feats" in the 20th century covered almost all the territorial possessions of Colombia, and the whole world.
Despite all the cruelty and composure, for most Colombians, Pablo was a kind of Robin Hood. He became the epitome of Latin American dreams. Hispanics who fought him consider him a "great man"
All free hours, young Pablo was on the streets of the city. The poor quarters of Melellín were a natural hotbed of crime and vice.
Already at that time, young Escobar began to steal tombstones from the local cemetery. Erasing epitaphs from monuments, he sold them to speculators. The track record of acts replenished, drug trafficking, theft and fake lotteries
In the future, Pablo organized a gang that steals prestigious and expensive cars. For the purpose of reselling them for parts.
By his 21st birthday, Pablo already had many associates. The deeds of the criminal group became more and more sophisticated, boundless and cruel. Car theft changed to kidnapping (kidnapping for ransom).
History has preserved information that Pablo Escobar and his people kidnapped Diego Echevario in 1971, who at that time was a major industrialist from Colombia. After much torture and attempts to squeeze money out of the rich man, he was simply killed.
At the same time, Pablo Escobar did not hide his involvement in this high-profile case and even declared it openly. Thus, he earned even more prestige among the poor population of Medellin, who even arranged a holiday in honor of this event. And Pablo Escobar received the respectful nickname "El Doctor". So another Robin Hood was born.
With the funds stolen from the rich, Pablo Emilio built houses for the poor, thereby winning their gratitude.
Pablo performed all these “feats” at the age of 21. A year later, Medellin no longer knew a cooler and more famous crime boss than Pablo Escobar. Escobar's criminal business expanded, as did the size of his gang. He was no longer satisfied only with kidnapping people and extorting money from them. From now on, Escobar began to be interested in drugs and devoted himself to the cocaine trade until the end of his life.
His activity in the cocaine trade began with buying the drug from manufacturers and reselling it to smugglers. And they were already throwing powder into America. Possessing determination and willingness to take any measures to achieve his goals, Pablo Escobar did not leave competitors. Any profitable criminal business did not go unnoticed by Escobar. Pablo has no competitors left. He became the sole owner of all cocaine in the country. And no one dared to stand in his way.
All this allowed Pablo to organize the delivery of cocaine to the United States himself, and his assistant Carlos Leider equipped a point in the Bahamas, which was a transshipment point for all drug trafficking.
The case was well organized. Absolutely everything related to cocaine was under control. Everyone who wanted to engage in drug trafficking, one way or another, was forced to unfasten the cocaine king 35% of the cost of the exported drug lot. And Pablo, in turn, guaranteed the delivery of the powder safe and sound. Under Pablo Escobar, the Colombian jungle was a kind of hideout for cocaine laboratories.
The criminal authorities of different countries of the old formation have a rule "Do not have a family." The reason is that the family, as it were, fetters and makes vulnerable. This is exactly what happened to Escobaro when he was 27 years old. Having succumbed to the charm, or whatever, of his girlfriend Maria Victoria Eneo Viejo, Pablo married her. Most likely this happened due to Maria's pregnancy, since a month after the wedding she gave birth to a son, who was named Juan Pablo. Let's say right away that after 3 years, Pablo Escobar also had a daughter. They named her Manuella. All this made the gangster very vulnerable.
However, he was still very strong. And in 1977, Pablo teams up with three major drug dealers. A kind of organization is being created, later called the Medellin Cocaine Cartel.
Escobar, Brothers Ochoa Vazquez Jorge Luis (right with hat), Juan David and Fabio
By the summer of 1977, there was no one more powerful than Pablo left in Colombia. His cartel had everything at its disposal: money, planes to transport cocaine to the states, chemical laboratories for the production of the drug. They even had submarines with which they transported cocaine. The cartel has spread its nets all over the world. For 17 years, Escobar's cocaine could be bought in Colombia, Peru, USA, Europe, Peru, Bolivia, Honduras and Canada.
If we take into account that during these years there was no cocaine in the USSR, and if there was, then in a very modest amount, it turns out that only Pablo Escobar dealt with all the cocaine in the world. Escobar bought everyone. Judges, policemen, politicians. They all received money from the cocaine king. Those who could not be bought were intimidated, killed, blackmailed. But the organization continued to function without interruption. Money flowed like a river. rock stars and Hollywood actors thrown out of windows, shot, hanged themselves. And Forbs magazine for 1989 calculated that Pakblo Escobar's net worth was $47,000,000,000.
But Pablo didn't sit on his money. Part of the funds he still spent on arranging life for the poor population of Medellin. It was thanks to him that stadiums, free houses (Pablo Escobar's quarters) were built in the city, as well as new roads were laid. It is not known what prompted him to such generous gestures. Maybe it was a desire to make amends for their sins? Vryatli. Pablo himself grew up in a poor family. Most likely it was a kind of revenge on the rich and the desire to turn over all the foundations of that time. This pushed him to war with the entire rich world.
The wealth of Pablo Escobar
Let's take a closer look at the personal wealth of the cocaine king. Maybe this is of interest to someone. Pablo Escobar owned 500,000 hectares of land and 34 estates. 40 rare cars. We have already talked about submarines and aircraft above.
main estate
Escobar's favorite estate had 20 lakes. 6 pools were not enough for him. And in the "backyard" a small airport comfortably settled down. There was also a zoo in the estate, in which animals from all over the world were brought. This zoo still exists today. You can visit it for a small fee of 20,000 pesos.
Entrance to the zoo
Maybe evil tongues and slander, but there is a legend that the far corners of the estate witnessed the owner's sexual orgies, which were attended by all his friends and young Colombian girls. By the way, the girls lived there and formed a kind of harem. For his harem, Pablo ordered the best hairdressers and cosmetologists in Europe and Italy. Not life but a fairy tale. All you have to do is keep killing someone.
Pablo Escobar in politics
As you probably already know from the movies, all criminals sooner or later want to legalize their wealth and "tie up with the past." So it was with the Escobars. In 1982, he puts forward his candidacy for elections and at the age of 32 he becomes a deputy congressman of the Colombian Congress. But that's too small for a man like Pablo. His goal is to become President of Colombia. Moreover, the support of the poor population is provided to him.
Who knows, maybe this was the first step that Pablo took in the wrong place ... Maybe he still sold his cocaine all over the world if he hadn’t gotten into politics.
Rodrigo Lara Bonia was the first to stand on Pablo's path to the presidency. The then Minister of Justice. He launched a campaign against Pablo, relying on the fact that he was putting dirty cocaine money into his election campaign. This has brought results. The cocaine king was expelled from the Colombian Congress. This put an end to his political career. We all already understand what Pablo Escobar did in connection with this. It was 1984.
On April 30, the Mercedes in which the Minister of Justice was traveling was shot point-blank. The Minister could not be saved. Never before had an official of this stature been killed in Colombia.
Brief war in Colombia
As a result of Escobar's assassination of the prime minister, the drug lord became interested in the United States. The initiator of the war on drugs was the Administration of the President of the United States of America. With the consent of then President Ronald Reagan, the war on drugs was not limited to the United States. Drug dealers began to drive around the world. For the sake of capturing Pablo Escobar, an agreement was concluded with Colombia, which pledged to extradite all drug dealers to US justice. As a result, this served as a pretext for a small war.
Since Pablo did not want to simply surrender to justice, and his influence was very large, a group of people who were ready to stand for him to death led fighting against Colombian policemen and officials.
In an effort to change the laws of the country and avoid extradition to the United States, Pablo Escobar and other major drug dealers armed their army with machine guns, portable rocket launchers, and grenades. As a result of their actions, the Palace of Justice in the capital of the country, Bogota, was captured and all documents that in one way or another related to the extradition of criminals were destroyed.
In response, the state attracted a significant part of the army units that surrounded the Palace. For 27 hours, during which the siege and storming of the palace lasted, 97 people died, including 11 judges. The assault was carried out using special forces groups, helicopters and tanks.
Something that Pablo Escobar still achieved. The Supreme Court was forced to cancel the extradition of drug lords to America. But this did little to help Pablo, as the decision of the supreme court was vetoed by the president of Colombia. I had to keep hiding.
The war is gaining momentum
In 1987, Pablo Escobar had to part with his closest assistant, Carlos Leider. Despite everything, he was extradited to the United States.
Life has ceased to be so comfortable and stable. In 1989, realizing that justice is no longer so easy to buy, Pablo undertakes another deal with him. His main condition is not to extradite him to the United States. But the Colombian government refuses and the war continues.
On August 16 of the same year, Judge Carlos Valencia dies, and a day later, Police Colonel Waldemar Franklin Conter is killed. Events begin to unfold very rapidly. On August 18, Luis Carlos Galán, who was a well-known politician in Colombia, follows the judge of the Supreme Court of Colombia and the police colonel. They remove him for promising to rid Colombia of drug dealers if he becomes president.
The presidential election was approaching. The wave of murders was gaining momentum. In the capital of Bogota, explosions thundered almost every day. Only in two weeks they counted 7. They claimed the lives of 37 people. Along the way, another 400 were wounded. They cut down the forest - chips fly.
The culmination of this whole epic was the explosion of a Boeing 727. The plane was blown up on November 27, 1989. There were 107 people on board, including the crew. But these people died in vain, since Cesar Gaviria Trujillo, the future president of Colombia, who was going to fly this flight, canceled the flight.
It could not be tolerated any longer, and the drug dealers were taken seriously. The government organized raids throughout the country. The hunt was on all drug dealers. These raids helped destroy a large part of the drug laboratories. All the cocaine plantations that could be found were burned. But Pablo nevertheless made 2 attempts to kill Miguel Mas Marquez, who was the chief of the Colombian police and part-time general. December 6, 1989, as a result of the second attempt on his life, 62 people were killed. About a hundred were injured. By the new year 1990, Pablo could be proud of the status of the most wanted drug trafficker in the United States.
The government of Colombia created a special "Special Search Group", the main purpose of which was to search for and capture Pablo Escobar. This group included the most experienced specialists from the best police units, professionals from the military, special agents and employees of the prosecutor's office. The high professionalism and well-coordinated activities of all members of this organization, led by Colonel Martinez, made it possible to capture the closest associates of Pablo Escobar during a successful operation.
In the late 80s, during a police raid, a ranch was surrounded, where, according to agents at that time, there were drug cartel bosses Gilberto Rendon and Jose Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha. During the shootout, the first of them and Rodriguez's son Freddy were shot dead, and his father, Rodriguez Gacha, committed suicide by shooting himself.
Immediately after this unprecedented action, Escobar's people organized the kidnapping of several of the richest and most powerful people in Colombia. The drug lord assumed that through influential relatives of the hostages it would be possible to influence officials in the government in order to cancel the agreement regarding the extradition of criminals. And this plan was a success of the mafiosi with brilliance, the officials made concessions and the extradition of the cocaine king was canceled.
In the summer of 1991, when Escobar no longer feared extradition to the United States of America, he agreed to plead guilty to some minor scams, on the condition that he not be charged with his other more serious crimes. Conclusion Escobar served in a prison called "La Catedral", which was built at his expense.
During his so-called "time out", Escobar did not cease to be the main head of the cocaine business, which brought in billions of dollars in income. There was a case when the drug lord found out that his partners in the cocaine business dared to pocket part of the proceeds while the boss was absent for a so-called "good reason". Escobar could not forgive this, it was ordered to deliver the violators to his residence, namely to the La Catedral prison. There, the guilty companions were subjected to severe torture, Escobar himself personally drilled into his victims' kneecaps and pulled out nails, then an order was received to kill negligent partners and get rid of the corpses. As you know, Escobar personally carried out one murder of a person himself.
Such an act was a clear overkill; in the middle of the summer of 1992, Colombian President Cesar Gaviria signed a decree transferring Escobar to a regular prison. However, Escobar was aware of the government's plans in advance and escaped. In the photo - an image of the prison "La Catedral".
And now the drug lord was on the other side of the bars, but enemies lurked around and there were less and less shelters where you could feel safe. The American and Colombian governments were determined to put an end to one of the biggest bosses of the Colombian mafia and his famous Medellin cocaine cartel forever. The decision was made to pursue Escobar to the end and, if possible, not to take him alive when captured.
In order to destroy the Medellin cocaine cartel in Colombia, a special organization “Los Pepes” functioned, the name of which consisted of the initial letters of the phrase “Perseguidos por Pablo Escobar”, which means “Pursued by Pablo Escobar”. The members of this organization were residents of Colombia, whose loved ones were killed by Escobar's people. In a short period of time, as a result of the activities of this organization, Escobar's criminal empire suffered significant losses, many of Escobar's people were killed by members of the organization, the drug lord's family was persecuted and attacked, his estates were burned as a result of arson.
In the photo, the prison "La Catedral"
In October 2009, Escobar's son Sebastian Marrokamn told a story that somehow hiding from the police, Escobar and his children ended up high in the mountains, they were caught by a very cold night. Then, in order to warm his children at least a little and cook food on a fire, the famous cocaine king threw about two million paper dollars into the fire. In the photo - an image of Pablo Escobar with his daughter Manuella.
In October 1993, Escobar's cocaine business began to fall apart. However, this was not at all the most worried about the drug lord, who was constantly thinking about his loved ones, whom he had not seen for about a year.
In December 1993, when Escobar reached the age of 44, he broke down and made one single call to his family. He was well aware that he was being followed, which is why the call was very short so that he did not have time to get into the field of view of his pursuers. The photo shows an image of Escobar with his family.
So he contacted his family on December 2nd and stayed in touch with his son Juan for about 5 minutes. Special services agents who hunted for a long time on Escobar, of course, they expected that someday the drug lord would contact his loved ones. After this call, Escobar's stay in the Medellin quarter of Los Olibos was established. The building where he was located was surrounded by police within minutes.
The door was smashed in, and special forces rushed inside the building, where they were met with heavy fire from firearms, which was led by Escobar's personal bodyguard El Limon. Soon he was wounded, and he could no longer continue the fight, then the drug lord himself appeared near the window instead of him. Shooting on the move, Escobar climbed onto the roof and tried to escape from the chase, but he was “taken off” from the roof by a sniper, whose bullet hit him exactly in the head, Escobar died immediately.
Now, the participants of the raid began to climb onto the roof to verify the death of the drug lord and began to photograph his corpse in order to capture this valuable “trophy”. Later, these photographs were seen by the whole world. This is how the “Robin Hood of Colombia” left this mortal world, who was sentenced to death and carried out by the simple people, whom he allegedly cared for throughout his career as a cocaine king.
Thousands of Colombians filled the Medellin streets on December 3, 1993 to see the famous drug lord, some to say goodbye and mourn, and some to gloat. At the funeral of the odious leader of the cocaine cartel, about 20 thousand Colombian citizens came.
At the moment when the coffin with the body of Escobar began to be carried through the streets of Medellin for further burial, such unrest began in the crowd that they can be safely called Khodynka in Colombian. The coffin-bearing people of the late drug lord were simply swept away and pushed aside. The lid of the coffin was torn off and a thousand human hands reached out to the body of the already deceased cocaine king in order to touch the legend that once lived at least once.
According to the evil irony of people's rumors, which came up with the version that Escobar kept his cash and precious items within the walls of the estate, the villa of the famous cocaine billionaire suffered a sad fate. After his death, the estate godfather was disassembled brick by brick by Colombian peasants and taken away in an unknown direction.
The famous prison "La Catedral" is also destroyed at the present time, Escobar's vast estates are overgrown with weeds, once luxurious cars are completely rusted. The widow of a drug lord and his heirs live in Argentina, his brother almost lost his sight as a result of a bomb that exploded, which was sent to him in prison by letter.
But even today, if you ask people's opinion about Pablo Escobar on the streets of Medellin in the heart of the slums, believe me, you will not hear anything bad about him.
Images of Pablo Escobar are sold on the Colombian streets along with portraits of Che Guevara. In some parts of Colombia, he is revered as a saint, pilgrimages are made to his grave. In the tourism business of Colombian Medellin, the legend of the “cocaine king” is widely popular, the museum of which is visited by tens of thousands of tourists every year.
10 Crazy Facts About The Cocaine King's Even Crazier Money
"Cocaine King" was the son of a poor Colombian farmer, but by the age of 35 he became one of the richest people in the world. Despite his humble origins, Pablo Escobar led the Medellin drug cartel, which was responsible for 80% of the global cocaine market. El Patron's weekly income was approximately $420 million, making him one of the richest drug lords in history.
It is impossible to give an accurate assessment of Escobar's fortune due to the fact that this is drug money, but experts give estimates of up to $ 30 billion.
1. In the mid-1980s, Escobar's cartel was bringing in about $420 million a week - almost $22 billion a year.
2. Escobar was included in the list of international Forbes billionaires. In 1989, he ranked seventh on the list of the richest people in the world.
3. By the end of the 1980s, he was responsible for supplying 80% of the world's cocaine.
4. Every day he smuggled into the US about 15 tons of cocaine.
According to journalist Jon Grillo, the Medellin cartel was smuggling most their cocaine right on the coast of Florida. Grillo writes:
“It was a run of one and a half thousand kilometers from the northern coast of Colombia, and nothing interfered with it. Colombians and their American accomplices drop cargo directly into the sea, where it will be picked up and delivered to shore in speedboats, or even fly all the way to Florida and dump cocaine somewhere in the wilderness.”
Escobar with his son, Juan Pablo, in front of the White House in 1981
5. In other words, out of five Americans who use cocaine, four snorted El Patron.
6. The Cocaine King lost $2.1 billion every year, but he didn't care much.
Escobar's vast wealth became a problem when he couldn't launder the money fast enough. Like Roberto Escobar Chief Accountant cartel and brother of a drug lord, said in his book The Accountant's Story: Inside the Violent World of the Medellín Cartel, he stockpiled cash in stacks in the Colombian wilderness - in dilapidated warehouses, and in the walls homes of cartel members:
“Pablo made so much money that every year we wrote off 10% of his fortune because the rats ate the money in the vault, water damaged it, or it just got lost.”
Considering how much the drug lord was estimated to be earning, that means a loss of $2.1 billion annually. Pablo Escobar had a lot more money than he could spend, and losing them to rodents and mold didn't bother him.
7. Medellin spent $2,500 on rubber bands every month.
Hiding and destroying huge sums of money is one thing, but the brothers are faced with another, more mundane task: organizing and storing cash. According to Roberto Escobar, Medellin spent $2,500 a month on rubber bands to tie stacks of banknotes.
8. Escobar once burned $2 million because his daughter was cold.
In a 2009 interview with Don Juan magazine, Ecobar's 38-year-old son Juan Pablo, who changed his name to Sebastian Marroquin, spoke about what it's like to live with the "Cocaine King".
According to Marrokin, the family was in a hideout on the slopes of Mount Medellin when Ecobar's daughter's body temperature plummeted - and Escobar mercilessly burned crisp $2 million worth of banknotes to keep Manuela warm.
Pablo Escobar with his wife Maria Victoria, son Juan Pablo and daughter Manuela
9. Escobar was nicknamed "Robin Hood" for giving money to the poor, building houses for the homeless, founding 70 football fields and a zoo.
10. He made a deal with Colombia to be put in a luxurious prison, which he built himself and called La Catedral - "the cathedral."
In 1991, Escobar was imprisoned in a prison of his own design called La Catedral. In accordance with an agreement concluded with the Colombian government, Escobar had the right to choose who would serve his sentence in the same prison or work in it. In addition, he could continue to run the cartel business and receive visitors.
La Catedral is equipped with a football field, a barbecue area and a patio. In addition, nearby Escobar built a building for his entire family. Representatives of the Colombian authorities were forbidden to approach the prison closer than five kilometers.
Escobar with his top hitman Popeye at La Catedral
Pablo Escobar wishes Kharkiv citizens a Happy New Year.
Elimination of Pablo Escobar
And now the abandoned villa itself:
The “King of Cocaine” was the son of a poor Colombian farmer, but by the age of 35 he had become one of the richest people in the world, earning up to $420 million a week.
At the height of his power, sad famous boss The Medellin cartel, also called "El Patron", controlled up to 80% of the world cocaine market. He also owned a number of impressive properties.
Take a look at just one of his abandoned villas on an island off the coast of Colombia.
The 27 small coral islands of Islas del Rosario are located 22 miles from the port of Cartagena in Colombia.
Escobar built his massive villa on the waterfront of the largest island - Isla Grande.
In the neighborhood of Escobar's mansion, there are approximately 800 islanders who are engaged in fishing and agriculture.
Now, 22 years after Escobar's death, the estate is lush with vegetation...
Escobar became a real legend, he turned out to be one of the most prominent drug lords in history. How rich was he?
Escobar's income
In the mid-eighties, Escobar's cartel was generating $420 million a week, which adds up to about $22 billion a year.
One of the richest people in the world
80 percent
By the end of the eighties, it supplied 80 percent of the world's cocaine.
He smuggled about 15 tons of cocaine daily into the United States of America.
According to journalist Ioan Grillo, the Medellin Cartel moved most of the drugs right across the coast of Florida. “Between the northern coast of Colombia and the coast of Florida as much as one and a half thousand kilometers, and all this time the one who moved along this route was in full view of everyone. The Colombians and their American partners dumped bundles of goods directly into the sea, and speedboats awaiting delivery immediately set off from the coast to them. Sometimes the goods were dumped right on the coast of Florida, ”said Grillo.
King of America
In other words, four out of five Americans who used cocaine used the product supplied by El Patron.
Every month, the King of Cocaine made a $2.1 billion loss, but it didn't matter.
Escobar's incredible wealth became a problem when he couldn't launder money fast enough. According to Roberto Escobar, the cartel's chief accountant and brother of a well-known drug lord, he began burying huge sums of money in Colombian fields, hiding them in dilapidated warehouses and the walls of cartel members' houses. “Pablo made so much that every year we wrote off ten percent of our earnings because the money was eaten by rats in warehouses, water damaged or lost,” he said. Based on how much Escobar earned, ten percent represents $2.1 billion. Escobar simply had more money than he could use, so the occasional loss due to rodents or mold was not a problem for him.
Every month he spent two and a half thousand dollars on rubber bands.
While the constant need to hide, as well as losing money, was one problem, the brothers faced another, more basic problem - how to organize banknotes neatly? According to Roberto Escobar, the Medellin cartel spent about $2,500 on rubber bands that were used to form bundles of banknotes.
He once lit a two million dollar fire because his daughter was cold.
In 2009, Pablo Escobar's son Juan Pablo, now known as Sebastian Marroquin, described what life on the run was like with the King of Cocaine. According to Marroquin, the family was living in a mountainside shelter in Medellin when Pablo Manuela's daughter suffered an attack of hypothermia. Escobar decided to burn two million dollar bills to keep his daughter warm.
Local Robin Hood
He was nicknamed "Robin Hood" when he gave money to the poor on the streets, built houses for the homeless, created seventy public football fields, and established a zoo.
He made a deal with the Colombian government and agreed to go to prison, but on the condition that he build it himself. This is how Escobar's luxurious prison "La Catedral" appeared.
In 1991, Pablo Escobar was imprisoned in a prison called "La Catedral", which he himself designed. Under the terms of the agreement concluded with the government of Colombia, Escobar could choose who would be imprisoned with him. He was also free to continue his cartel business and receive visitors. The grounds of La Catedral included a soccer field, a barbecue lawn and a patio, and it was also close to another apartment complex he had built for his family. Also, representatives of the Colombian authorities could not drive closer than five kilometers to the prison.
(Spanish: Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria, 12/01/1949 - 12/2/1993) is a well-known world terrorist, a Colombian drug lord who earned fabulous money in the drug business and went down in world history as one of the most brutal criminals of the 20th century.
In 1989, according to Forbes magazine, he took the 7th position in the ranking of the richest people on the planet. His personal fortune was $25 billion USD.
According to experts, in total, Escobar is responsible for about 10,000 deaths. human lives. However, he was a criminal with a code of honor. For example, it was at his expense that numerous football fields for children, as well as a whole block for the poor.
Childhood
Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria was born in 1949, 40 km. from (Spanish Medellín) - the city of Rionegro (Spanish Rionegro) of the department of Antioquia (Spanish Antioquia), .
He became the third child in a normal peasant family. Little Pablo loved to listen to heroic stories about the legendary Colombian "banditos" (Spanish banditos): how they robbed the rich, helping the poor. As a child, he decided that he would definitely become just such a “bandito” when he grew up. Who would have thought that in a couple of decades romantic dreams little boy turn into a national nightmare.
Beginning of criminal activity
When Pablo was 12 years old, the family moved to the suburbs of Medellin, the town of Envigado. The teenager soon became addicted to marijuana. And at the age of 16, the future drug lord was expelled from school. From that day on, Pablo began his career as a bandito, stealing tombstones from the local cemetery for resale. Next, by creating Not large group, he took up stealing expensive cars and selling them for parts. Then Escobar had another "brilliant" idea: he offered his protection to potential victims of theft. Those who refused to pay the gang soon lost their "steel horse" - it was a real racket.
Further, from theft and racketeering, Pablo moved on to committing more serious crimes - kidnappings and murders. By the age of 21, Pablo had many associates. The crimes of the Escobar group became more and more ruthless, cruel and sophisticated.
El Patron
In 1971, Pablo Escobar's gang kidnapped Diego Echevario, a wealthy Colombian landowner and industrialist, who was killed after extensive torture. This villainy was enthusiastically received by the local poor peasants who hated Echevario. The poor of Medellin celebrated the death of Diego Echevario and, in gratitude, began to respectfully call Escobar " El Doctor"(Spanish: El Doctor). Meanwhile, "El Doctor" has intercepted the production of cocaine from the Chileans, turning it into a fabulous profitable business, on which he became fantastically rich, becoming one of the major criminal authorities in Medellin, and his rating in the city grew day by day. It was at that time that the young "El Doctor" became " El Patronom”(Spanish“ El Patron ”), and with this nickname he lived until his death.
Pablo Escobar - drug lord
The new generation of American hippies of the 70s. no longer satisfied with one marijuana. It took a new, stronger drug - cocaine. On it, Pablo Escobar began to build his criminal business. He bought cocaine from manufacturers, then resold it to smugglers for shipment to the United States. The lack of "brakes", Pablo's constant willingness to kill, manic cruelty - all this put him out of competition. When rumors about some lucrative criminal business reached Escobar, he simply seized it by force. Anyone who stood in his way, at least somehow threatening his activities, immediately disappeared without a trace. Soon he ran almost the entire cocaine business in the country: without his permission, not a single drug dealer could take his goods out of the country, he removed a 35% tax on each consignment of cocaine, ensuring its delivery. Escobar's drug career was more than successful - "El Patron" literally bathed in money, finally losing all respect for the law.
In 1976, Pablo was caught trying to smuggle a consignment of cocaine, and a few years later the police officer who arrested him and the judge who issued the arrest warrant were killed on his orders.
Personal life or Women of Escobar
In 1974, when Pablo Escobar was 24, he began dating 13-year-old Maria Victoria Eneo Viejo (Spanish: Maria Victoria Henao Vellejo). When the girl's parents tried to separate them, the couple fled to Palmyra. In March 1976, the young people got married, and soon, when Maria was not even 15 years old, they had a son, and after another 3.5 years, their beloved daughter.
Since that time, the patron has become vulnerable, because the family is always a hindrance in the conduct of criminal cases.
Throughout his life, Escobar had a huge number of extramarital affairs. He was famous for his love of pedophilia, giving preference to underage girls. Especially for young virgins. It is known for certain that the drug lord had more than 400 mistresses, in fact, concubines. A whole small closed town was built for them. Each of his mistresses (among whom were actresses, winners of beauty contests and fashion models) had a personal cottage with a swimming pool, fountains, various porticos and exquisite gazebos, each house was unique in architectural design and landscape design.
For the first time in Colombia, an official of such a high rank was killed by bandits. From that day on, the terror of the drug mafia began to spread throughout the country, to which the state responded with a total war.
Terrorism
Pablo Ecobar created the terrorist group “Los Extraditables” (Spanish: “Los Extraditables”), whose gangsters raided officials and policemen - everyone who was against the drug trade.
After the daring assassination of the minister, a warrant was issued for the arrest of the drug lord. Therefore, he was forced to "lay low."
To show that he was not broken, Escobar hired a large group of guerrillas to carry out sabotage, arming them with machine guns, grenades and portable rocket launchers. Saboteurs, suddenly appearing in the center of the capital, captured the Palace of Justice, inside of which there were several hundred people. The partisans opened fire indiscriminately, destroyed all the documents relating to the extradition of criminals from the drug mafia. Large forces of the army and police were urgently introduced into Bogotá. But only the assault battalions, supported by tanks and combat helicopters, managed to recapture the Palace of Justice, with more than 100 people killed.
Meanwhile, the authorities continued their offensive against the drug cartel. In 1986, an operation began to search for one of the leaders of the drug cartel (Spanish Jorge Luis Ochoa), who offered $ 4 million in reward for the murder of American Ambassador Tambs. For 10 days, about 2.5 thousand people were arrested in the country, 2 tons of cocaine, 10 tons of coca paste, 48 tons of coca leaves, 11 aircraft, more than 200 automatic weapons, 38 thousand cartridges, 11 tons of acetone, 100 tons of various chemicals, 1 thousand sticks of dynamite.
In 1987, a US court sentenced one of the bosses of the Medellin Cartel (Spanish Carlos Lehder) to life imprisonment and another 135 years.
Even while in hiding, Pablo Escobar unleashed global terror in the country in order to show everyone who is the real boss here. In less than 2 years, the number of victims of mercenaries reached 1,000 people. Among them were judges, journalists who opposed the drug mafia, and about 600 police officers. On the orders of a drug lord who bit the bit, an airliner was blown up with 107 passengers on board. Escobar's target was (Spanish: César Gaviria Trujillo), the future President of Colombia, who was going to fly this flight, but at the last moment canceled the flight. During the assassination attempt on the head of the secret police Miguel Marquez, organized by El Patrón on December 6, 1989, more than 62 people died from a bomb explosion, 100 people were seriously injured.
War declared on the Colombian drug mafia
The US authorities joined the war with the Colombian drug mafia, who offered to send drug lords to be kept in their prisons, where the ransom was excluded. Thanks to American financial assistance, Colombian law enforcement agencies managed to organize a counteroffensive against the cocaine cartel, then, as a result of only one operation, 989 houses and farms, 367 aircraft, 710 cars, 5 tons of cocaine and 1279 military weapons were confiscated from Escobar. For every blow of the government, the criminal cartel responded with a counterattack: arson of houses, murders of political officials, explosions of party headquarters, publishing houses, banks. So, in September 1989, the central point of the liberal newspaper El Espectador (Spanish: El Espectador) was blown up, in November a plane flying from Bogota to Bogotá burned down, and on Christmas Eve the headquarters of the state police in the country's capital was blown up. Before the elections, the terror of the cocaine cartel acquired an unprecedented scale: dozens of people were killed by killers every day.
The Colombian drug lord topped the U.S. most wanted list. He was hunted by an elite special unit, which was faced with the task of catching or destroying Escobar. The Colombian authorities created a "Special Search Group", which included the best specialists from the special services, the army and the prosecutor's office. Soon, several people close to him were behind bars.
People from Escobar's gang took hostage several influential people of the country. The drug lord believed that under pressure from wealthy relatives of the kidnapped, the government would cancel the agreement with the United States on the extradition of drug dealers. The plan of the drug king was a success, the extradition was canceled. But, surrounded on all sides, on June 19, 1991, he himself surrendered to the authorities. Pablo Escobar agreed to plead guilty to only a few crimes, on the condition that he be forgiven for his past sins.
Conclusion behind bars
Even the punishment turned out to be not quite ordinary: the most cruel terrorist in the world was serving time in the prison "" (Spanish: La Catedral), which he built by himself, where there was a swimming pool, a disco, a jacuzzi, a sauna, and even a large football field. The patron was visited by friends, close associates and women, and the family visited Escobar at any time. At the same time, the “Special Group” did not have the right to approach “La Catedral” closer than 20 km. He himself went and came when he pleased, regularly visiting Medellin nightclubs, restaurants and football matches.
Moreover, Pablo Escobar was still in charge of the drug business. There was a case when one day, having learned that the partners were “ratting” money from him, he ordered his henchmen to bring them to “La Catedral”, where he personally subjected the guilty to sophisticated tortures, drilling the victims’ knees and pulling out their nails, then giving the order to kill them and take the bodies away.
Prison "La Catedral"
The escape
When these facts became public, on July 22, 1992, President Gaviria gave the order to transfer the cocaine baron to a real prison. When Pablo Escobar found out about this decision, he decided that he had already "seen enough" and fled. But there were few places where he could find refuge for himself. The Colombian and US governments were determined to end the Medellín cocaine cartel and its leader, and his friends were leaving him. However, Pablo continued to consider himself more significant figure than it actually was. He still had enormous financial resources, but he had already lost real power. The drug lord tried to negotiate with the government by making a deal with justice. But the President of Colombia and the US authorities did not want to enter into negotiations with him and decided to catch and eliminate Escobar.
A $10 million bounty has been placed on the cocaine king's head. It was an amount equal to the salary of the President of Colombia for almost 200 years! At that time, it was the largest reward for the capture of a criminal.
Meanwhile, while at large, the drug lord made another attempt to intimidate the government with brutal terror. On January 30, 1993, he organized an explosion on a crowded street in the capital. As a result of the attack, more than 20 people were killed and about 70 were seriously injured.
Hunt for El Patron
With this merciless terrorist attack, the drug lord brought disaster on himself - a new organization "" ("People affected by P.E.") entered the fight against him. The day after the bombing in Bogotá, members of Los Pepes burned down Pablo Escobar's house. Relatives of the victims, on his orders, began to hunt for members of the drug cortel and his relatives. They acted as brutally as the cocaine mafia, catching up on her with a thorough fear.
Los Pepes began to persecute everyone who was in any way connected with Escobar and his cocaine empire: they were simply killed. Behind a short time the organization caused great damage to the cartel, many of his close associates were killed, opponents pursued the drug lord's family, burned his estates. In the fall of 1993, the Medellin cartel collapsed. Pablo himself was more worried, he was seriously alarmed, because if the family was discovered, Los Pepes would destroy it without sparing anyone.
The Death of Pablo Escobar or the End of an Era of the Cocaine King
Hiding, he did not see his wife and children for more than a year, and, knowing about the constant surveillance, he spoke extremely briefly even on the phone. On December 1, 1993, El Patron turned 44 years old, and this time he lost his nerve: the next day, December 2, 1993, he called his family, as if he wanted to say goodbye. The last person he spoke to was his son, they stayed on the line for almost 5 minutes, twice as long as the security measures required. This time was enough to detect Escobar in the Los Olibos district of Medellin.
Soon the house where he was hiding was surrounded by special agents, two of them knocked out the door, bursting inside. former ringleader Colombian drug mafia knew they were coming. But it all happened so fast that he didn't even have time to put on his shoes. In the house were Pablo Escobar himself, his devoted sicario Alvaro de Jesus Agudelo(Spanish Alvaro de Jesús Agudelo) nicknamed Lemon (Spanish El limón), who was killed first, and the owner of the house is the drug lord's own aunt. Shooting back, Pablo climbed out the window, trying to get away from the persecution on the roofs. A sniper's (or El Patron's own | not proven) bullet caught up with him, hitting him in the head. The drug lord died instantly. The rest immediately climbed onto the roof to take a picture with an expensive “trophy”, later this photo spread around the world.
The scene of his death was depicted in famous painting Colombian painter.
“Better a grave in Colombia than a prison in the US” © Pablo Escobar
On December 3, 1993, thousands of Colombians took to the streets of Medellin. Someone came to mourn him, and someone rejoiced.
But today, when asked who Pablo Escobar was, not one of the inhabitants of the slums in Medellin will say a bad word about him. Although the patron was one of the most notorious terrorists and cruel criminals on the planet. His portraits are sold alongside portraits. In some places he is venerated as a saint, and pilgrimages are still made to his grave. The legend of the "King of Cocaine" is one of the main reasons for Medellin's tourist success, and its museum is visited by tens of thousands of tourists every year.
Today, many are interested in the question, Where is Pablo Escobar buried?? His grave located in the Montesacro cemetery (Spanish: Cementerio de Montesacro) in the south of Medellin. Dozens of people visit Escobar's grave every day. Many of them leave lit candles or notes for Pablo at its base. And someone and cigarettes with marijuana. It is said that some people often come here to use a dose of cocaine, rolling paths of white powder right on the drug lord's gravestone. By the way, Escobar's grave is guarded around the clock. The reason is not only the vandals who can abuse the grave, but also the large number of bone hunters of the “Cocaine King”. Moreover, there have already been similar cases when various groups of people tried several times to dig out the remains of Pablo Escobar from the ground.
Pablo's grave
Narcos
In 2015, the American film studio Netflix released the sensational television series Narcos. Its plot, of course, focuses on Escobar's rise to power as head of the Medellin cartel.
The role of Pablo was played by a Brazilian theater and film actor. Wagner Manisoba de Moura(port. Wagner Manicoba de Moura).
In September 2016, the second season of the series was released.
Some Rules for Escobar's Life
(Quotes from the statements of the drug lord and excerpts from his suicide letter)
- I'm a modest person, I'm just exporting flowers.
- Those who have something to say are often silent.
- I know that many people find my lifestyle to be excessive. But what should I do with my money?
- In this life I can find a replacement for any thing. But I will NEVER be able to find a replacement for my wife and children.
- Every person is a saint for someone.
- Although many say that I am a terrorist, I have always acted like a man of duty. I believe that every person should fight for his family and his property. And if he needs a weapon for this, so be it.
- You can call me God! After all, if I decide that someone is destined to die, he will die on the same day.
- For some reason, many people forget how much I have done for the poor. I am very proud to have been called the Robin Hood of all Paisas (Northwest Colombians). Even government officials cannot deny that I have done more for the poor than all of them put together in all their worthless lives.
- I would rather rot in Colombian soil than live in a US prison.
- America is 200 million idiots led by 1 million special agents.
- All empires are always built on blood and fire.
- There is nothing worse than a person in power who has personal problems.
- Everything in the world has its price, and the most important thing is the ability to correctly determine it.
- In our world, money is NEVER clean.
- I did not earn my fortune and achieve power in order to exist like a rat.
- Every year it becomes more and more difficult to foresee the future.
- Never trust anyone, but especially yourself.
- There is nothing more valuable than this promise. There is nothing more shameful than breaking it.
- The best way to deal with your enemies is to simply stop noticing them.
- No creature can ever catch me, I can kill them all.
- Death cannot be deceived, but it can be made friends with.
