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Pablo Escobar was the world’s most successful drug trafficker. He was also its most deadly. During his 17- year reign at the top of the Colombian cocaine empire, he ordered the killings of thousands of people, including judges, ministers of parliament and Presidential candidates.
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Transcript Provided by YouTube:
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Pablo Escobar Pablo Escobar was the world’s most successful
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drug trafficker.
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He was also its most deadly.
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During his 17- year reign at the top of the Colombian cocaine empire, he ordered the killings
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of thousands of people, including judges, ministers of parliament and Presidential candidates.
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At the height of his power he was raking in over a million dollars a day, yet in the end
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he was forced to live as a fugitive in the Colombian jungle.
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Shot down on a rooftop in the city that he had ruled over, his was a fall from grace
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of epic proportion.
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In this week’s Biographics, we go deep into the South American drug world to reveal the
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true-life story of Don Pablo.
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Early Life Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria was born on December
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1st, 1949 in the small town of Rinegro, 45 minutes from Medellin, Colombia.
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His father, Abel, was a hard working, humble cattle farmer, while his mother Hermilda was
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a school teacher.
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Pablo, the second of seven children, was raised in a middle-class environment in a community
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that was fuelled by the cocaine and marijuana trade.
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Although not everyone directly participated in the drug business, they all had a powerful
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incentive in the protection of those that did.
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The violence that was part and parcel of enforcing the narcotics trade was all around.
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Before Pablo started school, the family moved to Envigado, a small village just out of Medellin,
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so that Hermilda could establish an elementary school there.
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Abel sold the farm and took up a job as a neighbourhood watchman.
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Through her work at the school, Hermilda soon become a popular and well-respected member
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of the community.
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At school, Pablo proved himself to be an able and quick-witted student.
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Although tending toward the chubby side, thanks to his love of fast food, he was talented
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in all ball sports, with a special love for soccer.
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Many of his teachers were involved in social causes, especially the struggle for class
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equality and they became powerful influences on the boy.
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By the time he was in his early teens, Pablo was attending street rallies and participating
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in such activities as throwing rocks at the police.
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Pablo became part of a youth culture movement known as Nadaismo which encouraged young people
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to thumb their noses at the established order, disobey their parents and write their own
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rules.
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Part of this counterculture movement involved experimentation with drugs, leading the thirteen-year-old
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future drug kingpin to develop an addiction to marijuana which would never leave him.
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The Young Thug By the age of sixteen Pablo had developed
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into a plump, short youth, standing at just over five foot, six inches.
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He had a round face and wore a slight moustache.
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A couple of months before reaching his seventeenth birthday, he dropped out of school, bored
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with the straight-laced routine and keen to make his own way in the world.
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After quitting school, the enterprising Pablo started up a little bicycle repair shop.
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He would prowl the streets and the local dump in search of discarded bicycle parts and then
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use them to fix bikes for cheap.
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With the money that he made from this enterprise, he purchased himself a Lambretta motorcycle.
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Now with a means of fast escape, he began planning how to make money more easily than
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repairing bicycles for a pittance.
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According to legend, Pablo’s foray into crime began with him stealing headstones from
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the local cemetery, sandblasting the names from them and then reselling them.
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Pablo decided that the route to quick cash lay in commercial business robbery.
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He started by scoping out potential targets.
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He would then ride to the target business on his motorbike, slip a balaclava over his
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head and rush the business with a knife or gun in hand, demand the money and then get
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out of there.
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It all happened in about 30 seconds.
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After a few successful robberies, Pablo recruited his cousin to join him.
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One would ride the bike and act as the get away rider while the other stormed the business.
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Within a few months, Pablo became bored with this and moved on to bigger – and easier
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– things.
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He established a contact with a Renault car dealer who would provide him with copies of
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the keys to the cars that he had just sold, along with the addresses of the buyers.
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All that Pablo had to do was turn up at the addresses and drive the cars away.
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In his late teens, Pablo got caught in the act of stealing one of these cars.
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He ended up spending several months in La Ladera Jail, which was to him, a positive
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life experience.
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Here he learned about how to move into bigger time criminal activity, including kidnapping
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and drug trafficking.
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A Violent Reputation Once back on the street, Pablo and his cousin
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Gustavo went right back to stealing cars.
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They built up a collection of stolen engine parts which they would sell off bit by bit.
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The pair took to building race cars, with Pablo competing in local events.
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Pablo and Garcia weren’t the only ones stealing cars in Medellin, which led to an extension
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of his operation.
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He decided to also sell protection, so that people would pay him to ensure that their
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car did not get taken.
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Pablo was able to provide such a service because he had developed a reputation as an unpredictable
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and violent young man.
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If anyone owed him money, Pablo would hire some local thug to kidnap the person.
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He would them ransom him for whatever was owed to him.
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From time to time he would have the person killed even when the ransom was paid, simply
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to engender fear in those he dealt with.
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Before long, Pablo decided to specialise in kidnappings for their own sake.
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Along with his cousin and future brother-in-law he nabbed a rich businessman by the name of
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Diego Echavarria.
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This man was intensely disliked by many of the poor workers in Medellin, who were being
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laid off in droves by industrialists like him.
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Despite the family okaying the $50,000 ransom demand, Echavarria was beaten, strangled and
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the dumped in a ditch.
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Even though he had just committed a terrible crime, his choice of victim made Pablo hugely
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popular among the common folk of Medellin.
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In a strange way they saw the killing as Pablo striking a blow for social equality.
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Entering the Drug Trade In 1971, the 22-year old Pablo began working
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for Medellin based contraband dealer Alvaro Prieto.
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Under Prieto, Pablo was doing a modest amount of drug trafficking.
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Before long, however, he decided that he wanted more of a slice of the pie for himself.
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He drove his stolen Renault 4 to Ecuador and bought five kilos of Peruvian cocaine paste.
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Successfully passing through a number of police and military checkpoints, he returned to Medellin,
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where he processed the cocaine.
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He next contacted fellow criminals the Ochoa brothers to set up a sale to local cocaine
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chief Fabio Restrepo.
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The sale netted Pablo close to a hundred thousand dollars, far surpassing anything he had previously
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done, and setting him firmly on the path to becoming a high-end drug dealer.
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Within two months, Fabio Restrepo had been murdered.
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Suddenly there was a new man at the head of the Medellin cocaine operation – Pablo Escobar.
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It has never been conclusively proven that Pablo murdered Restrepo, but that was what
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everyone involved believed.
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The majority of those working for Restrepo were upper class dandies.
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They were frightened by Pablo and the ruthless hoodlums he surrounded himself with.
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Shortly after muscling his way to the top of the Medellin cocaine syndicate, Pablo married
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fifteen-year-old Maria Victoria Helena Vellejo.
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Now aged twenty-six, he had a wife, wealth and power.
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It seemed like the sky was the limit.
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On Top The cocaine trade from Panama, through Colombia
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and into the United States boomed in the late 1970’s, with most of it being trafficked
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though Escobar’s organization.
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Under Pablo, the cocaine industry became streamlined.
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He purchased a fleet of airplanes, including a Lear jet to transport the drugs into the
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United States where there was an inexhaustible supply of willing buyers.
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Two months after his wedding, Pablo and four others were arrested after returning from
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a drug run to Ecuador.
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Drug enforcement agents found 39 kilos of cocaine hidden in the spare tire of their
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truck.
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That amount of coke would see Pablo being put away for a long time.
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His first tactic in getting out of the mess was to bribe the trial judge.
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The offer however was flatly rejected.
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Pablo then had his team research the judge’s background.
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They discovered that he had a brother who was a lawyer and that the two men did not
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get on.
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The lawyer was contacted and offered a huge amount to represent Pablo in the case.
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As suspected, the judge was forced to recuse himself due to conflict of interest.
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The new judge didn’t have as many scruples as the first.
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He accepted a bribe and Pablo and his cohorts walked free.
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Exorbitant amounts of money were now pouring into Colombia, with deposits in the country’s
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four major banks doubling between 1976 and 1980.
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Pablo was able to use his millions to take possession of every step of his operation,
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traveling to Peru, Bolivia and Panama and buying up all the cultivation farms and processing
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plants.
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He was also able to buy off enforcement agencies in every country, developing a ruthless policy
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which came to be known as ‘plato o plomo’ – silver or lead.
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If officials didn’t accept his bribe they could expect to end up dead.
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By 1980, Pablo was at the height of his power.
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With every law enforcement agency on his payroll, he was the unofficial king of Medellin.
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He wasn’t the only cocaine impresario in Colombia, but he was the most successful.
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He owned multiple mansions, racing cars, helicopters and planes and was constantly surrounded by
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bodyguards and hangers on.
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Cocaine money transformed Medellin, with discos and high-end restaurants opening up all over
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the city.
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One of Pablo’s passions was soccer and now he was able to indulge it.
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He paid to have fields levelled and sodded and lights installed so that he and his crew
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could play at night time.
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He would also employ professional game callers to announce the matches as if they were an
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FA cup final.
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In 1979, Pablo built a lavish country estate on a seventy-four-hundred-acre ranch, eighty
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miles of Medellin, dubbing it Hacienda Los Napoles.
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He brought exotic animals from all over the world to populate the farm, built six swimming
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pools and a huge mansion that could sleep a hundred guests.
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At the same time that he was indulging his every materialistic whim in private, Pablo
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began tending to his public image.
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He constantly denied that he was involved in any illicit activity, portraying a formal,
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likeable persona and appearing humble and polite.
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He consciously cultivated the image that he was a freedom fighter for the underprivileged,
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setting himself up as an alternative to the establishment.
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He also poured millions of dollars into social construction programs.
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Between 1980-1982, Pablo did more to help out the poor in Medellin than the Colombian
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government had ever done.
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One of his most popular initiatives was a housing project called Barrio Pablo Escobar,
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where houses were built and given to families who had previously been sheltering in shacks
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at the city dump.
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This and a host of other projects easily made him the most popular citizen in Medellin.
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In private, Pablo conducted himself in an understated manner.
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He spoke softly and was generally relaxed and casual with those around him.
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He was hugely self-indulgent – with food, drink and women – and considered himself
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a law unto himself.
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On one occasion when an employee was found to have stolen from him, Pablo had him brought
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before him bound hand and foot and then kicked him into the swimming pool, making everyone
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watch as the man drowned.
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A Brief Political Career With his popularity among the masses firmly
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established and his dominance over his empire assured, the next logical step for Pablo was
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politics.
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His path to legitimate office began in 1978 when he was elected as a substitute city councillor
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in Medellin.
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In 1980 he gave his personal and financial support to the formation of a new national
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political movement, the New Liberal Party.
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Then, in 1982 he ran for, and was elected to Congress, albeit as a substitute who attended
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when the primary delegate from Medellin was unavailable.
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A major perk of being elected to Congress was that Pablo now had judicial immunity,
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meaning that he could not be convicted for a crime under Colombian law.
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The position also afforded him a diplomatic visa, which he made use of to regularly take
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his family on trips to the United States.
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On one trip he purchased an $8 million mansion in Miami Beach, Florida.
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Pablo now had political legitimacy to go with his massive wealth.
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The next acquisition was a personal army.
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When a friend of the family was kidnapped by M-19 guerrillas, he created a private militia
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to hunt down the rebels.
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Pablo’s army was known as ‘Death to Kidnappers.’
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Pablo’s wider exposure as a result of his political office was the beginning of his
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downfall.
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In Medellin he was viewed as a Robin Hood figure, but when he tried to gain the favour
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of polite Colombian society he was not welcomed.
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They viewed him as what he really was – a ruthless cocaine king with absolutely no scruples.
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When he turned up to take his seat in Congress as an alternate for the first time on August
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16th 1983 with a bevy of bodyguards in tow he was first denied entry for not wearing
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a tie.
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He quickly got hold of one and swept into the packed chamber.
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He slumped down in his allocated seat and began nervously to bite his fingernails.
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Immediately the Chamber president stood and demanded that all bodyguards be removed from
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the chamber.
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Pablo nodded and his thugs left the room.
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Within minutes Justice Minister Rodrigo Lara was on his feet.
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Defending a claim of corruption that had been brought against him, Lara pointed the finger
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at Pablo, stating . . . We have a congressman who was born in a very
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poor area himself, very, very poor, and afterwards, through astute business deals in bicycles
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and other things, appears with a gigantic fortune, with nine planes, three hangars at
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the Medellin airport and creates the Movement ‘Death to Kidnappers’, while on the other
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hand, mounts charitable organizations with which he tries to bribe a needy and unprotected
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people.
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And there are investigations going in the United Sates, of which I cannot inform you
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here tonight in the House, on the criminal conduct of [Pablo Escobar].
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Pablo said nothing in the House.
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When he left he was besieged by reporters.
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Breaking free, he stormed off.
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Through his lawyer he informed Lara that if he did not present evidence of his claims
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within 24 hours he would face legal action.
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Lara willingly obliged and in the coming days the newspapers were filled with all sorts
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of revelations about Pablo’s criminal activity.
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Downfall Pablo was now persona non-grata in political
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circles.
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He was kicked out of the New Liberal Party and the US Embassy revoked his diplomatic
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visa.
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The Catholic church also renounced their support of him.
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The government even seized 85 of the exotic animals on Pablo’s ranch claiming that they
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had entered the country illegally.
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Pablo’s political career was now in ruins.
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Even worse for Pablo, the Colombia government, at Lara’s urgings, were fast tracking an
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extradition treaty with the US that would see him tried in America for selling cocaine
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in that country.
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In May 1984, Justice Minister Lara was shoot seven times while riding in his chauffer driven
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limousine.
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But Pablo had more powerful enemies.
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US President Ronald Reagan had announced a major crackdown on the cocaine trade.
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With the death of Lara, the Colombian government were willing to cooperate with American authorities
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to go after Narco kingpins.
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Pablo was the biggest of them all.
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The killing of Lara also turned much of the Columbian population against Pablo.
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By the act he had declared war on the state.
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For Pablo the heat was too much to bear and he skipped the country, taking a helicopter
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to Panama City.
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Yet, despite being offered asylum in Panama by President Manuel Noriega the year before,
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Pablo and his cronies were not welcomed by the authorities.
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After just a few weeks in exile, Pablo was desperate to get back home.
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He made overtures to the Colombian government, drafting a proposal whereby he would go straight
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and use his massive influence to rid Colombia of drug trafficking provided that he could
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retain his possessions in Medellin and that he would be exempt from arrest or extradition
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to the US.
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The offer was roundly rejected.
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When the Panamanian army raided one of the labs he had situated on the Colombian border
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he fled Panama for Nicaragua.
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Meanwhile, he was hearing that his absence from Colombia was undermining his control
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of the Medellin cartel.
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The kidnapping of his 73-year-old father was a step too far.
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Pablo ordered a killing frenzy throughout Medellin.
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Dozens of suspected kidnappers were gunned down.
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Finally, the old man was released with no ransom being paid.
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All Out War In the midst of the carnage over his father’s
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kidnapping, Pablo returned to Colombia.
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He was now determined to take on the state with everything that he had.
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Around Medellin he was untouchable, having bought off every official.
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This allowed him, although being the most wanted man in the country, to move around
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the town freely.
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Pablo’s vengeful focus during the mid-80’s was squarely centred on the judiciary, especially
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judges who supported the extradition treaty with the US.
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During this time more than thirty judges were shot dead.
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Then, in November, 1985, the guerrilla group M-19, having been paid a million dollars by
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Pablo, stormed the Palace of Justice and held the entire Supreme Court hostage.
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They demanded that the government renounce the extradition treaty.
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In the resulting siege, 11 of the 24 justices, along with 40 of the rebels, were killed.
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By the beginning of 1988, killings were being reported almost on a daily basis.
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Martial law was declared in ordered to prevent the state from toppling.
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On August 18th, 1989 Pablo’s kill squads gunned down both the front-running presidential
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candidate Luis Galan and a state police chief.
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In the following four months, the Colombian government apprehended and sent more than
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twenty suspected drug traffickers to the United States to stand trial.
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A national police unit was stationed to Medellin specifically to hunt down Pablo.
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Within the first month, 30 of the two hundred men stationed there had been killed.
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Pablo was evading his government and inflicting enormous casualties, but he was a man constantly
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on the run.
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He always stayed a step ahead of his pursuers, but he was growing tired of the constant relocations
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needed to do so.
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Eventually he agreed to negotiate.
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Pablo agreed to put an end to the violence, stop all criminal activity and hand himself
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in.
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In exchange he demanded preferential treatment in a prison of his choosing and a reduced
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settlement.
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The government had already revoked the extradition treaty to the US with its 1991 Constitution
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so he didn’t have to worry about being sent to America.
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Pablo was duly arrested and tried.
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He began his sentence at La Catedral prison in June, 1991.
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But this was like no other prison on earth.
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It featured a football pitch, jacuzzi and bar.
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The prison guards were all employees of Pablo.
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The prison cells were more like hotel suites and the food that Pablo and his fellow inmates
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ate was prepared by chefs who were brought in from fine restaurants.
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After a few months, accounts began to reach official channels that Pablo was continuing
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to pursue his criminal activities from La Catedral.
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This was a violation of the surrender agreement and moves were put in place to seize him and
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move him to a regular prison.
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Pablo’s connections enabled him to get wind of the plan and he escaped before the authorities
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could get to him.
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Fugitive The hunt for Pablo was back on.
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But now the US and Colombian authorities were joined by a vigilante group known as Los Pepes,
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which stood for ‘People Persecuted by Pablo Escobar.’
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Los Pepes carried out a ruthless campaign, killing as many as three hundred people who
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were connected to Pablo and his organization.
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Following his escape from La Catedral, Pablo was constantly on the run.
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Most of his closest associates were dead and his organization was falling apart.
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He was spending nights sleeping in the jungle, afraid to speak on the radio or to answer
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the phone.
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Fate finally caught up with Pablo Escobar on December 2nd, 1993.
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Members of a Colombian Search Bloc team had tracked him down to house in the barrio of
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Los Olivos in Medellin via radio intercepts.
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The Search Bloc team smashed through the heavy steel door with a sledgehammer, whereupon
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six of them rushed into the house.
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It was then that the shooting started.
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In the house with Pablo was his most loyal bodyguard, known as Limon.
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They both bolted from the front room and made their way up onto the roof.
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The six Search Bloc members, along with others outside poured a massive barrage of gunfire
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at their targets.
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Limon was hit several times in the back and toppled to the ground below.
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Then Pablo went down.
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He was struck several times in the leg and torso but the fatal shot penetrated his skull.
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On confirming his target, the leader of the operation spoke excitedly into his radio . . . ‘Viva
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la Colombia – we have just killed Pablo Escobar!’
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But had they?
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Pablo had always told his family that, if cornered he would commit suicide by placing
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a bullet in his skull.
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Many people believe that he did so, once more escaping the clutches of the Colombian authorities.
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This post was previously published on YouTube.
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Photo credit: Screenshot from video.