Plata O Plomo: Pablo Escobar

General History Policy

02.12.2020

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Pablo Escobar was a Colombian drug baron and leader of the Medellín Cartel, which for a time managed 80 percent of the world’s cocaine traffic.This narco-terrorist had two options to offer to those facing him: Plata O Plomo (Silver or Bullet)…

Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria was born on December 1, 1949, in Colombia to a low-income family. Pablo, who began his criminal career in his teenage years, continued to rise in his criminal career by selling contraband cigarettes, fake bonus tickets, and stolen cars. He was making a killing in the smuggling business: cigarettes, alcohol, marijuana, you name it. At the time, Pablo owned half the police in Medellín.

His life would change when he met Mateo Moreno in 1973. Moreno was a drug chemist who survived General Pinochet’s mass murder, who overthrew Salvador Allende in Chile. He fled his country and went to Colombia, offering to reach Pablo Escobar to logistics the cocaine he would produce, and the two began the drug trade.

Escobar began to have a stake in Medellin’s drug traffic by the mid-1970s. In those years, he murdered Fabio Restrepo, Medellín’s biggest drug baron. Also, he founded an international illegal criminal organization called the Medellín Cartel, based in Medellín, with various people involved in drug trafficking in the region. So he sat at the top in Colombia, taking over the production and distribution operation.

– Medellín Cartel –

In those years, the most significant demand for drugs in the world belonged to the United States. Escobar began selling the drug, which he had hidden in his wheels, to America by buying a private plane. By the ‘ 80s, Escobar bought Boeing to transport 15 tons of cocaine to America. Not only that, he even built an airport on an Ocean island.

He expanded his sales network and began selling drugs to countries such as Mexico and Puerto Rico. He was moving towards becoming a monopoly not only of the American continent but of the entire world. He had a drug network that stretched to Asia.

Pablo quickly became one of the world’s wealthiest people thanks to the money he made from drug trafficking in the mid-1980s. With this money, he built hospitals, stadiums, and residences for the poor and sponsored various sports teams and institutions. Because of these donations, he was nicknamed “Robin Hood” by the public.

– WELCOME TO THE PABLO ESCOBAR NEIGHBORHOOD, WHERE YOU BREATHE PEACE –

Escobar began building public opinion for the presidency of Colombia, which he dreamed of as a child. In 1982, he was the replacement candidate of the Liberal Party of Colombia, and they have elected him to the Colombian Assembly. But things didn’t go as well as he had hoped. Justice Minister Rodrigo Lara Bonilla said in Parliament that a drug dealer like Escobar had shaken the Parliament’s reputation, forcing Escobar to resign. Escobar had resigned but would not leave quietly. Bonilla was assassinated while traveling in his vehicle a few days after Escobar’s resignation.

Even though he failed in politics, but he continued to enrich himself. In 1989, Pablo was seventh on Forbes magazine’s richest list.

Interpol and the Colombian government were after Escobar. They were threatening him with what he feared most: incarceration in America. Because for Escobar, being sent to an American prison was worse than dying. So he waged war on the Colombian government and became even more challenging.

– In 1981, Escobar took this photo in front of the White House while being wanted everywhere by Interpol –

On November 27, 1989, he planted a bomb on the plane to travel to kill pro-extradition presidential candidate Cesar Gaviria. The bomb exploded after the plane took off, as a result, killed one hundred seven people in the blast, but Cesar Gaviria was not one of them because Gaviria didn’t get on that plane day. Pablo Escobar, who had been losing popular support for some time due to similar events, turned into a terrorist in the public eye after this incident and completely lost popular support.

Escobar’s only request was for the extradition treaty with the United States to be rescinded. He even offered the Colombian government to close the country’s foreign debt if he granted him an amnesty. He only met this demand when he started kidnapping the children of the rich in Colombia. When the rich, whose children were abducted by Escobar, began to pressure Gaviria, who won the election, the president eventually gave up. A vote overturned the” extradition” agreement in Parliament. Government Agreed to a deal with Escobar under the terms offered by him.

The agreement included Escobar admitting his crimes and serving his sentence in a prison he had commissioned himself. That’s what happened. In 1991, Escobar began serving his prison sentence in Medellin, which he had built and called La Catedral.

– La Catedral –

But Pablo managed to escape the prison comfortably because he had taken two diplomats hostage. So the escape period officially began. Escobar began fighting four different groups. The Colombian government, US agents, Los Pepes (the gang set up to avenge the Escobar murders), and finally the rival Cali Cartel.

Escobar’s capture was so crucial that Escobar’s rival, the Cali Cartel, albeit informally, also entered the business. With the CIA and the Colombian government’s support, created the Los Pepes organization to do dirty work that army troops could not do. This organization threatened anyone they knew was working for Escobar. If he didn’t surrender, he would kill all his family members. When Pablo did not surrender, the Escobar family murders of Los Pepes began.

Pablo was afraid that he would kill his family, and it was one of his phone conversations with his son that turned him in. When he spoke to his son on the phone for more than 10 minutes, he identified his hiding place after locating Escobar and organized the operation. It remains a mystery how, but on December 2, 1993, Pablo Escobar died of a lead stroke. According to most sources, he was allegedly killed by operation teams, but some sources also say that he committed suicide. I’m one of those people who thinks he killed himself. It’s not surprising that someone who says prison in America is worse than death commits suicide.

People flocked to his funeral. Escobar’s brother asked the government the following questions in front of the cameras: “I’m asking you this question, Mr. President. Now that my brother is Dead, will the violence stop? Do you believe that? Will Colombia find peace? I’m sure you’ll call him.” As he said, it happened. All the underground villains who survived their biggest rivals, especially the Cali Cartel, became more assertive in Escobar’s absence. The bandits, who took every illegal step with Pablo’s permission, began to kidnap and murder as they blew their heads. After Escobar died, crime did not decrease in Colombia for a long time.