Pablo Escobar

The name Pablo Escobar will forever be associated with drug Cartels in Medellin, Colombia and unfortunately even though he was killed  by a special Colombian American task force in 1993, people still have the idea that life in Colombia is dominated by the Drug Cartels which overshadow what is today a vibrant life in a City that turned itself around and opened anew chapter.  Nothing could be further form the truth - in fact, I would wager  the Coachella Valley where I lived for the past ten years has more drugs than Medellin Colombia  !!  In May.  I told Lisa and Gabe that I intended making a trip to Medellin and they thought I had lost my mind.  How could a thinking person, who was supposed to be rational, even consider visiting a city which was run by the Drug Cartels and was notorious for murders, kidnappings, anarchy  and drug dealing.  Now thatI  have made two trips to Medellin, I can report I was perfectly safe and was not kidnapped or invited to  joined a Cartel.   Furthermore, the women of Medellin are absolutely gorgeous and being past my expiration date knocks me off the list of applicants. 

River, my guide talking to the Guard

The guard closing the gate after we left.

Sculpture on the Buildng - it was too high up to be removed.

Escobar was born in 1949 and entered a life of crime while he was still a teenager.  He and his brother would steal tombstones from the cemetery, erase the inscriptions and resell them to Panamians.  He also stole cars,  dabbled in petty crime and other scams and predicted he would be a millionaire by age twenty two.  He found his way  to drug dealing,  "knocked off" the existing kingpin, took over his "territory and was on his way.  This man was a genuine thug and absolutely without conscience.  The demand for cocaine was skyrocketing in the US and at the height of his "career" he was supplying eighty percent of the cocaine shipped to the United States.  It is estimated he was shipping 70 - 80 tons of Cocaine every month  - no wonder he was seventh  on the Forbes list of the wealthiest people in the world.  At that time his fortune was estimated to be $2 4Billion Dollars.   This was a  brilliant businessman gone wrong.  He had his drug distribution worked out via the Bahamas, Panama and Florida and had sufficient planes, submarines and deputies to be sure the Cocaine was reaching its destinations.  He ruled by corruption, intimidation and murder.  His policy was "money or the bullet" and when he failed to bribe he did not hesitate to kill,  either the person he wanted out of the way or that person's entire family.  Six hundred policemen are said to have been killed by poor people who were rewarded in cash for each policeman they  killed off.  Altogether, he is said to have been responsible for the deaths of ten thousand people, including magistrates, politicians, policemen, journalists and criminals who stood in his way.  With great wealth came a lifestyle of mansions, villlas, private airplanes, submarines (for transpiring the drugs) , a private zoo, and an army of people to protect his safety,   At the time of his death, there was celebration and mourning.  Celebration that Pablo was overthrown and  mourning by the people he had helped and those who were suddenly without a livelihood.  He was a type of Robin Hood as throughout his life he was generous to the poor. He built housing projects, sports fields, schools and Churches which also ingratiated him to the Catholic Church.

While Escobar is reputed to have had at least nineteen  homes (all with helipads !!)throughout Medellin, his main apartment was located in El Poblado which is still the best suburb of Medellin.  I asked my guide if I could see where Pablo Escobar had lived and we arrived at a large abandoned apartment building with a secured, retractable metal gate.  The military guard at the gate, who was dressed in army  fatigues  with a revolver holster at his waist and what looked like an AK 47 over his shoulder, allowed us in and as the gate closed behind us, I wondered if this was a good decision, !! What appeared to have once been landscaped beds of plants  were now overgrown and neglected. A Hollywood style swimming pool was empty except for some stagnant rainwater collecting in the deep end and the  tennis court was in total disrepair   There was still a  beautiful sculpture on the wall leading into the building that  was an indication that someone had loved art, Walking into this deserted, dilapidated eight story apartment building was eerie.  It was filthy dirty with dust and dead leaves that looked as if they had never  been cleaned since the time of his death in1993.  The building had been ransacked beyond imagination by the locals after it became known that Escobar was dead and everything that was not not fixed was removed and anything that was fixed and could be torn out had been gutted.  Overhead lights, kitchen sinks, even baths and lavatories were gone. There was no furniture in the apartments and this must have gone the same way.  The occupants had all been on Pablo's payroll and were responsible to him  for their livelihood.  These must have been beautiful apartments,  -  they had wonderful views, high ceilings,  spacious rooms and maid's quarters. There were three elevators and the middle one was "dedicated" to the top floor where Pablo lived, but on the  fourth floor,  visitors were stopped  and went through a screening before getting into another elevator to his apartment on the top floor, where they had to go though another screening before being allowed in.   The most interesting feature about his apartment was the safe: this was a LARGE ROOM, large enough to live in, that had a steel safe door such as one sees in a bank.   I don't know if it was used to keep the money or the drugs but it was LARGE. I  know he also had a warehouse where he kept the money and the story is that ten percent of his cash was destroyed by rats each year.  He is said to have spent $2,500 annually on elastic bands to keep the money in bundles. !!

Outside view of the Aprtment Building.

Swimming Pool.

View of the City fro Pablo's apartment.

The basement  garage housed thirty eight expensive cars and a car was always ready to take off in case an attempt was made on his life.  About one year before he was killed, there was an attempt on Escobar's life. A  car bomb that was supposed to be planted in the building exploded at the gate shaking up the entire neighborhood and breaking windows for miles around.  Although there were always escape routes planned, this one caught his security team off guard.  To get him out of the building in a hurry,  he had to exit through  the garbage shute where he  dropped eight floors onto two mattresses at the bottom.   He did suffer quite extensive injuries but was in a car and out of the building within seconds before any police arrived.  I saw the shute and one had to be extremely desperate to take that route !!

Kitchen showing cabinets have been removed.

Locks ripped out of door  - this was on every door.

The Safe door leading into the "safe room"

 About a year later, Escobar was finally killed by a combined American and Colombian task force. The Americans had wanted to have him  extradited to the United States to stand trial, but he managed to avert this by volunteering to go into jail in Colombia.  This was no  ordinary jail and he was allowed to build the jail in which he was incarcerated, which was not really a hardship.  By the time he was released, his power was waning and many of his supporters who were turned off by his violence and corruption had deserted him,   Although he was in hiding, the Americans managed to track him using modern technology,  They had planes flying around  and "found him" through intercepting a conversation he was having with his wife on the phone.  He was located in one of his homes where he was hiding.  By this time he only and one security guard with him and the two of them were killed in the skirmish that ensued - although it has been said that Escobar killed himself rather than be captured of killed.

Landscaping in the Cemetry

View from the gravesite

This may sound macabre but I wanted to visit  the cemetery that was the final resting place of Pablo Escobar and we drove to a beautiful  cemetery in Itagui where we found his burial plot that included the graves also of his  parents with space for other relatives to join them.  There were several visitors with the same idea who had come to see where Pablo Escobar was buried..   The cemetery is beautiful and is on a hillside over looking the city. There was controversy about his final resting place and the fact that it would attract interest and promote the legend that the people would have preferred to forget. 

Two relatives standing at the graveside

The dark shadow of the Escobar reign still hangs over this beautiful City, full of  green spaces,incredible views and much to be proud of about the progress that has taken placed since Escobar's death.  This is now a democratically run City with a democratically elected Mayor and President,  The people of Medellin have done a complete about turn and have made progress every year since this happened.  Today, Medellln is a modern City, with ongoing construction,  interesting modern architecture, a buoyant economy and an upwardly mobile stock market.  Those Americans who had the courage to invest have done well, not only because of their Real Estate Investments that have done well, but also because the  Colombian Peso has  gained strength over the value of the declining US Dollar. The inhabitants of Medellin are known as Paisas and Pasias are extremely hard working (and hard partying) and the nicest people in the world who deserve the good fortune that has come their way since the death of Pablo Escobar.

Tombstone on Pablo's grave.