Pablo Escobar was a very bad man.
That’s the thesis of Mark Bowden’s “Killing Pablo,” an exploration of the man and the international effort to bring him to justice. Escobar was the most infamous druglord/gangster/outlaw in the world. He was listed on Forbes list of richest people in the world all through the ’80s. He made billions selling cocaine to rich American yuppies. But he also yearned for something more. He saw himself as a revolutionary, Che Guavera-type, a man of the people if you will. He spent much of the money he made building public soccer fields and housing projects in his home city of MedellÃn. And the people in that part of the country loved him. But he was hardly an altruist. His policy of plata o plomo, or “silver or lead,” resulted in the deaths of thousands of people over his career. If you were in a position to bring the hammer down in Colombia in the ’80s, you either took a bribe or took a bullet from Pablo. He controlled the small South American country.
For the whole time, American law enforcement establishment was keeping an eye on Pablo. He was a nuisance, responsible for 80 percent of the cocaine that was coming into America. But when Pablo bombed a commercial airliner, he suddenly became more than an outlaw. He became a military problem. That’s when the U.S. got more involved in the effort to hunt him down. Maybe too involved. Pressure eventually led Pablo to surrender himself, but not without conditions. He paid to have a special “prison” built for him and his lieutenants. This “prison” contained every luxury one could possibly want, from big-screen TVs to loose security. Pablo was even spotted outside the prison several times while he was there. He eventually walked out, and went back on the run. That’s when surrender stopped being an option for Pablo. Colombia, the U.S., and probably most everyone else wanted him dead.
Members of Colonel Martinez’s Search Bloc celebrate over Pablo Escobar’s body on December 2, 1993, in a photograph taken by DEA agent Steve Murphy. Pablo’s death ended a fifteen-month effort that cost hundreds of millions of dollars. It was the deathblow to the MedellÃn cartel.
The hunt for Pablo involved many, many people and costs the lives of hundreds of Colombian law enforcement agents. The U.S. lended much support to locate Pablo and plan raids. There were over 1,000 raids on suspected Pablo hideouts before he was actually found. When he eventually was found, there was no question about taking him alive. Pablo died like a dog, taking a bullet through the brain. The details of the actual killing may never be fully known. Many suspect that U.S. Delta forces were directly involved in the killing. Others assume that the fatal bullet was delivered execution style after Pablo was already taken down. Either way, authorities had come to the conclusion that the world was better off with Pablo dead than with Pablo captured, and most of those involved in the hunt pretty much felt like the ends justified the means.
Bowden write in a very straightforward style. That makes sense, since both “Killing Pablo” and his ever-popular “Black Hawk Down” were originally published as a series of articles in the Philadelphia Inquirer. I like the plain-English style. There aren’t a lot of big words or difficult construction, which means that the essence of the book comes across easily and cleanly. While not nearly as exciting as “Black Hawk Down,” “Killing Pablo” is a look at a much more fascinating sliver of time and place in history, when Colombia nearly toppled under the pressure of one very rich street thug. I recommend it.
Next book, Y: The Last Man, Vol. 1: Unmanned by Brian K. Vaughn et al.
[This article is part of the 26 Books project that I’m doing this year.]
Good review of a very good book. Bowden wrote a book a while ago - even before BHD - about the Philadelphia Eagles. An insiders look at a pro football team. Can’t remember what it was called but seems like something I may have to read someday.