PABLO ESCOBAR BIOGRAPHY, biography of pablo escobar

                                                  

                    PABLO ESCOBAR BIOGRAPHY

Pablo EscobarPablo Escobar was the world’s most successful drug trafficker. He was also its most deadly. During his 17- year reign at the top of theColombian cocaine empire, he ordered the killings of thousands of people, including judges,ministers of parliament and Presidential candidates. At the height of his power he was raking inover a million dollars a day, yet in the end he was forced to live as a fugitive in theColombian jungle. Shot down on a rooftop in the city that hehad ruled over, his was a fall from grace of epic proportion. 

In this week’s Biographics, we go deep intothe South American drug world to reveal the true-life story of Don Pablo. Early LifePablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria was born on December 1st, 1949 in the small town of Rinegro, 45minutes from Medellin, Colombia. His father, Abel, was a hard working, humblecattle farmer, while his mother Hermilda was a school teacher. Pablo, the second of seven children, was raisedin a middle-class environment in a community that was fuelled by the cocaine and marijuanatrade. Although not everyone directly participatedin the drug business, they all had a powerful incentive in the protection of those thatdid.

 The violence that was part and parcel of enforcingthe narcotics trade was all around. Before Pablo started school, the family movedto Envigado, a small village just out of Medellin, so that Hermilda could establish an elementaryschool there. Abel sold the farm and took up a job as aneighbourhood watchman. Through her work at the school, Hermilda soonbecome a popular and well-respected member of the community. At school, Pablo proved himself to be an ableand quick-witted student. Although tending toward the chubby side, thanksto his love of fast food, he was talented in all ball sports, with a special love forsoccer. Many of his teachers were involved in socialcauses, especially the struggle for class equality and they became powerful influenceson the boy. By the time he was in his early teens, Pablowas attending street rallies and participating in such activities as throwing rocks at thepolice. Pablo became part of a youth culture movementknown as Nadaismo which encouraged young people to thumb their noses at the established order,disobey their parents and write their own rules. 

Part of this counterculture movement involvedexperimentation with drugs, leading the thirteen-year-old future drug kingpin to develop an addictionto marijuana which would never leave him. The Young ThugBy the age of sixteen Pablo had developed into a plump, short youth, standing at justover five foot, six inches. He had a round face and wore a slight moustache. A couple of months before reaching his seventeenthbirthday, he dropped out of school, bored with the straight-laced routine and keen tomake his own way in the world. After quitting school, the enterprising Pablostarted up a little bicycle repair shop. He would prowl the streets and the local dumpin search of discarded bicycle parts and then use them to fix bikes for cheap. With the money that he made from this enterprise,he purchased himself a Lambretta motorcycle. Now with a means of fast escape, he beganplanning how to make money more easily than repairing bicycles for a pittance. According to legend, Pablo’s foray intocrime began with him stealing headstones from the local cemetery, sandblasting the namesfrom them and then reselling them. Pablo decided that the route to quick cashlay in commercial business robbery. He started by scoping out potential targets. 

He would then ride to the target businesson his motorbike, slip a balaclava over his head and rush the business with a knife orgun in hand, demand the money and then get out of there. It all happened in about 30 seconds. After a few successful robberies, Pablo recruitedhis cousin to join him. One would ride the bike and act as the getaway rider while the other stormed the business. Within a few months, Pablo became bored withthis and moved on to bigger – and easier – things. He established a contact with a Renault cardealer who would provide him with copies of the keys to the cars that he had just sold,along with the addresses of the buyers. All that Pablo had to do was turn up at theaddresses and drive the cars away. In his late teens, Pablo got caught in theact of stealing one of these cars. He ended up spending several months in LaLadera Jail, which was to him, a positive life experience. Here he learned about how to move into biggertime criminal activity, including kidnapping and drug trafficking.

 A Violent ReputationOnce back on the street, Pablo and his cousin Gustavo went right back to stealing cars. They built up a collection of stolen engineparts which they would sell off bit by bit. The pair took to building race cars, withPablo competing in local events. Pablo and Garcia weren’t the only ones stealingcars in Medellin, which led to an extension of his operation. He decided to also sell protection, so thatpeople would pay him to ensure that their car did not get taken. Pablo was able to provide such a service becausehe had developed a reputation as an unpredictable and violent young man. If anyone owed him money, Pablo would hiresome local thug to kidnap the person. He would them ransom him for whatever wasowed to him. From time to time he would have the personkilled even when the ransom was paid, simply to engender fear in those he dealt with. Before long, Pablo decided to specialise inkidnappings for their own sake. 

Along with his cousin and future brother-in-lawhe nabbed a rich businessman by the name of Diego Echavarria. This man was intensely disliked by many ofthe poor workers in Medellin, who were being laid off in droves by industrialists likehim. Despite the family okaying the $50,000 ransomdemand, Echavarria was beaten, strangled and the dumped in a ditch. Even though he had just committed a terriblecrime, his choice of victim made Pablo hugely popular among the common folk of Medellin. In a strange way they saw the killing as Pablostriking a blow for social equality. Entering the Drug TradeIn 1971, the 22-year old Pablo began working for Medellin based contraband dealer AlvaroPrieto. Under Prieto, Pablo was doing a modest amountof drug trafficking. Before long, however, he decided that he wantedmore of a slice of the pie for himself. He drove his stolen Renault 4 to Ecuador andbought five kilos of Peruvian cocaine paste. Successfully passing through a number of policeand military checkpoints, he returned to Medellin, where he processed the cocaine. He next contacted fellow criminals the Ochoabrothers to set up a sale to local cocaine chief Fabio Restrepo. The sale netted Pablo close to a hundred thousanddollars, far surpassing anything he had previously done, and setting him firmly on the path tobecoming a high-end drug dealer. Within two months, Fabio Restrepo had beenmurdered. 

Suddenly there was a new man at the head ofthe Medellin cocaine operation – Pablo Escobar. It has never been conclusively proven thatPablo murdered Restrepo, but that was what everyone involved believed. The majority of those working for Restrepowere upper class dandies. They were frightened by Pablo and the ruthlesshoodlums he surrounded himself with. Shortly after muscling his way to the topof the Medellin cocaine syndicate, Pablo married fifteen-year-old Maria Victoria Helena Vellejo. Now aged twenty-six, he had a wife, wealthand power. It seemed like the sky was the limit. On TopThe cocaine trade from Panama, through Colombia and into the United States boomed in the late1970’s, with most of it being trafficked though Escobar’s organization. Under Pablo, the cocaine industry became streamlined. He purchased a fleet of airplanes, includinga Lear jet to transport the drugs into the United States where there was an inexhaustiblesupply of willing buyers. Two months after his wedding, Pablo and fourothers were arrested after returning from a drug run to Ecuador. Drug enforcement agents found 39 kilos ofcocaine hidden in the spare tire of their truck. That amount of coke would see Pablo beingput away for a long time. His first tactic in getting out of the messwas to bribe the trial judge. The offer however was flatly rejected. Pablo then had his team research the judge’sbackground. 

They discovered that he had a brother whowas a lawyer and that the two men did not get on. The lawyer was contacted and offered a hugeamount to represent Pablo in the case. As suspected, the judge was forced to recusehimself due to conflict of interest. The new judge didn’t have as many scruplesas the first. He accepted a bribe and Pablo and his cohortswalked free. Exorbitant amounts of money were now pouringinto Colombia, with deposits in the country’s four major banks doubling between 1976 and1980. Pablo was able to use his millions to takepossession of every step of his operation, traveling to Peru, Bolivia and Panama andbuying up all the cultivation farms and processing plants. He was also able to buy off enforcement agenciesin every country, developing a ruthless policy which came to be known as ‘plato o plomo’– silver or lead. If officials didn’t accept his bribe theycould expect to end up dead. By 1980, Pablo was at the height of his power. With every law enforcement agency on his payroll,he was the unofficial king of Medellin. He wasn’t the only cocaine impresario inColombia, but he was the most successful. He owned multiple mansions, racing cars, helicoptersand planes and was constantly surrounded by bodyguards and hangers on. Cocaine money transformed Medellin, with discosand high-end restaurants opening up all over the city. One of Pablo’s passions was soccer and nowhe was able to indulge it. He paid to have fields levelled and soddedand lights installed so that he and his crew could play at night time. He would also employ professional game callersto announce the matches as if they were an FA cup final. In 1979, Pablo built a lavish country estateon a seventy-four-hundred-acre ranch, eighty miles of Medellin, dubbing it Hacienda LosNapoles.

 He brought exotic animals from all over theworld to populate the farm, built six swimming pools and a huge mansion that could sleepa hundred guests. At the same time that he was indulging hisevery materialistic whim in private, Pablo began tending to his public image. He constantly denied that he was involvedin any illicit activity, portraying a formal, likeable persona and appearing humble andpolite. He consciously cultivated the image that hewas a freedom fighter for the underprivileged, setting himself up as an alternative to theestablishment. He also poured millions of dollars into socialconstruction programs. Between 1980-1982, Pablo did more to helpout the poor in Medellin than the Colombian government had ever done. 

One of his most popular initiatives was ahousing project called Barrio Pablo Escobar, where houses were built and given to familieswho had previously been sheltering in shacks at the city dump. This and a host of other projects easily madehim the most popular citizen in Medellin. In private, Pablo conducted himself in anunderstated manner. He spoke softly and was generally relaxedand casual with those around him. He was hugely self-indulgent - with food,drink and women – and considered himself a law unto himself. On one occasion when an employee was foundto have stolen from him, Pablo had him brought before him bound hand and foot and then kickedhim into the swimming pool, making everyone watch as the man drowned. A Brief Political CareerWith his popularity among the masses firmly established and his dominance over his empireassured, the next logical step for Pablo was politics. His path to legitimate office began in 1978when he was elected as a substitute city councillor in Medellin. In 1980 he gave his personal and financialsupport to the formation of a new national political movement, the New Liberal Party. Then, in 1982 he ran for, and was electedto Congress, albeit as a substitute who attended when the primary delegate from Medellin wasunavailable.

 A major perk of being elected to Congresswas that Pablo now had judicial immunity, meaning that he could not be convicted fora crime under Colombian law. The position also afforded him a diplomaticvisa, which he made use of to regularly take his family on trips to the United States. On one trip he purchased an $8 million mansionin Miami Beach, Florida. Pablo now had political legitimacy to go withhis massive wealth. The next acquisition was a personal army. When a friend of the family was kidnappedby M-19 guerrillas, he created a private militia to hunt down the rebels. Pablo’s army was known as ‘Death to Kidnappers.’ Pablo’s wider exposure as a result of hispolitical office was the beginning of his downfall. In Medellin he was viewed as a Robin Hoodfigure, but when he tried to gain the favour of polite Colombian society he was not welcomed. They viewed him as what he really was – aruthless cocaine king with absolutely no scruples. When he turned up to take his seat in Congressas an alternate for the first time on August 16th 1983 with a bevy of bodyguards in towhe was first denied entry for not wearing a tie. 

He quickly got hold of one and swept intothe packed chamber. He slumped down in his allocated seat andbegan nervously to bite his fingernails. Immediately the Chamber president stood anddemanded that all bodyguards be removed from the chamber. Pablo nodded and his thugs left the room. Within minutes Justice Minister Rodrigo Larawas on his feet. Defending a claim of corruption that had beenbrought against him, Lara pointed the finger at Pablo, stating . . .We have a congressman who was born in a very poor area himself, very, very poor, and afterwards,through astute business deals in bicycles and other things, appears with a giganticfortune, with nine planes, three hangars at the Medellin airport and creates the Movement‘Death to Kidnappers’, while on the other hand, mounts charitable organizations withwhich he tries to bribe a needy and unprotected people. And there are investigations going in theUnited Sates, of which I cannot inform you here tonight in the House, on the criminalconduct of [Pablo Escobar]. 

Pablo said nothing in the House. When he left he was besieged by reporters. Breaking free, he stormed off. Through his lawyer he informed Lara that ifhe did not present evidence of his claims within 24 hours he would face legal action. Lara willingly obliged and in the coming daysthe newspapers were filled with all sorts of revelations about Pablo’s criminal activity. DownfallPablo was now persona non-grata in political circles. He was kicked out of the New Liberal Partyand the US Embassy revoked his diplomatic visa. The Catholic church also renounced their supportof him. The government even seized 85 of the exoticanimals on Pablo’s ranch claiming that they had entered the country illegally. Pablo’s political career was now in ruins. Even worse for Pablo, the Colombia government,at Lara’s urgings, were fast tracking an extradition treaty with the US that wouldsee him tried in America for selling cocaine in that country. In May 1984, Justice Minister Lara was shootseven times while riding in his chauffer driven limousine. But Pablo had more powerful enemies. US President Ronald Reagan had announced amajor crackdown on the cocaine trade. With the death of Lara, the Colombian governmentwere willing to cooperate with American authorities to go after Narco kingpins. 

Pablo was the biggest of them all. The killing of Lara also turned much of theColumbian population against Pablo. By the act he had declared war on the state. For Pablo the heat was too much to bear andhe skipped the country, taking a helicopter to Panama City. Yet, despite being offered asylum in Panamaby President Manuel Noriega the year before, Pablo and his cronies were not welcomed bythe authorities. After just a few weeks in exile, Pablo wasdesperate to get back home. He made overtures to the Colombian government,drafting a proposal whereby he would go straight and use his massive influence to rid Colombiaof drug trafficking provided that he could retain his possessions in Medellin and thathe would be exempt from arrest or extradition to the US. The offer was roundly rejected. When the Panamanian army raided one of thelabs he had situated on the Colombian border he fled Panama for Nicaragua. Meanwhile, he was hearing that his absencefrom Colombia was undermining his control of the Medellin cartel. 

The kidnapping of his 73-year-old father wasa step too far. Pablo ordered a killing frenzy throughoutMedellin. Dozens of suspected kidnappers were gunneddown. Finally, the old man was released with noransom being paid. All Out WarIn the midst of the carnage over his father’s kidnapping, Pablo returned to Colombia. He was now determined to take on the statewith everything that he had. Around Medellin he was untouchable, havingbought off every official. This allowed him, although being the mostwanted man in the country, to move around the town freely. Pablo’s vengeful focus during the mid-80’swas squarely centred on the judiciary, especially judges who supported the extradition treatywith the US. 

During this time more than thirty judges wereshot dead. Then, in November, 1985, the guerrilla groupM-19, having been paid a million dollars by Pablo, stormed the Palace of Justice and heldthe entire Supreme Court hostage. They demanded that the government renouncethe extradition treaty. In the resulting siege, 11 of the 24 justices,along with 40 of the rebels, were killed. By the beginning of 1988, killings were beingreported almost on a daily basis. Martial law was declared in ordered to preventthe state from toppling. On August 18th, 1989 Pablo’s kill squadsgunned down both the front-running presidential candidate Luis Galan and a state police chief. In the following four months, the Colombiangovernment apprehended and sent more than twenty suspected drug traffickers to the UnitedStates to stand trial. A national police unit was stationed to Medellinspecifically to hunt down Pablo. Within the first month, 30 of the two hundredmen stationed there had been killed. Pablo was evading his government and inflictingenormous casualties, but he was a man constantly on the run. He always stayed a step ahead of his pursuers,but he was growing tired of the constant relocations needed to do so. Eventually he agreed to negotiate. 

Pablo agreed to put an end to the violence,stop all criminal activity and hand himself in. In exchange he demanded preferential treatmentin a prison of his choosing and a reduced settlement. The government had already revoked the extraditiontreaty to the US with its 1991 Constitution so he didn’t have to worry about being sentto America. Pablo was duly arrested and tried. He began his sentence at La Catedral prisonin June, 1991. But this was like no other prison on earth. It featured a football pitch, jacuzzi andbar. The prison guards were all employees of Pablo. The prison cells were more like hotel suitesand the food that Pablo and his fellow inmates ate was prepared by chefs who were broughtin from fine restaurants.

 After a few months, accounts began to reachofficial channels that Pablo was continuing to pursue his criminal activities from LaCatedral. This was a violation of the surrender agreementand moves were put in place to seize him and move him to a regular prison. Pablo’s connections enabled him to get windof the plan and he escaped before the authorities could get to him. FugitiveThe hunt for Pablo was back on. But now the US and Colombian authorities werejoined by a vigilante group known as Los Pepes, which stood for ‘People Persecuted by PabloEscobar.’ Los Pepes carried out a ruthless campaign,killing as many as three hundred people who were connected to Pablo and his organization. Following his escape from La Catedral, Pablowas constantly on the run. Most of his closest associates were dead andhis organization was falling apart. He was spending nights sleeping in the jungle,afraid to speak on the radio or to answer the phone. Fate finally caught up with Pablo Escobaron December 2nd, 1993. Members of a Colombian Search Bloc team hadtracked him down to house in the barrio of Los Olivos in Medellin via radio intercepts. The Search Bloc team smashed through the heavysteel door with a sledgehammer, whereupon six of them rushed into the house. It was then that the shooting started. In the house with Pablo was his most loyalbodyguard, known as Limon. They both bolted from the front room and madetheir way up onto the roof. The six Search Bloc members, along with othersoutside poured a massive barrage of gunfire at their targets. Limon was hit several times in the back andtoppled to the ground below. 

Then Pablo went down. He was struck several times in the leg andtorso but the fatal shot penetrated his skull. On confirming his target, the leader of theoperation spoke excitedly into his radio . . . ‘Viva la Colombia – we have just killed PabloEscobar!’ But had they? Pablo had always told his family that, ifcornered he would commit suicide by placing a bullet in his skull. Many people believe that he did so, once moreescaping the clutches of the Colombian authorities.