How did the story of Pablo Escobar end? Cocaine King. Childhood and early years of the future "King of Coke"
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 on the Forbes list of international billionaires for seven years in a row - from 1987 to 1993. 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. As Roberto Escobar, the chief accountant of the cartel and brother of the drug lord, told in his book The Accountant's Story: Inside the Violent World of the Medellín Cartel, he stockpiled cash in piles in the Colombian wilderness - on dilapidated warehouses, and in the walls of the houses 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 earn, 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 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, the infamous Medellín cartel boss, also known as "El Patrón", controlled up to 80% of the world's 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 the zoo at Escobar's Hacienda Napoles estate, 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 by private jet to Georgia and Florida. Two submarines were also used for smuggling.
3. The structure of the Medellin cartel, 1989
In 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 to the post of alternate member of the Congress of Colombia, received parliamentary immunity and represented the country at the inauguration ceremony for Spanish Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez. But the very next year, Minister of Justice Rodrigo Lara Bonia publicly accused Escobar of drug trafficking and organizing a 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 trafficking
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 all family holidays and birthdays with his children. 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 a prison cell with his 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.
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 received the blessing of the Catholic Church, and in the slums of Medellin, the drug lord was often seen handing out 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 in South America.
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.
When, a year later, Escobar learned of President Cesar Gaviria's impending decision to transfer him to a regular prison, he arranged an escape from La Catedral.
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.
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 was shot. "Lost heaven" With Benicio Del Toro starring. 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 an 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. Recently, 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 an expression of joy that the hard times of the Medellin drug wars led by Pablo Escobar are over. 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 there is no death penalty for this, as in some Asian countries.
So, we started our excursion into the history of Medellin of those times from the end of 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 identified by a 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.
A road leads upstairs, 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 at Casa Particulares, whose owners also have the surname 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 the 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 common people and ill-mannered people, if you look at them from the height of European civilization, 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 do his deeds, terrifying Medellin. 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, a uniformed guard appeared from somewhere in the courtyard of the terrible house 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 is the 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. There were no mobile phones in those years, 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.
We hardly spoke the whole way back, as 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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Colombian terrorist Pablo Escobar went down in world history as one of the most daring and brutal criminals of the 20th century. Having amassed a huge fortune in the drug business, he cracked down on the powers that be and, like Robin Hood, helped the poor and dreamed of the prosperity of his native country. On December 1, this unusual criminal would have turned 65 years old. By this date, I offer 15 entertaining facts about his personality.
1. Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria was born December 1, 1949 in Rionegro (Colombia) in the family of farmer Jesus Dari Escobar and school teacher Hemilda Gaviria. In adolescence, he became addicted to cannabis and used it all his life.
2. In his youth, Pablo made his way through petty theft: he stole tombstones from the local cemetery and, erasing the inscriptions, sold them to Panamanian dealers; forged lottery tickets, sold cigarettes and marijuana. The dexterous handsome man succeeded in everything. And he put together a criminal gang. Together with their accomplices, they stole cars for sale for parts or offered their protection to potential victims. If they refused to pay, they lost their cars. The unbridled youths were not afraid of anything. Robberies and kidnappings have become commonplace for them. In 1971, Pablo's men kidnapped Diego Echevario, a wealthy Colombian industrialist. Not having received a ransom from the relatives of the oligarch, they strangled the victim and threw the corpse into a landfill. The poor of Medellin celebrated the death of Diego Echevario and, in gratitude to Escobar, began to respectfully call him "El Doctor". While robbing the rich, Pablo did not forget about the poor, realizing that sooner or later they would become his protectors. He built cheap housing for them, and his popularity grew day by day in Medellin.
3. So at 22, Escobar was the most famous criminal authority of Medellin. His gang grew, and Pablo decided to realize himself in a new criminal business - the cocaine trade. This narcotic substance was contained in many plants common in Colombia, and the local population has long been engaged in its production. But Escobar thought globally. He put this business on an industrial scale. At first, the Pablo group acted as intermediaries, buying goods from "artisans" and selling them to resellers who sold cocaine in the United States. And soon the businessman himself took up drug smuggling. Escobar's business covered not only the whole of South America, he opened "branches" throughout the Caribbean. So, for example, in the Bahamas, a transshipment point was created for the storage and further transportation of cocaine. A large pier, a number of gas stations and a modern hotel with all amenities were built. Not a single drug dealer could export cocaine outside of Colombia without the permission of Pablo Escobar. Escobar removed the so-called 35 percent tax on each shipment of drugs and ensured its delivery. Escobar's criminal career was more than successful, he got rich, becoming one of the richest. He continued to invest dollars in the development of the drug industry.
4. In 1977, having combined his capital with three more cocaine tycoons, Escobar and his partners created the Medellin cocaine cartel - not just a large monopoly, but an entire empire that entangled almost the entire world with its network. At her disposal were planes, submarines, not to mention the most common transport. To sell the goods and make a profit, Escobar did not disdain any tricks. He used both blackmail, and bribery of the authorities, and threats.
5. In 1979, Escobar's empire occupied more than 80% of the US cocaine industry. The 30-year-old drug dealer became one of the richest people in the world, his personal fortune was in the billions of dollars. Escobar decided to legalize his business. To do this, he decided to crawl into power and politics. Money and authority were everything. In 1982, Pablo Escobar announced his candidacy for election and, at 32, became a replacement congressman in the Congress of Colombia, cherishing dreams of the presidency. However, being a popular man in Medellin, he was known as a dubious person in other parts of the country, which was the reason for his expulsion from Congress. His rivals for the presidency launched a massive campaign against investing dirty money in campaigns. Through the efforts of Minister of Justice Rodrigo Lara Bonia, Escobar's road to big politics was booked.
6. This fact formed the basis of Escobar's new criminal activity - terror. Revenge - that's what moved the offended and wounded drug lord. He brutally dealt with the Minister of Justice, and a similar fate awaited many of his offenders. On his orders, thousands of people were killed, Colombia turned into a military camp. In the mid 80s. In the twentieth century, his cocaine empire controlled all spheres of the country's life. But then the Reagan government declared war on the drug lords and organized mass campaigns to counteract the spread of drugs not only in the United States, but throughout the world. Pablo even wanted to surrender to the Colombian authorities in exchange for not being extradited to the United States. The authorities refused, to which they received terror from Escobar.
7. On August 16, 1989, Supreme Court Judge Carlos Valencia died at the hands of drug lord killers. Police Colonel Waldemar Franklin Contero was killed the next day. On August 18, prominent Colombian politician Luis Carlos Galan died of a bullet wound at an election rally. And before the elections, the terror of the Medellin cartel roamed with renewed vigor: dozens of people became its victims every day. Only in Bogota, one of the terrorist groups of the drug mafia carried out 7 explosions within two weeks, as a result of which 37 people died and about 400 people were seriously injured. On November 27, 1989, Escobar's mercenaries planted a bomb on a passenger Boeing 727 of the Colombian airline Avianca, carrying 101 passengers and 6 crew members. The future president of Colombia, Cesar Gaviria Trujillo, was supposed to fly on this plane, but for some reason he canceled his flight. Five minutes after the plane took off, there was a powerful explosion that broke the plane in half. The burning debris crashed into the nearby hills. None of the people on board survived, in addition, three people on the ground were killed by falling debris from the aircraft. The authorities on terror declared a real war on cocaine dealers: chemical laboratories and plantations were destroyed, drug cartel workers ended up behind bars. As a result of only one nationwide operation, 989 houses and farms, 367 aircraft, 73 boats, 710 cars, 4.7 tons of cocaine and 1279 weapons were confiscated from Escobar. In response, Pablo twice attempted to assassinate the head of the Colombian secret police, General Miguel Mas Marquez. During the second assassination attempt, on December 6, 1989, 62 people were killed by a bomb explosion and about 100 were injured of varying severity.
8. In 1989, Forbes magazine estimated Escobar's fortune at $47 billion. Escobar owned 34 estates, 500 thousand hectares of land, 40 rare Rolls-Royce cars. On the Naples estate (20 thousand hectares, runways), he created the largest zoo on the continent, where 120 antelopes, 30 buffaloes, 6 hippos, 3 elephants and 2 rhinos were brought from all over the world.
9. He topped the list of the most wanted drug dealers in the US. On his heels, the elite special forces invariably followed, which set itself the task of catching or destroying Pablo Escobar at any cost.
10. Escobar had 400 mistresses, for whom he built a whole town. Each mistress, among whom were local winners of beauty contests, and fashion models, and actresses, had her own cottage with a swimming pool, all kinds of gazebos, fountains and other delights, a design that was unlike any other. When one of the drug lord's girlfriends, 15-year-old Maria, became pregnant, he didn't kill her or take her out of sight. Escobar married a girl, and she bore him two wonderful children - the son of Juan Pablo and the daughter of Manuella.
He tried all his life to be a good husband and father and always took care of their safety. Once hiding from government agents, Escobar, along with his son and daughter, ended up in a high mountain shelter. The night turned out to be extremely cold, and, trying to warm his daughter, Escobar burned almost two million dollars in cash.
11. When a threat hung over his head, he built a shelter for himself, which he himself considered a prison. In the huge palace in the rocks of Envigado there were not only torture chambers, but also a disco, a swimming pool, a jacuzzi and a sauna, a bar. Escobar took revenge on his traitors with the most sophisticated executions.
12. 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 celebrated his birthday in a secret apartment. He knew he was being followed, and yet he called his son Juan. And although the conversation was brief, this time was enough for the special services, which spotted where the drug lord was. His house was surrounded. Escobar and his bodyguard fired back to the last. According to the official version, the drug lord was shot by a Los Pepes sniper, who also killed him with a control shot to the head. However, Escobar's son Juan claims that his father committed suicide, seeing no other way out.
13. About 20 thousand people came to Escobar's funeral and cried. According to funeral witnesses, they were not hired actors. Feelings were sincere. When the coffin with the body of Escobar was carried through the streets of Medellin, a stampede began. The lid of the coffin was thrown off, and thousands of hands reached out to the already stiff face of Pablo with the sole purpose of touching the recently living legend for the last time. Then the Colombians dismantled the dead man's villa brick by brick in search of the treasures hidden by the richest drug lord.
14. After Escobar's death, his sister asked for forgiveness from the victims of her brother's criminal activity. At the same time, the Colombian authorities refused to register the trademark "Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria" to the relatives of the drug lord. The refusal was made on the grounds of damaging public morals and order. It is noteworthy that neither the widow nor the children of the drug lord themselves bear his name: after moving to Argentina in the late 90s of the twentieth century, they changed their surnames. And law enforcement agencies in the United States and Colombia are still searching for Escobar, believing that in December 1993 they shot the double of the legendary cocaine king.
15. In the computer games GTA Vice City and GTA Vice City Stories, the international airport is named after Pablo Escobar. The repertoire of the Russian musical group "Bad Balance" includes the song "Pablo Escobar".
Original entry and comments on
Pablo Escobar is one of the most famous and cruel drug lords of the 20th century, not only in Colombia, but throughout the world. The famous criminal used many methods of drug trafficking, one of his brilliant ideas was soaking jeans in liquid cocaine and then shipping them to the United States. Despite the brutal reprisals and even the destruction of civilian aircraft, Escobar was popular among young people and the poor.
15. Army of assassins
Escobar did not like to get his hands dirty, so all his orders were carried out by hired killers. So, the killer John "Popeye" Vasquez, on the order of the drug lord, killed more than 300 people! Among his victims was even the main presidential candidate of Colombia, who did not inspire confidence in Escobar.
14. Eliminate competitors
Cocaine was in astronomical demand in the US in the 70s and 80s of the last century, and Escobar did not want to share the market with anyone. The first competitor that Pablo killed was a well-known Medellin drug dealer named Fabio Restrepo.
13. Exploded building of the Department of Security of Colombia
Trying to kill police general Miguel Mas Marquez, the drug lord blew up the building of the Colombian Security Department in 1989. The bombing killed 52 people and injured more than 1,000 of varying degrees of severity. That year turned out to be especially terrible for the country: 12 court officials and 110 passengers of the Avianica plane, in which Escobar planted a bomb, died at the hands of a drug lord.
12. Fear turned him into a monster
Most of all, the drug lord was afraid of extradition to the United States. And fear forced Escobar to commit even more daring and terrible crimes. He was so desperate to avoid imprisonment in the United States that he even proposed to the Colombian government to pay off the entire public external debt. At that time, the criminal offered the authorities $10 million.
11. All for the kill
In 1989, Escobar decided to get rid of future President Cesar Gaviria. Upon learning that the politician would fly on a passenger plane of the Colombian airline Avianaka, the drug lord planted a bomb. Three minutes after the takeoff of the airliner, a powerful explosion was heard on board. 110 people died. As it turned out later, Cesar Gaviria canceled his flight at the last moment.
10 Most Devoted Hitman
Escobar had a lot of hit men, but John "Popau" Vasquez was the one he trusted the most. He took about 300 lives with his own hands and sentenced another 3,000 people to death. Popeye's most notorious crime was the 1989 assassination of Colombian presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galán. Vazquez has already served his term in prison, but still admits: "If Pablo Escobar was born again, I would not hesitate to follow him. We loved him. He taught us to fight and gave us everything."
9 Gravestone Theft
Young Pablo began his criminal activity by stealing tombstones from the Medellin cemetery. He erased inscriptions and sold tombstones to Panamanian dealers.
8. Thirteen-year-old wife
In 1976, 27-year-old Pablo married 13-year-old Maria, and two years later she gave birth to his son, and three years later, a daughter. Despite the constant betrayal of her husband, Mary lived with him until the end of his life.
7. Kidnapping
In the struggle for money and power, Escobar kidnapped people more than once. So, in 1971, Pablo's people kidnapped the wealthy Colombian industrialist Diego Echevario, who was killed after prolonged torture. The criminals tried to get a ransom, but failed and, strangling their victim, threw the corpse into a landfill.
6. Bribery of police officers
In 1976, Escobar was arrested for possession of drugs, but he managed to bribe the police and go free. After that incident, the drug lord began to almost openly give bribes to officials.
5. Silver or lead principle
Having become the unquestioned authority of the cocaine world and the absolute leader of the Medellin cartel, Escobar bribed policemen, judges, and politicians. If bribery did not work, then blackmail was used, but basically the cartel acted according to the principle: "Plata O Plomo" - in other words, "silver or lead." Either the person agreed and took a bribe, or a bullet was waiting for him.
4. Incredible impact
At the peak of his criminal career, Escobar controlled 80% of the US cocaine traffic. It was estimated that in the 1980s, about 70-80 tons of cocaine were shipped from Colombia to the United States. At 30, Pablo became one of the richest people in the world.
3. Through the circles of hell
For a long time, the drug lord's family lived in luxury: helicopters, a personal zoo, a mansion, and endless funds. Everything changed when the FBI took over Escobar. Surveillance began for Pablo, and he was forced to hide with his family. Now the drug lord was worried about the well-being of his children. Despite the millions of dollars in the accounts, the family could no longer lead the same life and live quietly in their own home.
2. Not Robin Hood at all
To enlist the support of the population, Escobar launched extensive construction in Medellin. He paved roads, built stadiums, and erected free houses for the poor. He himself explained his charity by the fact that it hurt him to see how the poor suffer. Despite these good deeds, it was Escobar's people who, in 1993, planted a powerful bomb in a car near a bookstore on one of Bogota's crowded streets. As a result of that terrorist attack, many children and adults died. And in general, the drug lord without regrets killed anyone who in any way stood in his way.
1. Killing people
According to some estimates, about 10 thousand human lives are on the conscience of the cocaine king. He walked over the heads and got rid of the enemies cruelly and without regret. Pablo Escobar went down in world history as the most daring, merciless and powerful drug lord of all time.
