Hey! Since you have a personal rapport with Larry Johnson, could you ask him whether or not he still believes that TWA800 was downed by terrorists? I vividly recall him being on CNN right after TWA800 went down, and he was convinved it was as a result of terrorism. I wonder if he ever changed his mind.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria (January 12, 1949 – December 2, 1993) gained world infamy as a Colombian drug lord who became one of the richest men in the world by smuggling cocaine into the United States and countries around the world. Members of the U.S. and Colombian Governments, news reporters and the general public alike considered him to be one of the most brutally ruthless yet ambitious and powerful drug dealers in history. [edit]
Life
Escobar began what would become one of the most successful criminal careers in history as a teenage car thief in the streets of Medellín, Colombia. He eventually moved into the cocaine business and began building an enormous drug empire during the 1970s. During the peak years, it was alleged that he earned as much as 1 million dollars a day from his drug dealings.
During the 1980s, Escobar became known internationally as his drug network gained notoriety; El Cartel de Medellín, is said to have controlled a large portion of the drugs that entered into Mexico, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic with cocaine base brought mostly from Peru and Bolivia, as Colombian coca was initially of substandard quality. Escobar's product reached many other nations, mostly around the Americas, although it is said that his network reached as far as Asia.
Escobar bribed countless government officials, judges and other politicians and he often personally executed uncooperative subordinates and had anyone he viewed as a threat assassinated. Corruption and intimidation characterized the Colombian system during Escobar's heyday. He had an effective, inescapable strategy that was referred to as plata o plomo; Spanish for silver or lead, intended to mean "accept a bribe or face assassination." He was responsible for the killing of three presidential candidates in Colombia, as well as for the bombing of Avianca Flight 203 and, as some analysts argue, the storming of the Colombian Supreme Court by left-wing guerillas resulting in the murder of half the judges on the court in the ensuing firefight. The Cartel de Medellín was also involved in a deadly drug war with its main rival, the Cartel De Cali for most of its existence.
At the height of his empire, Escobar was estimated by Forbes magazine to be the seventh richest man in the world1, with his Medellín Cartel controlling 80 percent of the world's cocaine market. His organization had fleets of planes, boats, and expensive vehicles. Vast properties and tracts of lands were also controlled by the cartel under Escobar due to the almost limitless influx of cash during this period. Estimates are that the Medellín cartel was taking in up to $25 billion annually at its zenith.
While an enemy of the United States and Colombian governments, Escobar was a hero to many in Medellín; he was a natural at public relations and he worked to create goodwill among Colombia's poor. A lifelong sports fan, he was credited with building soccer stadiums and sponsoring little league soccer teams in the city. He worked hard to cultivate his Robin Hood image and frequently distributed money to the poor. The population of Medellín often helped Escobar by serving as lookouts, hiding information from the authorities, or doing whatever else they could do to protect him.
In 1991, Escobar turned himself into the Colombian government in order to avoid extradition to the United States or assassination by a rival cartel. Escobar was "jailed" in his own luxuroius private prison, La Catedral, which he was allowed to build for his confinement in return for turning himself in. He negotiated an agreement with the Colombian government whereby he would be jailed for a mandatory five-year sentence and guaranteed no extradition to the United States. However, his "prison" was actually more of a country-club fortress and he showed little regard for the sanctity of his sentence there as he was often seen outside of the jail: shopping in Medellín or at parties, soccer games, and other public places. After an account appeared in the local media showing photos of his lavish jail/residence and claiming that he had murdered several business associates when they came to meet him at La Catedral, public opinion forced the government to act. When a government official attempted to move Escobar to another jail on July 22, 1992, he escaped, fearing that he would be extradited to the United States.
In 1992, US Delta Force operators (and later Navy SEALs from SEAL Team Six) joined the all-out manhunt for the escaped kingpin. They trained and advised a special Colombian police task-force, known as the Search Bloc, which had been created to locate Escobar and bring him to justice. Later, as the conlict between Escobar and US/Colombian goverments dragged on and the numbers of his enemies grew, a shadowy group known as Los Pepes (People Persecuted by Pablo Escobar), carried out a bloody campaign in which more than 300 of Escobar's associates/relatives were slain and large amounts of his cartel's property was destroyed. Some observers claim that members of the Search Bloc, in their efforts to find and punish Escobar, either colluded with Los Pepes or were moonlighting as both Search Bloc and Los Pepes simultaneously. This coordination was conducted mainly through sharing intelligence in order to allow Los Pepes to bring down the organizational mountain that protected Escobar, but there are reports that Search Bloc members may have directly participated in the missions of the Los Pepes death squads. This brings into question the role the US played in gathering intelligence on Escobar's organization because of its later use by the Los Pepes organization in its crusade of summary executions.
The war against Escobar ended on December 2, 1993, as he tried to elude the Search Bloc one more time. Using radio triangulation technology provided as part of the US efforts, a Colombian electronic surveillance team found him hiding in a middle-class barrio in Medellín. A shootout between Escobar and the Search Bloc personnel ensued. Some believe US special ops snipers may have taken part in the final shootout with Escobar. Accordingly, how Escobar was killed during the confrontation has been debated, but it is known that he was cornered on the rooftops of Medellín and suffered gunshots to the leg, back, and the fatal one behind his ear.
The hunt for Escobar was documented in Mark Bowden's book, Killing Pablo, which is being made into a motion picture.
After Escobar's death the Medellín Cartel fragmented and the cocaine market soon became dominated by the rival Cali Cartel, until the mid-1990s when its leaders too were either killed or captured.