drug lord Pablo Escobar built while still alive Hacienda Napoles estate as a monument to his greatness. Even 22 years after his death, this gigantic estate is as alive as ever. Several people take care of it. And he also talks about this and about the life of a drug lord crime drama"Narcos" (Narcos, from Spanish - Drug Dealers), which has become so popular lately.
Colombian police pose in front of the entrance to former place residence of the drug lord Pablo Escobar
Speaks Robin Hartmann
We are writing about 1978, when the then 30-year-old man began his incredible career death, and during which thousands of innocent people passed away. And thanks to this, he became one of the richest and most powerful people in the world: Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria at that time, he stood only at the beginning of his career as the future terrible drug lord of all times and peoples. He was also responsible for numerous illegal shops and murders. It was already clear earlier that El Patron de Mal(in German: Mister Evil) or El Capo, as he was already called, is a man in whose hands is all the power that he needs. Namely, when and where he needs it.
Shot from the series "Narco"
Was filmed film about life Pablo Escobar , in particular, the series "Narco" with Wagner Moura V leading role.
Naturally, such a man needed hearth. His flamboyant and unambiguous manner and image represent his dominance and everyone else should understand this: he is the Boss! At Escobaro there was a small private property in Puerto Triunfo. The land plot is surrounded by a fence and its area is almost 3000 hectares. Immediately after purchase "Hacienda Napolis" construction work started there. Then already Escobar owned immense financial condition and could afford to build there: an airplane runway, an unimaginable number of luxury apartments for famous guests, more than 20 artificially created lakes, a heliport, an aircraft hangar, horse quarters, a dino park and his own bullring. Today, all of this is part of a theme park.
This complex also includes "Afrikanisches Museum"
1700 employees and a private zoo
Soon, ten luxury residential buildings were built throughout the complex, in which about 1,700 employees lived. Escobar and his business partners. The cost of Hacienda was at one time estimated at over $60 million. Legend has it that he owns a 1934 Chevrolet Modell on display in which a gangster couple was allegedly shot dead. Bonnie and Clyde. It was also known that Escobar honored them both. In addition, the property Escobar there was an exotic arboretum with rare palm trees and other plants.
Car park Escobar
Former truck fleet Pablo Escobaro started to rust. There is not small amount people who are firmly convinced to this day that the rock group Rolling Stones ( Rolling Stones) once performed at Hocienda Napolis. However, this rumor has never been officially confirmed, but this myth has made a certain contribution.
Car park Escobar
All this megalomania was fully reflected in private hobbies, in which Escobar invested millions of dollars private zoo, filled with giraffes, rhinos, elephants, kangaroos, camels and hippos - just to name a few of the many species that live there.
These flamingos walk proudly through Escobar's private zoo and were soon relocated to the Santafe Zoo in the city. Medellin
Friendly junkie needed ideas El Capo, divulged the son Escobar after the death of his father, who today calls himself Sebastian Marroquin. At the time, there were such visible extravagant norms under the Colombian drug lord. But here's the absurdity: a private zoo Escobar was founded after one purchase in the United States of America (Vereinigten Staaten). “My father negotiated with the owners of the zoo in Dallas, Texas (Dallas, Texas),” says younger son Escobar, "he paid these people two million dollars in cash and a short time later the animals were sent."
Colombian journalist Juan Felipe Lopez Lara explains why under the noses of the city authorities such bandits as Escobar could lead such an extravagant and conspicuous life without fear of being searched by the police:
Drug dealers then ruled the whole country, they ruled both the politics and the economy of the whole of Colombia. It was an era of pure anarchy, they controlled almost everything, from the fate of states to sports.
That's how Escobar even bought out the South American football competition Copa Libertadores (Copa Libertadores) in 1989 to see how his favorite team wins. "Club Atletico Nacional in the city of Medellin" (Club Atletico Nacional de Medellin).
Pablo Escobar opened his zoo to the public
And again a little about Hacienda Napolis, who, during her lifetime, Escobar bequeathed to future generations. As soon as all construction work was completed on the estate and his private zoo was fully equipped and all animals were delivered there, Pablo Escobar did something very unexpected! Rather than fence off his own property and retire there, he opened the whole territory to the public and gave everyone who entered the opportunity to use their dose of courage there and appease their curiosity.
My son, this zoo is here for the public.
this is how the drug lord explained his decision to the children.
As long as I'm alive, no one here will have to pay to enter. I love that poor people can just come and marvel at the wonders of nature
There were crowds of people. Initial time to visit the zoo Escobaro was calculated as 10 minutes per person, but soon due to huge crowds, the waiting time was increased to two hours.
In his book "Pablo Escobaro is my father" Sebastian Marroquin recounts how he saved an injured deer from his fate both times: “He let me take his Sieg Sauer P-226 pistol and helped me aim. However, it took me three tries because I was very scared and my hands were shaking."
The era of the king of drugs did not last so long: Escobar Of course, he felt like the favorites of little people and the crowd, he always acted boldly, boldly and mercilessly. Thousands of people died in this drug war. It seemed that Colombia lost in this fight against the mighty Escobaro. AND USA insisted that the man who filled their entire country with cocaine receive American capital punishment. The truth meanwhile Escobar a deal with the authorities was granted and he was sent behind bars, to a prison that looked like a luxury hotel inside. He built this prison himself. After the escape attempt, it became clear that only the death of state enemy number one would provide a small respite in this drug war and the US would calm down after that.
The shot was fired by an elite group of Colombian and American police officers. federal service for drug control. His Hacienda Napolis estate was confiscated. "The Colombian state and the narcotics service got the whole estate at the time," says the journalist Lopez Lara.
After Escobaro's death , Hacienda is gradually being destroyed
In the next few decades, such an elegant and pompous place collapsed quite badly: the robbers took with them everything they could carry, nature again took all its strength and the entire Hacienda began to slowly collapse before our eyes and become covered with destructive greenery. Surprising changes were also taking place in the once brilliant private zoo. Even during his lifetime Escobaro many hippopotamuses, which were brought by him, ran away. He brought them because the smell of their fertilizer covered the smell of drugs.
Pablo Escobar hippos 
Pablo Escobar hippos
Hippos were imported from Pablo Escobaro and are now enjoying freedom: hippos are close to Hacienda Napolis.
“Today we try to find all the animals in the area,” explains Lopez Lara. These are the only living hippos living outside of Africa (Afrika). How large their population is, no one can say for sure. Some say that they number about 70 individuals, while others, on the contrary, argue that we are talking O more animals. It is a fact that hippos are doing well in Colombia and their numbers are steadily increasing. Here them sex life much more active than their counterparts in Africa.
According to the BBC company (BBC), animals in this area suffer greatly: they scare the fish, devour the entire crop and occasionally kill livestock. Probably, Pablo Escobaro this place was a great pleasure, and so now it says that Colombia simply did not give a damn about the soul of Pablo already 20 years after his death.
Today Hacienda Napolis it is again a zoo and a tourist theme park with hotels and attractions. Travel portal TripAdvisor (Tripadvisor) awarded him a certificate of quality in 2014 thanks not only to animals, but also to the fact that you can plunge into the world of a person who, thanks to his career as a criminal, got into Forbes list(Forbes) as one of the richest people in the world.
Today estate Escobaro it is an art museum showing the life stages of a drug lord.
At the entrance, at the gate, you can see a small plane that brought the first contraband shipment of cocaine into the United States. Inside the complex, visitors can walk through the water park and enjoy the dino park, which Escobaro built for his son. And of course, you can learn a lot about yourself Escobaro, about the man whose death all Colombia needed so much.
Life Pablo Escobaro has been filmed many times last time in the series "Narcos" with a Brazilian actor Wagner Moura starring. On this moment You can watch this series on Netflix.
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
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 transported most 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. Incredible Wealth Escobar 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, which amounted to $2.1 billion.
Escobar just had more money than he could use, so accidental losses due to rodents or mold were 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.
Once a girl asked to give her a unicorn.
Escobar bought a horse and had a horn-shaped cardboard cone stapled to its head. Also, wings were sewn to the back of the horse, 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 she had baby tooth, the “tooth fairy” left a suitcase with $ 1 million near her bed, allegedly in exchange for her tooth. When the girl asked how many billions he had, Pablo always answered her: “As much as the look of your eyes is worth, my princess”!
It is said that Escobar forced one of his mistresses, who became pregnant from him, to have an abortion only because the drug lord promised Manuela that she would always be his only and beloved daughter.
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 football field, a barbecue lawn and a patio, and the prison 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.
End of career and death of Pablo
During his "imprisonment", Pablo Escobar continued to run a multi-billion dollar cocaine business. One day he learned that his partners in the cocaine cartel, taking advantage of his absence, robbed him. He immediately ordered his men to take them to La Catedral. He personally subjected them to brutal torture, drilling his victims' knees and pulling out their nails, and then ordered his people to kill them and take the corpses out of the prison. It is known that Escobar committed one of the two murders with his own hand.
Escobar has gone too far this time. On July 22, 1992, President Cesar Gaviria gave the order to transport Pablo Escobar to a real prison. But Escobar found out about the president's decision and fled.
He was free, but now there were enemies everywhere.
In the fall of 1993, the Medellin cocaine cartel began to disintegrate, but the drug lord was more worried about his family. Escobar has not seen his wife or children for over a year. On December 1, 1993, Pablo Escobar turned 44 years old. He knew that he was under constant surveillance, so he tried to speak on the phone as briefly as possible so that he would not be “spotted” by police and special services agents.
The day after his birthday, December 2, 1993, Escobar called his family. The agents hunting for him had been waiting for this call for many hours. This time, while talking to his son Juan, Escobar stayed on the line for about 5 minutes. After that, Escobar was spotted in the Medellin quarter of Los Olibos. Soon the house in which Pablo Escobar was hiding was surrounded on all sides by special agents. The commandos knocked out the door and rushed inside. At that moment, Escobar's bodyguard El Limon opened fire on the police who were trying to storm the house.
El Limon was injured and fell to the ground. Immediately after that, with a pistol in his hands, Pablo Escobar himself leaned out the same window. He opened fire indiscriminately in all directions. He then climbed out the window and tried to escape his pursuers through the roof. A Colombian police sniper who was hiding on the roof of a nearby house shot Escobar in the leg, causing him to fall. The next bullet hit Escobar in the back, after which the sniper approached Escobar and fired a control shot in the head.
10 Crazy Facts About The Cocaine King's Even Crazier Money
The “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 shipped most of its cocaine directly to 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 it 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 Columbia To Be Jailed In luxury prison, which he built himself and called La Catedral - "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...
For three years, British photographer James Mollison has been documenting the legacy of cocaine king Pablo Escobar, who left thousands of victims and admirers in Colombia.
Most Colombians consider Pablo Escobar a criminal who plunged the country into chaos for a whole decade, but in the poor neighborhoods of his native Medellin, he is called Robin Hood. The drug lord donated millions of dollars earned from the supply of cocaine in the United States to social housing, churches and football fields.
Many Colombians remember the free tours at Escobar's Hacienda Napoles zoo, which kept elephants, giraffes, kangaroos, rhinos, hippos and exotic birds. The area rebuilt in Medellin with the money of the cocaine king is still called the Pablo Escobar quarter: the walls of the houses here are decorated with portraits of the drug lord and the inscriptions “Saint Pablo”, and thousands of people visit his grave, despite the struggle of the authorities with the cult of the former “owner” of the city.
1. In the image of the Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa (left). wax figure from the collection of the Police Museum (right)
2. Pablo on the day of the first communion, 1956
drug business
Escobar, the son of a farmer and a school teacher, began his criminal career by stealing tombstones from the Medellin cemetery. At the age of twenty, he was already at the head of a gang that traded in car thefts. When cocaine began to replace marijuana in the global market in the 1970s, Escobar took up drugs: he started as a supplier, reselling Colombian cocaine to dealers in the United States, but soon controlled the entire chain. He opened the first laboratory in Medellin, and then a whole network of factories appeared in tropical forests throughout the country.
In 1977, Escobar founded the Medellin cocaine cartel, and a year later, his partner Carlos Leder bought one of the Bahamas - passenger flights from Colombia landed there, loaded with cocaine, which was then transported on a private plane to Georgia and Florida. Two submarines were also used for smuggling.
3. The structure of the Medellin cartel, 1989
Behind a short time the cartel managed to capture about 80% of the cocaine market in the United States and practically monopolized drug trafficking to Mexico, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic and Spain. In its heyday, Escobar's cartel earned about $60 million a day, and Forbes magazine estimated the drug lord's personal fortune at three billion dollars in 1989.
4. Arrested cargo of drugs (left). Jungle airstrip (right)
5. Fake numbers and masks of the kidnappers (left). Florida homes bought by Escobar in 1981 (right)
6. Cartel money seized during a search, 1989
Policy
In 1982, Escobar was elected as a substitute member of the Congress of Colombia, received parliamentary immunity and represented the country at the inauguration ceremony of Spanish Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez. But the very next year, Minister of Justice Rodrigo Lara Bonia publicly accused Escobar of drug trafficking and organizing criminal group: based on the data he collected, the cocaine king was expelled from Congress in January 1984. A few months later, the ministerial Mercedes was shot at point-blank range with a machine gun, Lara Bonia died on the spot.
In the same year, the Colombian authorities ratified an agreement with the United States on the extradition of drug cartel leaders. In response, the leaders of the Medellin cartel created the Los Extraditables group, which began to carry out acts of intimidation: attacks on officials, policemen and politicians.
7. Wall in one of the houses of the Escobar quarter (left). Meeting with voters, 1982 (right)
8. Debate in Congress after the accusation of Escobar in drug dealing
9. Escobar at the inauguration of the Prime Minister of Spain, Madrid, 1982
Family
In 1976, Escobar married his girlfriend Maria Victoria Eneo Viejo, soon they had a son, Juan Pablo, and three years later, a daughter, Manuela. Since 1979, they have lived in the 3,000-hectare Hacienda Napoles estate bought for $63 million.
It is known that, even being wanted, the drug lord tried to spend everything with his children. family holidays and birthdays. In 1993, when members of a rival group announced a hunt for relatives of the cocaine king, he hid with his family in the mountains and one evening burned two million dollars in a fire so that Manuela would not freeze.
After Escobar's assassination, his family fled to Mozambique and then to Argentina, where Juan Pablo took the name Sebastian Marroquin. In 2009, he publicly apologized to the children of politicians killed on the order of the leader of the Medellin cartel, and in 2014 he published a book of memoirs and launched a line of T-shirts with the image of his father. Two books about Escobar were also written by his brother Roberto and one each by both sisters.
10. Photos in the house of Escobar's mother Ermilda Gaviria, 2005
11. With wife Maria Victoria, early 1980s
12. In prison cell with wife and daughter, 1992 (left). With sister on her 31st birthday, 1980 (right)
13. Son's birthday, Hacienda Napoles estate, 1989
Terror
After the adoption of the law on the extradition to the United States of the leaders of the drug cartels, Escobar began to sponsor the militant group MAS ("Death to the Kidnappers"). In addition to an impressive arsenal of weapons, she had her own planes with 30 pilots at her disposal, and the militants were trained by American, Israeli and British instructors. In 1989, the leader of the Medellin Cartel offered the Colombian government a deal: he would turn himself in to the police if the extradition law was repealed.
Having been refused, Escobar launched terror: in a year in Bogota, the headquarters of the Administrative Department of Security, the main intelligence service of the country, as well as the editorial offices of the newspapers El Espectador and Vanguardia Liberal, were blown up, a judge of the Supreme Court, a police colonel and presidential candidate Luis Carlos were killed by killers Galan.
14. In addition, the militants blew up a Boeing 727 plane - as a result of the terrorist attack, 110 people were killed.
15. Exploded building of the security department
16. Attack victim
17. The mother of the murdered police officer with photos of her son
18. Miguel Masa, director of the Administrative Department of Security from 1982-1991, survived seven attempts on his life organized by Escobar
Charity
In 1979, Escobar established the Civil Responsibility in Action social assistance system, under the auspices of which medical centers for low-income families were established in Medellin, green spaces were created and sports facilities were built. The most famous charitable program of the drug lord was the project "Medellin without slums", which involved the construction of thousands of houses in the poorest region of Moravia.
The quarter of Pablo Escobar was rebuilt in the city, which is now inhabited by almost 13 thousand inhabitants. The program has been blessed catholic church, and in the slums of Medellin, the drug lord was often seen distributing money to the poor in the company of two priests.
In 1989, the local football club Atlético Nacional, sponsored by Escobar, won the Copa Libertadores, becoming the best team South America.
19. Celebration in honor of the first anniversary of the construction of the Escobar quarter, 1985
20. At the opening football field, 1982
21. Fundraising for the program "Medellin without the slums", 1983
22. Eight hippos from the Escobar Zoo, 2004
23. At the Hacienda Napoles Zoo, 1980s
Death
In 1991, by agreement with the government, Escobar surrendered to justice; shortly before this, Colombia adopted a new constitution prohibiting the extradition of its citizens.
The drug lord was placed in the La Catedral prison built with his own money, which had a bar, a football field and a jacuzzi. It was completely controlled by the Medellin cartel.
26. Left: Escobar's call interception map, 1993, right: Escobar's personal phone
27. La Catedral Prison, 1992
28. Security room
In response, the head of state established a special search group under the leadership of Colonel Hugo Martinez, who coordinated efforts with US intelligence agencies. Los Pepes, a group of his competitors in the drug business, ultra-right guerrillas and victims of terror launched by the Medellin cartel, also joined the search for Escobar. During the year, Los Pepes killed more than 300 members of the cartel and destroyed a significant part of its property.
After fifteen months of searching, on December 2, 1993, a special group intercepted Escobar's call to his son and located him. On the same day, he was shot dead on the roof of a house in Medellin.
29. Soldiers of the special search group with the body of Escobar
I PERFECTLY UNDERSTAND that you will print all this.
I HAVE ALWAYS SAID: My wealth has nothing to do with drugs. I humble person I am exporting flowers.
ONE WHO HAS SOMETHING TO SAY is always silent.
I KNOW some people find my lifestyle too over the top, but what else am I supposed to do with my money?
I LOVE BULLS, but most of all I like cars. In my family, they are generally addicted to speed. For example, my brother (Roberto Escobar. - Esquire) is very fond of bicycles, so at some point I decided to give him this bicycle factory (Bicicletas Ositto. - Esquire) in Manizales.
In THIS LIFE, I can find a replacement for any thing, but I will never find a replacement for my wife and children.
EVERY PERSON is a saint for someone.
I have ALWAYS acted like a man of duty, even though some say I am a terrorist. But I believe that a person is obliged to fight for his family and his property, and if for this he needs a weapon, then so be it. Am I supposed to act like a complete fagot and let someone take my dignity and honor from me?
SOMETIMES I FEEL LIKE I've gone too far with all these kidnappings and bombings.
CONSIDER ME GOD. Because if it seems to me that someone is destined to die, he dies on the same day.
NOT ALL ERRORS can be forgiven.
EVEN THE GODS make mistakes sometimes.
There can be only one KING.
I DO NOT UNDERSTAND why everyone forgets how much I have done for the poor. Remember, they called me the Robin Hood of all paisas (inhabitants of the northwestern part of Colombia. - Esquire)? Now, I'm very proud of this. Even government people can't deny that I've done more for the poor than all of them put together in all their worthless lives.
I PREFER TO rot in Colombian soil than to live in an American prison.
AMERICA is two hundred million idiots led by one million special agents.
ALL EMPIRES are built on blood and fire.
There is NOTHING more terrible than putting a person with personal problems in power.
EVERYTHING IN THE WORLD HAS A PRICE, and the most important thing is the ability to correctly determine it.
I KNOW VERY WELL how math works, but still, in my world, it's impossible to subtract ten from nine.
MONEY is never clean.
I didn't make my fortune and rise to power to live like a damn rat.
EVERY YEAR it gets harder and harder to foresee the future.
I'm DEADLY TIRED of hiding and fighting.
DON'T TRUST ANYONE, especially yourself.
THERE IS NOTHING MORE VALUABLE than a promise made, and nothing more shameful than breaking it.
THE BEST WAY to deal with enemies is to stop noticing them.
NO CREATURE will ever be able to catch me. From here, from the jungle, I am able to kill them all. Therefore, all they can count on is a miserable loss.
DEATH cannot be fooled, but it can be befriended.
WHEN YOU ARE DEAD, you have nothing to fear.
YOU WILL NEVER KNOW which bullet will kill you. After all, names are not written on bullets.
I AM NOT VERY GOOD TO WRITE LETTER. So tired of this fucking typewriter! She drives me crazy. I should probably call my family - they just got back from Germany. So I say to you: forgive and take care of yourself.
ALL I WANTED was to make Colombia better.
AS long as PARADISE EXISTS, I can count on it.
Quotes from public statements and suicide letter. Based on materials
