Days 99 to 106: Medellin, CO (part 2 of 3)

The Pablo Escobar tour:

The infamous Pablo Escobar build his empire here in Medellin. Although the man was directly responsible for a painful period in colombian history, his ascension to extreme wealth and power is nevertheless fascinating. Therefore, we took a Pablo Escobar tour, in order to see a few related sights and find out more about his story.

Pablo was born in 1949 in a middle class family. He started his criminal career by stealing and reselling tomb stones, cars, and dealing weed. By the time he was 29, Escobar had several men working for him. He eventually got involved in cocaine trafficking  which became extremely profitable due to high demand all over the world. His organization, the Medellin cartel, became  a dominant cocaine trafficking group. At its peak, it was supplying 80% of all cocaine distributed in the world, and Pablo was ranked as the 7th wealthiest man in the world by the Forbes magazine. He had hundreds of properties, as the construction business and real estate were used to launder the drug money. The cartel became an industry. It even had its own accounting service, which occupied an entire building in Medellin. Escobar became so rich that he even proposed to pay off Colombia's national debt.

The cocaine business brought a period of extreme violence for Colombia. Pablo's cartel was constantly at war with another major organization, the Cali cartel, as well as the government.  Bombings and assassinations were happening daily. The cartel was ruthless: Pablo had a simple motto: ''silver or lead'', which meant that you either accept the bribe and collaborate, or you get killed. It is estimated that between 1988 and 1991, over 40 000 Colombians died in the drug related conflict.

Even though he was mostly feared, part of the population saw Escobar as a sort of ''robin hood'', since he redistributed significant amounts of money to improve life in poor areas, in the form of sport installations and housing projects. This popularity even allowed Pablo to get voted into the Congress.

Escobar made many enemies over time. One of them was an organization called ''Papas'', which assembled wealthy and influential people determined to bring down Escobar. The efforts of the Papas, the Cali cartel and the Colombian and American governments eventually paid off, and the Medellin cartel was slowly brought down. Pablo ended up making a deal with the Colombian government. He agreed to go into custody, but in a jail built according to his demands, and with a guard consisting of his own men.  He eventually escaped sometime later, and was on the run for several months. After one of the largest man hunts in history, he was finally found in a middle class neighborhood of Medellin, and gunned down in December 1993, while trying to flee the premises.

Twenty years later, Colombians still have to put up with the stereotype of their country living mainly off cocaine, even though it's far from true. The drug trade revenue is estimated at only 2% of Colombia's national income, and most coca plantations are nowadays in Bolivia. The cocaine business is still going on, nowadays controlled by paramilitary and the FARC. However, Colombia is a rich country with many other natural resources to generate income from: coffee plantations (3rd producer of coffee in the world), minerals, oil..etc. According to our tour guide, the ongoing conflict in Colombia between the government and the rebels is really not about the drug trade, but about the control of land, where the natural resources are.

All in all, it was a very interesting tour. From my point of view, Escobar was just a ruthless thug and far from an idol, but nevertheless his story is fascinating.

One of the several buildings in Medellin that  used to belong to Escobar's cartel. We've  seen 3 of these buildings on the  tour. All have been confiscated by the colombian  authorities over 20 years ago, and today are still unoccupied. Also, all have been bombed at one time during the war between cartels.

Another  of Pablo's buildings. This one had been bombed as well.

Between 1988 and 1991, there were so many bombings occurring in Medellin, that most citizens were affraid  to walk the streets and stayed inside as much as possible.

Pablo and his wife.

Picture of Escobar's ID fiche.

Pablo Escobar and his son  in front of the White House.

The house where Pablo was hiding, right before his death. He was gunned down while trying to escape through the back.

Back of the house where Pablo was hiding. He was shot to death on the roof of that house.

The prison where Escobar was jailed was called ''La Catedral''. It was luxurious.

Pablo's grave.