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Pablo Escobar

Pablo Emilio Escobar was born in 1949 in Colombia and grew up in poverty. He dropped out of high school and began his criminal career by stealing tombstones and cars. He progressed to kidnapping for ransom, which brought him notoriety. In the 1970s, Escobar became involved in the growing cocaine trade in Colombia. His drug trafficking business expanded significantly. However, Escobar made powerful enemies in the Colombian government and other drug cartels. He was ultimately shot and killed by Colombian special forces in 1993 while trying to escape from the roof of a house in Medellin.

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40 views2 pages

Pablo Escobar

Pablo Emilio Escobar was born in 1949 in Colombia and grew up in poverty. He dropped out of high school and began his criminal career by stealing tombstones and cars. He progressed to kidnapping for ransom, which brought him notoriety. In the 1970s, Escobar became involved in the growing cocaine trade in Colombia. His drug trafficking business expanded significantly. However, Escobar made powerful enemies in the Colombian government and other drug cartels. He was ultimately shot and killed by Colombian special forces in 1993 while trying to escape from the roof of a house in Medellin.

Uploaded by

JimmyJhay Aliswag
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Pablo Emilio Escobar

Faraon, Racean Rose S.

BP3DK

Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria was born on December 1, 1949 in Rionegro, Antioquia
Department. He grew up in poverty as the third of seven children in the neighboring city of
Medellin. His father worked as a small farmer while his mother was a teacher. Escobar dropped
out of high school before his 17th birthday and later returned with his cousin Gustavo Gaviria,
both having been hardened by their experiences living on the streets of Medellin. Despite being
viewed as gangster bullies by their teachers, Escobar persevered and briefly became self-
assured after forging high school diplomas throughout Latin America. He then pursued higher
education with aspirations to become a criminal lawyer, politician and eventually president but
had to abandon those dreams due to financial constraints.

Escobar began his criminal career stealing tombstones with his gang before graduating to
stealing cars upon dropping out of school again. He quickly progressed into violent crime where
he hired criminals to kidnap individuals who owed him money while demanding ransoms; even
tearing up ransom notes when payments were made. One notable kidnapping victim was
businessman Diego Echavarria whom he kidnapped for ransom during the summer of 1971
earning $50,000 from Echavarria's family- this incident catapulted him into infamy.

Escobar had been involved in organized crime for a decade when the cocaine trade began to
spread in Colombia in the mid-1970s. Escobar's meteoric rise caught the attention of the
Colombian Security Service (DAS), who arrested him in May 1976 on his return from drug
trafficking in Ecuador. DAS agents found 39 kg of cocaine in the spare tire of Escobar's car.
Escobar managed to change the first judge in the lawsuit and bribed the second judge, so he
was released along with other prisoners. The following year, the agent who arrested Escobar
was assassinated. Escobar continued to bribe and intimidate Colombian law enforcement
agencies, in the same fashion. His carrot-and-stick strategy of bribing public officials and
political candidates in Colombia, in addition to sending hitmen to murder the ones who
rejected his bribes, came to be known as "silver or lead", meaning "money or death". The
Medellín Cartel and the Cali Cartel both managed to bribe Colombian politicians, and
campaigned for both the Conservative and Liberal parties. Hence, Escobar and many other
Colombian drug lords were pulling strings in every level of the Colombian government, because
many of the political candidates whom they backed financially, were eventually elected.[17]
Although the Medellín Cartel was only established in the early 1970s, it expanded after Escobar
met several drug lords on a farm in April 1978, and by the end of 1978 they had transported
some 19,000 kilograms of cocaine to the United States

Escobar faced threats from the Colombian police, the U.S. government and his rival, the Cali
Cartel. On 2 December 1993, Escobar was found in a house in a middle-class residential area of
Medellin by Colombian special forces using technology provided by the United States. Police
tried to arrest Escobar, but the situation quickly escalated to an exchange of gun fire. Escobar
was shot and killed while trying to escape from the roof. He was hit by bullets in the torso and
feet, and a bullet which struck him in the head, killing him. This sparked debate about whether
he killed himself or whether he was shot dead.

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