The Legacy

Image obtained from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Pablo_Escobar_wanted_copy.jpg

“Escobar was to cocaine what Ford was to automobiles”. - THOMAS CASH, DEA Special Agent in Charge, Miami

 

 

“Pablo Escobar was a great megalomaniac. He liked to make his power felt. He enjoyed it. His whole life was a display of power”. - JUAN LOZANO, Political Campaign Strategist

 Pablo Escobar will be remembered as many things. Escobar thought himself to be a modern day Robin Hood. He built soccer stadiums, schools, and housing for the poor in his city of Medellín. For this, the peasants of Medellín were eternally grateful, and are still loyal to Escobar’s name to this day. Through his charities and donations, Escobar could provide for the people of Medellín better than the Columbian government could have done. He even deleoped close relationships with members of the Roman Catholic Church, who tended to overlook Escobar’s wrongs in lieu of the assistance he provided. In 1982, Pablo ran for office, and was elected as an alternate member of Congress. He now was the government.

Contrasting this image was Escobar’s image of a merciless drug lord. During the 1980’s, the power of the Medellín cartel leaders, especially Pablo, was unstoppable. They believed themselves to be above the law in every way imaginable. After the kidnapping of one of the cartel’s family members, Escobar established MAS, muerte a los sequestadore, which translates to “Death to Kidnappers”. MAS was an organization of about 2,000 men who would hunt down and kill anyone at Escobar’s request. Escobar was also involved in numerous national scandals. He basically ran the Columbian government from behind the scenes, through bribery, intimidation, and murder. Politicians who weren’t favored by Escobar or the Medellín cartel were in the gravest danger. Escobar is the main suspect behind the murder of 6 members of the Columbian supreme court in 1985, three presidential candidates in the same 1989 election, the bombing of Avianca flight 203, also in 1989, which killed over 100 people. He had a well-known hit list, which listed the names of everyone from his arresting police officers, to people who cheated him out of money, to police informants, to the minister of justice. No one was safe from Pablo Escobar’s wrath.

Pablo Escobar was a man the likes of which the world rarely sees. He was a notorious criminal, a loving father and husband, a ruthless killer, a compassionate philanthropist, a politician, and one of the world’s greatest drug lords all at once. He has been called “El Padrino”, “The Godfather of Cocaine”, “The King of Cocaine Smugglers”, and the “Top Drug Kingpin of the Era”. He has been called the “Osama bin Ladan” of his day, and has been compared to Adolph Hitler for his sheer brutality. Pablo Escobar will always be remembered for his multibillion dollar global cocaine trafficking business, and for revolutionizing the world’s cocaine industry.