Pablo Escobar

Drug lord and narcoterrorist Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria lived in Colombia from 1949 until his death on 2 December 1993. He established and served as the sole boss of the Medelln Cartel, which dealt in powder cocaine. Escobar is thought to have planned the bombs of the DAS Building and Avianca Flight 203. One of the most infamous drug lords in Colombia was Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria. One day after his 44th birthday in 1993, Colombian police shot and killed Escobar.
Many Colombians viewed him as a "Robin Hood-like" figure because of the luxuries he gave to the underprivileged. Escobar is thought to have started out as a criminal by robbing gravestones and sandblasting the writing on them. He left school at the age of 20 and got involved in organized crime. He also participated in philanthropy, earning the nickname "Robin Hood Paisa." Rodrigo Lara-Bonilla, the justice minister, and Luis Carlos Galán, a presidential candidate, were both murdered by Escobar.
Escobar had targeted the Colombian judicial system for much of the middle of the 1980s. Escobar attempted to kill Cesar Gaviria Trujillo, the man who would succeed Galán, by detonating a bomb on Avianca Flight 203. Escobar was imprisoned in La Catedral, which later became his own private prison and included a football field, a massive dollhouse, a bar, a Jacuzzi, and a waterfall. Escobar built or acquired a large number of mansions and safe houses after becoming affluent. Escobar also had a sizable vacation home on Isla Grande in the Caribbean.
A helicopter landing pad, a mansion, apartments, courtyards, reinforced windows, tiled flooring, and an incomplete construction were all features of the enclave. On December 2, 1993, Pablo Escobar's body was discovered in a Medellin, Colombia, residence. Escobar was threatened by the Cali Cartel, a rival organization, the Colombian police, and the American government. While attempting to flee from the roof, he was shot and murdered. She charged Santo Santofimio with participating in the 1985 siege of the Palace of Justice, for which Escobar paid M-19 communist militants to attack the Colombian Supreme Court.
After Pablo Escobar's death in 1993, his widow, Mara Henao de Escobar, and her three children left Colombia. Henao has been charged with money laundering with two cocaine dealers from Colombia. The book by Nicolas Escobar Marroqun offers a firsthand look at specifics of his father's life and discusses the fundamentally eroding impact of his passing on the family. On October 28, 2006, Escobar's body was unearthed at the request of a few of his relatives so that a DNA sample could be collected for an unborn child. In a private menagerie at Hacienda Nápoles, Escobar kept four hippos.
After Escobar's death, it was decided that they were too challenging to grab and transfer. 40 hippos were reportedly present in Puerto Triunfo, Antioquia, as of the beginning of 2014.Escobar has been the subject of several books and a number of films, including two feature-length films. One film is based on George Jung, a member of the Medellín Cartel; Escobar: Beyond Narcos (2016), tells the story of Pablo and the failed War on Drugs. It was to be based on Mark Bowden's 2001 book of the same title and his 31-part Philadelphia Inquirer series. Colombian actor Juan Pablo Parra played the role of Pablo Escobar in two television series. He has declared not to play the character again so as not to typecast himself. National Geographic broadcast a biography series Facing that included an episode featuring Escobar. Netflix released a documentary Countdown to Death on 24 January 2018.
== Who shot Pablo Escobar? ==
Escobar's death has long been associated with the Bloque de Búsqueda, or Search Bloc. Accounts from rival traffickers and family members indicate that soldiers backed by the legitimacy of the state may not have been responsible. Escobar was killed by a hail of gunfire from rival drug traffickers, paramilitaries, and others scorned by the Medellín cartel boss. Escobar reportedly died firing his own gun, leaving the question of who fired the fatal shot open to speculation. In early 1993, there were up to six killings a day. Escobar retaliated with more bombings in urban areas. Los Pepes responded in kind, destroying numerous properties belonging to Escobar and his associates. Don Berna says it was his brother who shot Escobar in the head with an M-16. Escobar told his son that he would shoot himself in the right ear to avoid capture, Eduardo Marroquín says. Images of Escobar on the rooftop show his Sig Sauer pistol lying next to his body. A gunshot from within 3 feet would've left gunpowder marks on Escobar's skin, Martinez says.Pablo Escobar, arguably the wealthiest drug lord the world has ever known, made an attempt to escape a hideout in his hometown of Medelln, Colombia, on December 2, 1993, by scrambling across a nearby rooftop. Instead, he was shot to death, leaving behind the iconic image of the world's most powerful drug lord's bleeding body sprawled across a tile roof in the city that was once his safest haven. But reports from rival traffickers and gang members, intelligence reports, and Escobar's own family suggest that the kingpin's demise may not have been caused by those soldiers, who were supported by the authority of the state.
=== Escobar's passing ===
On December 2, 1993, Escobar's body was accompanied by Colombian security agents. Late in 1989, after Escobar had humiliated the security forces and government of Colombia in a number of deadly ways, President Virgilio Barco established a special police squad to deal with the drug lord and his cartel. The Bloque de Bsqueda, or Search Bloc, was first stunned and weakened by its confrontations with the Medelln network, but it gradually developed into a hardened task force that pursued Escobar and his allies. The Search Bloc followed Escobar throughout 1992 and 1993 with assistance from US special forces, US Army intelligence, and personnel from the CIA and DEA. Official reports claim that Escobar was ultimately slain by the Search Bloc. The Search Bloc located Escobar in Medelln's Los Olivos area on December 2, 1993, the day after his birthday, which, according to Mark Bowden's book "Killing Pablo," he celebrated with marijuana, a birthday cake, and wine. Colombian military helicopter Pablo Escobar in Medellin On February 25, 1993, Colombian forces were in a tiny area south of Medellin looking for Pablo Escobar. Escobar was on the phone with his kid when the Search Bloc was able to approach the home and surround it. Despite all of the group's technology, according to Bowden, a definitive ID wasn't achieved until one of the members noticed Escobar through a window on the second floor. While others burst through the door, members of the Search Bloc encircled the house. Escobar and a bodyguard stumbled onto an orange-tiled roof after being warned. Both of them collapsed from gunshot wounds to the head as they were exchanged fire with; Escobar's bullet penetrated his right ear and instantly killed him. Col. Hugo Martinez, the chief of the Search Bloc who had hunted Escobar for three deadly years but had not arrived on the spot, heard one of his men shouting on the radio after the gunshots had stopped. 'Viva Colombia!' exclaimed the soldier. "Pablo Escobar was just assassinated by us!" Escobar was said to have fired his own firearm when he was said to have fallen, but because of the confusion surrounding the confrontation, it is unclear who actually fired the fatal shot.
=== Los Pepes ===
On December 2, 1993, authorities and security workers examine Escobar's body. Bowden claimed that a fresh team had begun the search for Escobar in January 1993. People Persecuted by Pablo Escobar, also known as Los Pepes, was a group of competing drug dealers, paramilitaries, and other individuals who the Medelln cartel leader disapproved of. Earlier, in the middle of 1992, Escobar had split his cartel into rival sections with the killing of two lieutenants. The group was probably led by former Medelln cartel members who, seeking retribution, had offered money to members of Escobar's crew, members of the Search Bloc, or anyone else who was prepared to take on the kingpin, according to journalist Alma Guillermoprieto, who spoke with a former member of Los Pepes. Many in the Colombian government were thought to be open to their involvement in the hunt; Los Pepes were, in Bowden's words, "some extralegal muscle... who didn't mind violating the limits of legality and morality that Pablo so casually ignored." The gang most certainly received funds from the rival Cali cartel, according to DEA papers quoted by Bowden. It also most likely obtained information from the Colombian National Police and, supposedly, US intelligence personnel stationed in the nation. Hacienda Napoles, the home of Pablo Escobar in Colombia At Escobar's estate, Hacienda Napoles, in August 1989 were Colombian soldiers. More records that may provide light on the alleged coordination between the American government, Colombian security forces, and Los Pepes were ordered by a court judgement in 2015 to be made public by the CIA. In terms of raw savagery, Los Pepes rapidly launched a campaign to compete with Escobar's. Up to six murders occurred per day in the beginning of 1993. Anyone was fair target, even low-level cartel bosses, former state officials connected to the cartel, and Escobar's legal representatives. Escobar replied with other explosions in metropolitan areas, and Los Pepes retaliated by demolishing several Escobar and his allies' residences. Members of Los Pepes accompanied the Search Bloc on its raid of Escobar's hideout in Medelln, according to an account from Diego Fernando Murillo, alias Don Berna, a key figure in the organization, according to Insight Crime. According to Don Berna, it was his brother Rodolfo who gave Escobar the fatal gunshot to the head with an M-16. Maria Henao Juan Pablo, wife of Pablo Escobar, lives in Colombia. The veracity of Don Berna's statement hasn't been established despite evidence that the Search Bloc was collaborating with Los Pepes and evidence that Don Berna collaborated with both the Search Bloc and the DEA, as reported by Bowden. Don Berna's assertion that it was a cooperative operation appeared to be supported by a former paramilitary member's 2003 confession. The former combatant claimed that they came to an agreement since Escobar was a shared enemy. Fidel Castao, a co-founder of Los Pepes and a paramilitary leader, has previously refuted this claim, claiming in a 1994 interview that the group "never undertook any operation with the Search Bloc." Escobar was slain during an operation that was carried out solely by the police, he claimed. The paramilitary leader joined the Search Bloc on missions, according to Bowden's report, which also conflicts with a DEA communication that referred to Castao as "a collaborating individual."
=== Pablo alone ===
Escobar himself has been named as a third actor responsible for Escobar's demise. His son, Juan Pablo Escobar Henao, who has changed his name to Sebastián Marroquín, has insisted that his father took his own life on that Medellín rooftop. Pablo Escobar planned his own death, according to Marroqun, who stated in a 2014 interview, "I have no doubt." Marroqun provided the evidence for his assertion in "Pablo Escobar: My Father," a book that was published in the same year. Escobar repeatedly warned his son that in order to avoid being taken alive, he would shoot himself in the right ear, the man claimed. Additionally, pictures of the drug kingpin on the rooftop reveal his Sig Sauer weapon laying close to his body, which Marroqun claims his father would have used to shoot himself. This theory has been advanced by other Escobar family members. The family said that a hole in the drug tycoon's head discovered during an exhumation of his body led by his mother and wife in 2006 supported the assumption that the fatal wound had been self-inflicted. Pablo Escobar from Colombia Martinez, however, asserts that a shot fired from a distance of three feet would have left gunpowder scars on Escobar's skin, marks that Bowden claims are not present in the autopsy photographs. Pablo Escobar's murderer will probably never be found, presumably on purpose. His life and death left a somber stain on Colombia, and politicians and others in both Colombia and the US appear to be committed to forgetting how he died. According to a US soldier involved in the hunt, "nobody is ever going to tell you" whether Los Pepes killed Escobar or if it was someone else. You must make assumptions.
== How did Pablo Escobar get caught? ==
Pablo Escobar, whose full name is Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria, was a Colombian criminal who, as the leader of the Medelln cartel, was arguably the most potent drug trafficker in the world in the 1980s and early 1990s. He was born on December 1, 1949, in Rionegro, Colombia, and died on December 2, 1993, in Medelln.
Escobar's parents, a farmer and a teacher, moved to Envigado, Colombia, a Medelln suburb, not long after he was born. He started a life of crime when he was still a teenager. He started out by importing radio equipment, selling false diplomas, and stealing gravestones to sell. Escobar was also a car thief, and it was for this crime that he was taken into custody for the first time in 1974. Because Colombia is close to Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru, which are important producers of coca, the plant from which cocaine is made, the cocaine industry there has grown, and Escobar has been involved in drug smuggling. He contributed to the establishment of the Medelln cartel in the middle of the 1970s. The Ochoa brothers, Juan David, Jorge Luis, and Fabio, were some of his noteworthy partners. Escobar presided over the group, which specialized in the manufacture, distribution, and sale of cocaine.
The Medelln cartel controlled the cocaine trade by the middle of the 1980s, and Escobar possessed enormous wealth and influence. His estimated net worth, which allowed him to live a life of opulence that included a 7,000-acre (2,800-hectare) estate in Colombia titled Hacienda Nápoles (after Naples, Italy), according to some reports, was around $25 billion. It reportedly cost $63 million and included a tennis court, bullfighting arena, artificial lakes, soccer field, and dinosaur statues. There was a zoo on the grounds as well, home to camels, hippopotamuses, and giraffes among other creatures. Escobar also contributed to numerous initiatives that helped the underprivileged, which led to parallels to Robin Hood. In 1982, he was elected to a substitute seat in the nation's Congress thanks in part to this view.Such charitable endeavors, meanwhile, were tempered by Escobar's well-known cruelty. He dealt with issues using "plata o plomo," which translates to "silver" (bribes) or "lead" (bullets). His victims included government officials, police officers, and civilians in addition to rival drug traffickers, particularly those in the Cali cartel. The cartel allegedly planted a bomb on an airplane in 1989 in an effort to assassinate an accused informant. Over 100 people lost their lives. Escobar's retaliation increased in response to the threats of extradition to the United States, which had come to view Escobar as a top target in its war on drugs as the country received the majority of the cartel's drugs. Escobar reportedly said that he "would rather have a grave in Colombia than a jail cell in the U.S."Escobar was the target of a large manhunt as the bloodshed increased, and the government also started to negotiate his surrender. Escobar turned himself up in June 1991, the same day the Colombian Congress decided to prohibit extradition in the nation's new constitution, and was subsequently imprisoned. However, his illegal behavior and way of life remained largely unaffected by his sentence. He was given permission to construct the opulent jail that is now known as La Catedral. The complex contained a nightclub, sauna, waterfall, soccer field, telephones, computers, and fax machines, among other amenities. Escobar was transferred to a less hospitable prison after he tortured and killed two cartel members at La Catedral, though. Escobar fled from detention in July 1992 before he could be moved. The Colombian government began a manhunt, apparently with assistance from American officials and competing drug traffickers. On December 2, 1993, Escobar allegedly enjoyed cake, wine, and marijuana as he celebrated his 44th birthday. His refuge at Medelln was found the following day. Escobar and a bodyguard made it to the roof as Colombian forces attacked the building. Escobar was killed by gunfire after a subsequent chase and gunfight. However, other people believed he committed suicide. The Medelln cartel soon disintegrated once he passed away.
Escobar was a larger-than-life personality who in the years following his passing sparked a plethora of books, films, and television programs.
== His father once burned $2 million ==
Juan Pablo Escobar, 38, grew up amid immense luxury and narco-trafficking violence. Escobar's family was relocated every 48 hours between 15 different hideaways throughout Medellín. His father once burned $2 million in crisp banknotes to keep his family warm.
Pablo Escobar's son made the infamous assertion that his father once set fire to $2 million in crisp bills in order to keep the family warm. Juan Pablo Escobar, 38, who has since changed his name to Sebastián Marroqun, was raised amidst opulence and narco-trafficking violence as the son of one of the most powerful drug lords in history. Marroqun revealed what it was like to live on the run with the "king of cocaine" in a 2009 interview with Don Juan magazine. The "king of cocainecartel "'s provided 80% of the cocaine used worldwide and earned an estimated $420 million each week. Manuela Escobar, the daughter of Escobar, reportedly suffered from hypothermia while the family was hiding out in the Medelln mountaintop, according to Marroqun. Escobar made the decision to incinerate $2 million to keep his family warm. In the interview, it was revealed that the paranoid cocaine baron blindfolded his family and moved them every 48 hours between 15 different hiding places in Medelln because he didn't want them to know where they were. The family was told to carefully examine the sight to see whether they recognized it once they got to a certain residence. If they did, Don Juan stated, they were moved right away and the location was abandoned as a potential hiding place. Because they were never allowed to know where they were being held, if Escobar's relatives were ever apprehended and subjected to torture, they would not be able to reveal the locations of their hideouts.
== Medellin Cartel ==
The Medelln Cartel was a drug trafficking and terrorist group in Colombia. Pablo Escobar was the organization's founder and leader, and it ran from 1972 to 1993. At its peak, the Cali Cartel was the major rival of the Medellin Cartel, which smuggled three times as much cocaine. The group was infamous for once controlling the illegal cocaine trade, but it was also known for using violence for political ends. Escobar established the Medellin Cartel, which at its peak was involved in the daily trafficking of 300 kilograms of cocaine.
The State began working with organized crime groups like Escobar and the Ochoas in the 1980s as a result of kidnappings committed by guerrilla groups. As a result, private armies financed by cartels were formed to battle rebels and defend local elites against kidnappings. Pablo Escobar started putting a lot of money into the group in 1984 to pay for tools, instruction, and weapons. The MAS's public relations and legal front were handled by ACDEGAM, a second paramilitary organization that was founded the next year. By the middle of the 1980s, Escobar had more control over Medelln after establishing the "Oficina de Envigado," a company that collected illegal debts.
Federal Drug Task Force surveillance of the gang was initiated once U.S. officials learned about their operations. These activities led to the arrest of a small number of Colombian cartel leaders. By 1993, Colombia's National Police and the CIA had either captured or killed the majority of fugitives. The Medellin Cartel adopted the route through Central America to travel to the US once the Bahamian government began to crack down on the drug trade. According to a previous DEA investigation, the cartel was permitted to utilize Nicaragua as a "warehouse" for its operations thanks to protection from the FSLN, the Sandinista party.
Barry Seal was killed in February 1986 as a result of a contract the cartel placed on him after learning of his activities as an informant. On March 16 of the same year, Ronald Reagan used surveillance images acquired on Seal during a national television address. Due to his adamant anticommunist stance, the CIA ignored the connection between the Medellin Cartel and Manoel Noriega. The reduction and later termination of Soviet Union subsidies during the 1980s nearly destroyed the Cuban economy. Several of these supporters were subjected to the cartel's "bend or break" tactics, which included threats of violence, extortion, and bribes.
As a result, Escobar launched a violent campaign to pressure the Colombian government by carrying out a string of kidnappings, killings, and other violent deeds with his group, Los Extraditables. According to some estimates, the number of people slain at the height of the cartel's operations was over 3,500. Guillermo Cano Isaza, a journalist from Colombia who exposed Pablo Escobar's criminal past, was assassinated on December 17, 1986, in Bogotá by men on motorcycles. In August 1989, gunmen opened fire on presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galán during a rally in Soacha. Police shot and killed former president Julio César Turbay Ayala's daughter Diana Turbay, the main editor of the magazine Hoy por Hoy, during a rescue attempt in January 1991.
It is thought that La Oficina de Envigado is a partly successor to the Medelln organization. Don Berna established it as Pablo Escobar's enforcement arm, but they split off after he was overthrown. Numerous pieces of popular culture have both included and referenced the cartel.Pablo Escobar established and oversaw the Medellin Cartel, a significant and well-organized Colombian drug cartel and terrorist group that had its roots in Medellin, Colombia. It is frequently described to as the first significant "drug cartel," so named because Escobar and several other Colombian traffickers formed a partnership to form the organization's highest levels. Carlos Lehder, Jose Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha, Juan David Ochoa Vasquez, and Jorge Luis Ochoa Vasquez were all present. From 1972 through 1993, the cartel was active in Bolivia, Colombia, Panama, Central America, Peru, the United States, and Canada. Although it began as a network of smugglers in the early 1970s, the organization didn't start trafficking cocaine until 1976. The Medellin Cartel made up to US$60 million per day in narcotics earnings at the height of its activities, when it was smuggling several tons of cocaine into various nations every week.
Although the organization was once known for controlling the illegal cocaine trade, it was also infamous for using violence for political ends and waging an asymmetrical war against the Colombian government, primarily through bombings, kidnappings, the random killing of law enforcement officers, and political assassinations. When it was at its greatest, the Medellin Cartel—a global drug trafficking group with headquarters in Colombia's Valle del Cauca department—smuggled three times as much cocaine as its major rival, the Cali Cartel. In the past, Pablo and the Medellin Cartel had a deal with the Cali Cartel whereby Cali controlled New York City, while Medellin controlled Miami and both agreed to share Los Angeles and Houston. The Medellin Cartel was making more than $5 billion a year at this point.
=== 1970s through early 1980s ===
The illegal cocaine trade, especially among smugglers, became a big issue for law enforcement in the late 1970s and a significant source of income for criminals. Drug lord Pablo Escobar created a criminal organization that, at its peak, moved about 300 kilos of cocaine per day by protecting other smugglers who worked with him and distributed cocaine for the cartel in New York City and then Miami. Escobar oversaw the large-scale importation of coca paste into Colombia during the cartel's peak from Andean countries like Bolivia and Peru. From there, the coca paste was processed into cocaine hydrochloride in jungle labs before being flown into the United States at rates of up to 15 tons per day.
A military takeover in Chile in 1973 resulted in a harsh crackdown on the country's drug smugglers. Drug dealers were forced to take alternative routes as a result; one such route was through the center of Colombia. The incidence and social acceptance of illegal activity peaked at the same time in Colombia. Together, these two factors had a role in the formation of the Medellin Cartel in 1976.
Cocaine replaced coffee as the main export from Colombia by 1982. Around this time in the early 1980s, guerrilla kidnappings prompted the State to work with criminal organizations like Escobar and the Ochoas. Carlos Lehder's kidnapping and the 1981 kidnapping of the Ochoas' sister prompted the establishment of cartel-funded private armies to fight off guerrillas who were attempting to either kidnap local peasants or redistribute their lands to them or extort the gramaje money that the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia attempted to steal.
=== Kill those who kidnap. ===
The Muerte a Secuestradores paramilitary group was created in Puerto Boyaca at the end of 1981 and the beginning of 1982 by representatives of the Medellin Cartel, the Cali Cartel, the Colombian military, Texas Petroleum, the Colombian legislature, small industrialists, and wealthy cattle ranchers to protect their economic interests and the local elite from kidnapping and extortion. By 1983, the MAS death squads had killed 240 political targets in Colombia, primarily farmers, community leaders, and elected officials.
The Asociacion Campesina de Ganaderos y Agricultores del Magdalena Medio was established the next year to manage the organization's operations and public relations while serving as a legitimate front for numerous paramilitary organizations. ACDEGAM threatened anyone interested in organizing for labor or peasants' rights and attempted to advance anti-labor laws. The MAS, which would kill or attack anyone suspected of being a "subversive," backed up the threats. ACDEGAM also constructed roads, bridges, and health facilities in addition to schools, the claimed goal of which was to create a "patriotic and anti-Communist" learning environment. ACDEGAM's main office managed paramilitary recruiting, weapon storage, communications, propaganda, and medical services.
ACDEGAM and MAS had experienced tremendous expansion by the middle of the 1980s. Pablo Escobar started transferring a lot of money to the group in 1985 to pay for tools, instruction, and weapons. Money that had been allocated for social programs was cut off and instead used to support the MAS. AKM, FN FAL, Galil, and HK G3 modern battle rifles were bought from the military, INDUMIL, and drug-funded private transactions. The company operated a communications center with computers and collaborated with the state telecom agency. They had 30 pilots and a variety of fixed-wing and helicopter aircraft. To instruct in paramilitary training facilities, British, Israeli, and American military instructors were hired.
=== early to late 1980s ===
Escobar established the "Oficina de Envigado," a criminal debt collection agency, at the town hall of Envigado, a small municipality neighboring to Medellin where Escobar was raised, around this period in the mid-80s, further strengthening his influence on the city. When drug traffickers failed to pay him back, Escobar used the municipal office to hire "sicarios," or hired murderers, to kill them. Escobar was well known for showing off his wealth, and from 1987 and 1993, he appeared on Forbes' list of billionaires seven years in a row. Escobar was known for investing profits from the drug trade in luxury goods, property, and works of art. He is also said to have stashed his money in "hidden coves," allegedly burying it on his farms and under floors in many of his homes. His opulent multimillion-dollar "Hacienda Napoles" estate had its own zoo, and he reportedly ate from solid gold dinner sets.
=== governmental ties ===
The CIA's support for right-wing paramilitary groups and dictatorships during the latter years of the Cold War increased the number of left-wing guerrillas in Latin America, which prompted the Cartel to look for new allies while being compelled to engage in corruption outside of Colombia for political protection.
Ties with the government of Colombia
Evidence was gathered, compiled, and presented to a grand jury, resulting in indictments, arrests, and prison sentences for those convicted in the United States. However, very few Colombian cartel leaders were actually taken into custody as a result of these operations. Rather, non-Colombians conspiring with the cartel were the "fruits" of the operations.
However, by 1993 most, if not all, cartel fugitives had been either captured or found and killed by the Colombian National Police, who had been trained and assisted by specialized military units and the CIA. Most Colombians targeted, as well as those named in such indictments, lived and stayed in Colombia, or fled before indictments were unsealed.
Juan Diego Arcila Henao, who had been freed from a Colombian prison in 2002 and had fled to Venezuela to escape "Los Pepes'" retribution, was the last of Escobar's lieutenants to be assassinated; however, he was shot and killed in his Jeep Cherokee as he left the garage of his residence in Cumana, Venezuela, in April 2007.
Although it is widely accepted that Los Pepes played a significant role in the assassination of cartel members over the past 21 years, it is still debatable whether this mantle is simply a ploy to avoid political fallout from the involvement of both the Colombian and US governments in these killings.
=== Partnerships with the CIA ===
Because the money from these operations was used to fight the Sandinista government, the Kerry Committee report came to the conclusion that the CIA gave the Contras the political cover they needed to smuggle cocaine into the US. Additionally, the same report revealed that Juan Matta-Ballesteros, the middleman between the Medellin Cartel and the Guadalajara Cartel who was in charge of the majority of the logistics for moving cocaine from Colombia to Mexico, was working with the Contras.
Things started to change after the report was published as the CIA was forced to save face in the scandal. The agency blamed the cocaine smuggling to the Colombian guerrillas and investigated the links between the Medellin Cartel and the left-wing organizations, making the right-wing paramilitaries in Colombia turn against the Medellin Cartel, helping to form the Los Pepes death squad.
The CIA, once one of Noriega's allies, was one of the minds behind Operation Just Cause, which effectively ended Noriega's term and led to his arrest. The end of the Panamian connection was one of the hardest hits on the Cartel operations, speeding up its decline. The removal of support for Manuel Noriega, who was prosecuted for conspiracy with drug smuggling activities between 1989 and 1990, was another action from the CIA to clean up its image.
=== Ties with the government of Nicaragua ===
The Medellin Cartel chose to travel through Central America to reach the US because Carlos Lehder's Norman's Cay strategy was abandoned in 1982 when the Bahamian government began pursuing the drug trade. In 1985, the DEA forced the pilot to take pictures of the cartel's landing stripes in Nicaragua after learning about Barry Seal's connections to both the Medellin Cartel and the FSLN.
In March 1986, President Ronald Reagan used surveillance images from Seal's undercover mission that showed Escobar, Gacha, Nicaraguan government official Federico Vaughan, and several other men loading a plane with cocaine. Knowing Seal's activity as a DEA informant, the cartel put a contract on him and had him murdered in February 1986.
=== Ties with the government of Panamia ===
The Medellin Cartel was looking for new locations to use as a stopover due to the conflict in remote areas of Nicaragua and Colombia, and Manoel Noriega agreed to use Panama as one such location in exchange for bribes and a share of the profits. Additionally, the links between him and the Cartel ensured that Panama could be used as a stopover due to the conflict in remote areas of Nicaragua and Colombia.
Because of his virulent anticommunist stance, the CIA chose to ignore the connection between Noriega and the Medellin Cartel; but, as the Cartel's involvement became known, the agency decided to withdraw its support for Noriega.
=== Relations with the government of Cuba ===
As the cocaine smuggling to the USA was doing billions of dollars, the Cuban intelligence helped managing Nicaraguan operations and the island's government agreed using Cuba as one of the stopovers for the Cartel. Carlos Lehder, the Cartel's responsible for ensuring that the cocaine would reach Florida, testified that, as the drug smuggling to the USA was doing billions of dollars, the Cuban intelligence helped managing Nicaraguan operations and the island's government agreed using Cuba as one of the
=== Aversion to extradition ===
The implementation of an extradition treaty between the United States and Colombia, which allowed any Colombian suspected of drug trafficking to be extradited to the US and to be tried there for their crimes, was a major problem for the cartel because the drug traffickers had little access to their local power and influence in the US and a trial there would most likely result in I
When police operations started to result in significant losses, some of the major drug lords themselves were temporarily forced out of Colombia, forcing them into hiding from which they ordered cartel members to kill important proponents of the extradition treaty. However, the cartel used a "bend or break" strategy towards several of these supporters, using bribery, extortion, or violence.
Escobar and the group he led known as Los Extraditables began a violent campaign to pressure the Colombian government by carrying out a series of kidnappings, murders, and narco-terrorist actions. The cartel had issued death threats to the Supreme Court Judges, asking them to denounce the Extradition Treaty, but the warnings were disregarded.
Supposed connection to the M-19
=== Luis Lehder ===
Some speculated at the time that the M-19's raid on the Colombian Supreme Court in November 1985, which precipitated the Palace of Justice siege, was motivated by the cartel's desire to intimidate the court; others contend that the alleged cartel-guerrilla relationship was unlikely to occur at the time because the two organizations had been engaged in numerous standoffs and confrontations.
=== Assassinations ===
Escobar and his associates made it clear that whoever opposed them would risk being killed along with their families, so the cartel carried out thousands of assassinations throughout the country as a form of intimidation. Some estimates put the total number of deaths at around 3,500 during the height of the cartel's activities, including over 500 police officers in Medellin, but the full list is impossible to compile due to the limitation of the judiciary power in Colombia.
One of the first cartel homicides was that of Luis Vasco and Gilberto Hernandez, two DAS agents who had detained Pablo Escobar in 1976.
On April 30, 1984, two gunmen on motorcycles approached Rodrigo Lara's vehicle in the middle of traffic on a highway in Bogota, Colombia, and started shooting. Lara was the minister of justice at the time.
Tulio Manuel Castro Gil, a Superior Judge who was investigating Escobar for the murder of two DAS agents who had been imprisoned in 1977 together with his cousin Gustavo Gaviria, was assassinated in July 1985, not long after Escobar had been charged.
On July 31, 1986, assailants shot and killed Hernando Baquero Borda, a justice of the Supreme Court who also served as a rapporteur and supporter of the Extradition Treaty with the United States.
On November 17, 1986, assassins in a green Renault 18 pulled up next to Jaime Ramirez Gomez's red Mitsubishi Montero on his way to Bogota and opened fire, killing Ramirez instantly while leaving his wife and two sons unharmed. Ramirez was a police colonel and the head of the anti-narcotics unit of the National Police of Colombia.
* Guillermo Cano Isaza, the director of El Espectador who made Escobar's criminal record public, was assassinated by assassins on motorcycles in Bogota on December 17, 1986.
* In October 1987, a shooter killed Jaime Pardo Leal, a presidential candidate and leader of the Patriotic Union party.
* Attorney General Carlos Mauro Hoyos was abducted and murdered in Medellin in January 1988 by armed men.
* Antioquia's governor, Antonio Roldan Betancur, was assassinated in a car bombing in July 1989.
* In August 1989, gunmen killed Waldemar Franklin Quintero, the commander of the Antioquia police, in Medellin.
* The assassination of presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galan took place in Soacha in August 1989, the same day that the cartel shot and killed the commander of the Antioquia police.
* After charging Escobar with Guillermo Cano's murder, Carlos Ernesto Valencia, a superior judge, was assassinated by gunmen in August 1989.
* In November 1989, assailants in Bogota killed journalist and Jorge Enrique Pulido TV director Jorge Enrique Pulido.
* Although the gunshot found in her body came from a police helicopter, Diana Turbay was a journalist, the chief editor of the Hoy por Hoy magazine, and the daughter of former president Julio Cesar Turbay Ayala. She was killed by Colombian military during a rescue attempt in January 1991.
* In May 1991, assailants shot and assassinated Enrique Low Murtra, the minister of justice, in downtown Bogota.
* Superior Judge Myriam Rocio Velez was assassinated by gunmen in September 1992, just before she was about to sentence Escobar for the murder of Galan.
* In the DAS Building Bombing, which claimed the lives of 52 innocent bystanders and was directed at Miguel Maza Marquez, Miguel managed to escape unscathed.
* The cartel lieutenants were also attacked by Los Pepes in 1993, just before Escobar passed away.
* Since Juan Diego Arcila Henao's murder in 2007, the most, if not all, of Escobar's lieutenants who were not in prison have been murdered by the Los Pepes vigilante group or the Colombian National Police Search Bloc.
* DEA operatives believed that their four-pronged "Kingpin Strategy," which targeted senior cartel figures in particular, played a significant component in the organization's demise.
== See Also ==
Cartel