[Music]
he had the power and wealth of a king he
was a brilliant at times over he killed
anyone who stood in his way of becoming
the world's most powerful drug lord
touchable he terrorized the nation of
Colombia and made an enemy of the most
powerful nation on earth he was a crown
jewel
he is what we wanted Pablo Escobar and
his cocaine cartel became bigger than
his own government
was a DaVinci of crime his Empire was
best he was invincible he had it all we
had the wealth of Fame Pablo Escobar
became so big
[Music]
December 2nd 1993 a team of heavily
armed police officers converge on a
two-story row house and the Los Olivos
neighborhood of Midian Colombia
this moment is the culmination of the
largest manhunt in history the United
States has devoted all of its
intelligence and military assets to
finding Pablo Escobar hundreds of
millions of dollars its most elite
troops and some of its most secret units
after all this time all this money and
effort and bloodshed they finally found
him I never really knew that much about
Pablo Escobar until I was working on my
book Black Hawk Down and one day I was
interviewing a fellow who was connected
with Special Forces and he had a picture
on the wall of his office of a bloody
dead fat man on a rooftop surrounded by
all these grinning men with rifles and I
interrupted him and said excuse me you
have to tell me what that is
and he said that my friend is Pablo
Escobar I keep that picture on my wall
to remind me that no matter how rich you
get in this life you can still be too
big for your britches and what that
suggested to me was that the United
States military had been much more
involved in hunting down Pablo Escobar
and killing him than I had previously
thought Marc Bowden's bestseller killing
Pablo uncovered a vicious covert war
underwritten by the US government in one
of the most violent countries on earth
incinerated by nearly 40 years of bloody
civil war
Colombians have long been brutalized by
both Marxist guerrillas and the
right-wing paramilitary death squads who
opposed them a subhuman conflict fueled
by a multi-billion dollar trade in
cocaine
Columbia's ascension to its place as the
kidnapping in terror capital of the
world began in a 1950s era of political
turmoil Colombians refer to that period
simply as la violencia which means just
the violence if there were hundreds of
thousands of people killed and for no
real reason
there was no coherent structure to the
conflict it was just Colombia sparked by
the revolutionary rhetoric of Che
Guevara and Fidel Castro bandits roamed
the jungles and perfected the Colombian
art of terror
the Colombians themselves have a joke
that they tell about how God made their
country so beautiful it's tall Andes
Mountains it's tropical jungles speeches
it's fertile soil that he even the score
by populating their country with the
most evil race of men
[Music]
from the crucible of la violencia
emerged one of the most violent
criminals the world would ever see Pablo
Escobar was born in 1949 right in the
middle of his period of la violencia so
his childhood was said in the context of
his bloodline
Escobar's criminal career starts
modestly in the 1960s in his home town
Medellin as a small-time racketeer and
marijuana dealer
Pablo was a dope smoker from a fairly
early age Colombia who was known here in
the United States for being a source of
some of the strongest most potent
marijuana in the world America's
counterculture establishes a robust
market for Colombian marijuana but it's
the arrival of cocaine in the early 70s
which presents a criminal opportunity
that would shape the future of Colombia
by the mid 1970s cocaine began to become
a more fashionable drug of choice and
this was perfect for a smuggler in
Colombia because it's a difference
between why carry an elephant when you
could put a mouse in your pocket
[Music]
we have a very big jungle and the
countryside has a very little presence
by the government in mud state most of
the area outside the cities is really
wild territory so a certain amount of
law and order exists within the cities
but outside the cities in the mountains
and in the jungle
there's very little law and order and it
seemed that the lack of authority and in
the lack of presidents take where most
of the problems brew where most of the
coke has been growing where most of the
violent conflicts in the violence
originate well Pablo Escobar was not a
brilliant entrepreneur or organizer what
he was is more violent and ruthless than
most of the people who were engaged in
this business and in that way he was
able to consolidate most of the
lucrative drug trafficking routes out of
Colombia in 1975
Escobar offers to sell 14 kilos of
cocaine to mid-eighteen drug boss Fabio
Restrepo
[Music]
Pablo sent up his first deal with Fabio
Restrepo they saw him as a sort of a
common street criminal and they
definitely underestimated
three weeks later mr. epic was found
dead and they were informed sort of
unceremoniously that they now work for
Pablo Escobar
Pablo introduced a level of violence
into the business that they were not
used to and so they were really in over
their heads
Escobar expands his business by putting
police and judges in his pocket what
Pablo learned about law enforcement from
a young age and metagame was that it
could be bought those who were
determined enough to come after him or
honest enough to continue to pursue him
and arrest him would be killed
[Music]
fueled by America's appetite for the
white powder
Escobar's power grows exponentially he
became king of cocaine the titular head
of the midian cartel modeun cartel had
the reputation well deserved in my
opinion
most ruthless violent murderous criminal
organizations in the world the Colombian
cartels were the one that introduced the
drug to the US and solve them the USS
Street so they had a huge business but
pablo began making more money than
certainly anyone in colombia had ever
seen before
he spent his money lavishly on anything
that struck his fancy he built an
extravagant estate for himself in the
middle Magdalena Valley which he called
nopales he had a zoo Attis at his ranch
talking about colombia a guy had
elephants zebras rhinoceros he imported
exotic animals had planes helicopters he
was invincible he he had it all
he had the wealth of the fame it is a
lifestyle
Pablo fiercely protects Colombia was a
place where certainly in the underworld
if he wanted to survive you had to be
more feared than your rivals and so
Pablo cultivated his reputation for
violence one of the stories that I was
told is that at a party at a dinner
party at his house his people caught
someone stealing silverware from his
kitchen he had the waiter who stole the
silverware bound hand and foot and then
kicked him into the swimming pool and
had his guests all watched this man
drown and announced that this is what
happened to anyone who stole from Pablo
Escobar he was a terrible criminal
have you used terrorism in a way the
Colombia
never before had seen as the Medellin
Cartel grows in power Marxist guerrilla
movements such as FARC also grow in
strength even though in his early days
Pablo like to use Marxist rhetoric he
rapidly became the richest man in
Colombia and as such he became a target
for some of the leftist guerrilla
movements in the hills so Pablo joined
with a lot of other wealthy drug
traffickers to form their own private
armies paramilitaries to go after the
guerrilla units two of the early
paramilitary leaders who Pablo worked
with were Fidel and Carlos Castagna a
sequester
and I knew my father was in the year of
79 by the FARC guerrillas the photic
knows what the Colombian government
unable to protect its citizens from
Marxist guerrillas Carlos Castillo and
brother Fidel establish a paramilitary
army called ba you see once they
currently killed my father I made a
decision to fight ba they created this
organization of paramilitaries with the
support of the drug traffickers
primarily the Medellin Cartel this is
when my brother field of medical our and
began a friendship with the Castanias
became allies of the escal organization
the paramilitaries were an armed branch
of the drug traffickers of course with
all the kind of private army he had and
a huge amount of money he became very
powerful Pablo had ambitions to be more
than just the wealthiest man in Colombia
and its most successful criminal he
wanted to be beloved by the people of
Colombia and he wanted to have a
legitimate political
and so he began spending some of his
millions on projects for the poor people
in midian he funded the building of
housing and recreational centers and
soccer pitches and embarking on a lot of
sort of private welfare programs that
something that the government of
Colombia would never have done the
objective of Pablo's political campaign
avoiding extradition to the United
States
that was the one thing that they feared
more than anything because whereas in
Colombia they could manipulate justice
system by killing judges by corrupting
them by by all sorts of coercion once
they got to this country they were just
another defendant they were willing to
die rather than go to the United States
in 1982 he was elected to Congress as an
alternate but the first time he tried to
take his seat in the House he was
denounced by the Minister of Justice
Rodrigo Lara as a notorious drug
trafficker and a criminal
Escobar's criminal history surfaces in
the Columbian press and his fall from
grace is Swift
Pablo is banished from the political
scene and many of his assets are seized
Pablo is deeply humiliated by Lara's
denunciation and really from that day
forward was at war with the state of
Colombia the US ambassador had warned
Lara that his life was in danger in fact
had given him
a bulletproof vest three months after
taking his stand against Escobar Lara is
tracked by one of Pablo's gunmen
[Applause]
[Music]
Justice Minister Rodrigo Lara is the
first Colombian to take a stand against
drug lord Pablo Escobar April 30th 1984
Lara's followed from his office by one
of Escobar's hired guns
[Music]
a bulletproof vest provided by the US
government is found by his side with the
amount of bullets in his body it's clear
that the vest wouldn't have saved his
life anyway while Lara's killing puts
Pablo at war with Colombia he has yet to
become a target for the Americans well
initially Pablo Escobar and the other
drug traffickers were considered to be
sort of romantic dashing figures in
programs like Miami Vice here in the
United States they were portrayed as
somewhat romantic figures assuming the
risks of drug use was considered to be
part of what made it cool and so it was
really the hip world against the square
world the square world was sort of
epitomized by the Reagan administration
program which was Nancy Reagan's just
say no program look he's doing drugs it
turns my stomach don't mess with just
say no in the early eighties cocaine
begins to transform the landscape of
urban America
public attitudes began to change when
cocaine began arriving in the United
States and a new form instead of being a
powder that you sipped it was then now
being sold as crack and it was very
inexpensive and that quickly became
hugely popular with the poorer classes
in the United States and was just a
devastating plague in our cities the
change from just normal cocaine to to
the crack had a huge impact on US
policies it has not only afflicted the
people who became addicted to crack but
then these people would set out to steal
in order to sustain their addiction so
the cities became plagued by an epidemic
of violence and crime very high
percentage of the murders that take
place in United States and somehow or
other connected with cocaine trafficking
suddenly people like Pablo Escobar were
not seen by everyone as such romantic
dashing figures and became much more
perceived as violent criminals we're
striving for a world April 1982 can live
happier in answer to the growing crime
rate in America Reagan signs national
security directive two-to-one declaring
drug trafficking a threat to national
security
Pablo became something much more than a
law enforcement problem he became a real
a military term had a real threat to
world civilization as policy shifts in
America Escobar escalates his war
against the government of Colombia
at the heart of Pablo's war against the
government of Colombia was his fear of
extradition in Colombia Pablo knew he
could bribe or intimidate judges or
juries or even prison executives in the
United States he knew that he couldn't
he had a lot of judges who were against
him killed
that was his fight trying to show
Colombia that he was tougher than
Colombia
Pablo's policy in his war against the
government was called plomo o Plata
which means silver or lead you can
accept Pablo's bribe or you can accept
his bullets
that was very easy to accept Pablo's
bribes they were generous and reliable
and also the alternative to accepting
the bribe was that you you and your
family would be killed so it became very
difficult not to do what Pablo wanted
you to do Escobar was very invincible in
other words nobody thought you know they
could ever take him down so people were
afraid to talk they were afraid to go up
against him because they know they would
end up dead
Pablo wasn't touchable you know he had
contacts all over the government and he
had access to virtually anybody in
Colombia under those circumstances that
took an extraordinary amount of
integrity and courage to go after Pablo
Escobar among the few who publicly
opposed Escobar is general Miguel Massa
general masa
who was the head of the das which is the
equivalent of the FBI in the United
States was probably that one person that
was seriously going after Pablo and
Pablo twice tried to assassinate masa
with huge bombs
May 30th 1989
Escobar's targets maza with a remote
detonated car bomb
Mazda's car was at the center of the
blast it's wheels were melted to the
road that he managed to kick the door
open and step out unhurt motto wanted
kill many people
fortunately I was spared from death in
that attempt
Pablo was trying to kill my son my son
was trying to get power stored
in his obsession to kill Massa Escobar
does not care who gets it away 500
kilogram bomb was placed in a bus which
was driven in front of the headquarters
building of the das which was occupied
by masa and was detonated hundreds of
people were injured at that time in
about 70 people were actually killed the
carriage of the bus ended up on top of
the 11th floor of the building begins
only by the grace of God oh we got you
now Miguel masa that company's here to
tell you this story
[Music]
Escobar's wages war on the Colombian
judicial system
Pablo paid at a guerilla group called
m-19 to invade the Palace of Justice and
kidnap basically the entire Supreme
Court
eliminate him oil the m-19 went into the
courthouse for the purpose of taking and
destroying all the evidence against the
drug traffickers most of the Supreme
Court judges were killed breakfast were
destroyed the government responded to
the invasion of the Palace of Justice by
invading it which led to a bloodbath
during which 11 of the country's 21
Supreme Court justices were killed there
was no institution it was safe from pot
which bore the issue of extradition
became a centerpiece of the 1989
presidential campaign Louie Galan was
the leading candidate for president
Galan was campaigning promising to
utilize extradition to rid Colombia of
drug traffickers like Pablo Escobar
Escobar and his gang decided that the
column was an obstacle that he shouldn't
be President of Colombia August 18 1989
Galan prepares to deliver a campaign
speech in so Choa southwest of Bogota
Pablo Escobar targeted and killed
Pablo was responsible for assassinating
three of the five candidates for
president the man who took the lion's
place was his campaign manager a man
named Cesar Gaviria it was a very very
difficult period
Escobar was trying to kill me if he had
the possibility of killing me he would
not doubt a second November 27th 1989
presidential candidate Gaviria is
scheduled to fly Avianca Airlines flight
1803 from Bogota to Cali
one of pablo escobar's lieutenants is
instructed to board the plane with a
suitcase he is told contains a listening
device
unbeknownst to Escobar's man the
suitcase is in fact a bomb
[Music]
November 27th 1989 in an attempt to
assassinate Colombian presidential
candidates azar Gaviria cocaine boss
Pablo Escobar tricks one of his own
lieutenants into carrying what he
believes is a listening device the board
the candidates planes and Bogota the
County
Avianca flight 1803 goes down in the
mountains outside Bogota 110 people are
killed there are no survivors if area as
it happens was not on the plane but at
the point where Pablo bombed an airplane
he became what the United States
considers a clear and present danger
there were two American citizens killed
on that plane so under the long-arm
statutes we could prosecute him from the
Avianca plane with cocaine continuing to
flow across the borders American drug
policy changes from intercepting drug
shipments to taking down cartel leaders
it became very evident that we have to
target them more specifically as their
power gruel became evident that they had
to be dealt with when George Bush was
elected president in 1988 he changed our
country's policy against drugs to
targeting the drug kingpins like men
like Pablo Escobar and for the drug
kingpins the death penalty
November 2nd 1989 President Bush's legal
counsel drafts a reinterpretation of the
long-standing executive order
prohibiting the assassination of foreign
nationals the new interpretation of the
prohibition said that if the president
the United States determined that
someone was a threat to national
security
order the lives of American citizens
that that person could become a target
for assassination
our forces could go out and not just try
to find them and arrest them but
actually kill them
America's premier counterterrorism team
prepares for potential mission
Delta Force is the Army's top-secret
counterterrorism unit that specializes
in finding people and going after them
and it's considered to be one of the
best our existence is still I recognised
by the Department of Defense regardless
of whether or not we exist you know had
somehow demotivated select individuals
that specialized in these kinds of
operations as Delta Force stands by a
new group of covert soldiers has already
entered Columbia the CIA and obviously
always had a presence in Columbia but
after the Avianca airliner bombing the
Colombian government invited the United
States to help them go after Pablo
Escobar the u.s. dispatches a secret
surveillance unit codenamed centra spike
centra spike has certain technologies
that's highly sensitive I'm not going to
go into what they have or don't have
centra spike is another top-secret
army unit that consists mostly of
language experts and technicians who
specialized in finding people by
eavesdropping on their electronic
communications and using radio telemetry
to target their location
flying under the cover of an aviation
technician team centra spike begins
eavesdropping and triangulating phone
conversations one of the things that
centra spike did was prepare a kind of
organizational map for instance they
would soon know who were the ten people
who Pablo Escobar's most frequently
spoke to on the phone and then who were
the 10 people that each of those ten
most frequently spoke to he can form a
fairly sophisticated map of the inner
workings of an organization the nucleus
of the Medellin Cartel was Rodriguez
gotcha
aka Meccano the Ochoa brothers Fabio
jorge luis wanda meat and pablo escobar
asked the leader so it's a conglomerate
they would get together they would
borrow each other's air strips airplanes
borrow each other's labs and they were
doing loads of coke into Mexico then
Mexico would bring it to the United
States with centra spike flying and
listening overhead the Colombians placed
a team in Medellin with the dangerous
task of acting on centra spike
intelligence they created their own
special unit of elite police and
soldiers called the blockade of buscetta
or the search bloc which existed
specifically to go after men like Pablo
Escobar
commanding the search bloc would be the
most dangerous job in the most dangerous
country on earth it was a job that
nobody wanted because whoever was going
to be in charge of this group going
after Escobar would become immediately a
target of Escobar's the man of command
in the search bloc was Colonel Hugo
Martinez Martinez accepts on the
condition that he will be periodically
rotated out of the hot seat it was
understood that there was to be a change
in personnel every 15 days however there
was never a change in person that would
have develop I remained on duty the
entire time Hugo Aguilar is selected as
Colonel Martinez right hand chasing
after the most dangerous criminal
organization in the world has backed by
more than a thousand men in uniform from
a combination of various Colombian Armed
Forces as soon as the search bloc was
formed Pablo Escobar announced that he
was going to kill 60 members of the
search bloc in the first month and then
he proceeded to make good on a door
he said give us a cot it looked it was
good he says he will destroy the search
bloc and within eight days in those
eight days in place two car bombs of
courage healed approximately 25 by these
officers 930 say 40 GS in the first
weeks of the searchbox efforts scores of
the men were killed
[Music]
yay God memento ink and there were times
when we would feel powerless before such
a criminal
though the Colombian government
considers disbanding the search bloc
Colonel Martinez asks for and receives
more men and continues targeting
Escobar's organization the first of the
drug traffickers that centrist bike
targeted and found was Rodriguez gotcha
when the centra spike located gotcha on
a hilltop think just outside of Bogota
they turned over this information to the
Colombian government gotcha
and three of his associates are gunned
down in a battle with Colombian forces
got went down fighting I mean shooting
at the police
vegetable consume use more vital assets
centra spike enabled the search bloc to
target a lot of the key people right
around Pablo Escobar they started
arresting people they started killing
people the search bloc began killing or
arresting the the top people around
Pablo including his longtime associate
and his cousin Gustavo and Gustavo
Gaviria was the brains behind the
Medellin Cartel
Escobar remains unaware eccentric mike
is listening in from above centra spike
got to be so effective that Pablo came
to suspect that he had an informer in
his inner circle so he began torturing
and killing people around him when he
suspected in collaborating with
authorities
what he didn't realize was that the
information was being provided by the
secret American unit Center spine
Escobar was not the only one who
operated by violence
all of these hit men and associates of
Escobar were killed in what the police
would you four mystically call shootouts
with the police
Colonel Martinez or his troops may have
gone to the extreme but this wasn't a
normal criminal that they were after
Pablo Escobar's rates right up there
with Adolf Hitler this is a man's
responsible for thousands and thousands
of deaths of innocent people the search
bloc was a 700 man SWAT team and you
can't run an operation like that without
it being violent they were being shot at
and killed all the time so us Twitter I
gather this was a war in time Ian
thought it was an armed confrontation
between the Medellin Cartel and the
state
desperate for an advantage in his war
against the state
Pablo begins kidnapping Colombian
dignitaries I was kidnapped on September
19 1990 I was a classical kidnapping in
which a couple of cars she comes lock
your car
he killed my driver
it was doing not to exert his power and
show the Colombian government of the
Colombian people that he could get to
anybody Escobar will use his hostages to
negotiate the terms of a surrender
Escobar had decided that what he needed
was a comfortable secure base of
operations where he and his associates
could live be protected from their
enemies from members of the Cali cartel
from the Colombian search bloc and the
Colombian national police from the
United States in case he was captured he
will use us as bargaining chips as
Escobar negotiates with the Colombian
government the hostages remain in the
hands of his sicarios I was kept down in
a very small room I was chained to a bed
at four guards since period which you
survived by the second when you're in
the hands of total squad you don't know
what's gonna happen you know you can be
dead the next second so I didn't have
any illusions of surviving
I thought it was gonna die January 24th
1991 Pablo executes one of his hostages
days later another is killed in a rescue
attempt that was a toughest point I
cried a lot I got used to to knowing
that maybe the next day would be my last
day at this point Pablo is literally
running from hideout to hideout knowing
that if Colonel Martinez catches up to
him he's going to be killed but at the
same time not wanting to surrender until
the terms had been worked out to his
satisfaction
Pablo is playing a very dangerous game
with the Colombian government he felt
the pressure he knew were getting very
close I'd better see empty sea let me
the president was warned about the
danger he negotiating with followers go
out to him but she went right ahead she
lamented the deal that Pablo made with
the government of Colombia was he would
discontinue his violent campaign against
the state in return for being able to
build his own prison on a mountain top
just outside of Medellin called la
catedral
[Music]
may 20th 1991 as a concession towards
his private sanctuary
Escobar releases his remaining hostages
I couldn't believe it they took me to
Street they gave me money for a cab and
finally a guy picked me up and I told
him please take me back home as part of
Pablo's deal general maza is removed
from his case with construction underway
on Escobar's private prison
one last demand must be met they
actually held a Continental Congress
basically where they rewrote the
constitution of Colombia to ban
extradition yell dia de la Costa Glen
the day that the amendment to an
extradition was put into the
Constitution it's all Escobar's turn
himself in he held a press conference on
the mountaintop outside the prison and
graciously announced that he decided to
end his war against Colombia let my
daughter's here she sent this message
via get out president Gaviria I will not
let him down the agreement was sealed
I personally viewed along with my
colleagues working on the search as
having a young defeated better view he
knew were close to getting to him and
this was his way out to us it was a
defeat we had lost yet even as Pablo was
incarcerated in la Catedral he sends a
message to Colonel Martinez they
discovered a bomb that had been planted
by one of Pablo's hitmen
Pablos deal with the government of
Colombia evidently didn't include ending
his war against Colonel Martinez
1992 with Colombian cocaine boss Pablo
Escobar serving time in his own prison
if la Catedral
no one in Colombia is breathing easy it
was a different kind of prison in the
sense that he wasn't actually required
to stay there he would frequently turn
up at soccer matches in Medellin or
Christmas shopping in Bogota I've been a
lot of Prisons in my 26 years and this
is definitely not classified as a prison
a resort would be a more accurate way to
describe la cathedrale
that would bring truckloads of friends
and prostitutes to party with them he
built a discotheque inside of the person
which was used as the party room my
favorite part of the deal was that the
Colombian national police ie Colonel
Martinez in his search bloc were not
allowed within 20 kilometers of the
prison we made a huge mistake we
underestimated the capacity of Escobar
for corruption and intimidation this
disastrous you could not negotiate with
Pablo Escobar's evil Pablo Escobar was a
psychopath with a mentally sick
individual allergic to Pablo got set up
in la Catedral and began to
reconsolidate his hold over the cartel
in fairly short order he built the
Medellin Cartel back up to where I was
exporting more cocaine than it ever had
in its history he was still doing the
same old activities of or in the
killings of people of sending dope so
nothing has changed except that now he
was safer some of his subordinates had
begun basically running the organization
for themselves and apparently had been
helping themselves to large portions of
the profits two of the associates who
were doing this the heads of the
Galliano and the Moncada
families were invited up to the prison
for a chat with Pablo Pablo had them
both executed
I'm declaring a Fujimori in other words
I'm taking over I am taking over the
government and I am the boss now I run
everything president Gaviria had put up
with a lot of the criticism of his deal
but the embarrassment of putting Pablo
up in such luxury and giving him such
relative freedom finally reached a
turning point when he learned of the
executions inside the prison and saw he
was she was like running his business
from Yale on a gay border there stood to
movement above without ambassador Morris
Busby receives the news while back in
the States
the phone rang and it was Janet Crist
who was the political counselor and she
said the president has moved against
Escobar he has sent a military team up
to in Manado and they're going to take
him out of the prison he made the
decision that they had to move Pablo
from his self-built prison to a real one
Eduardo Mendoza who was a vice minister
of justice for Colombia was sent up with
the Army in it just to observe but of
course Escobar found out about this
before they got there
with Escobar aware of their plans the
army refuses to enter the prison
Mendoza took it upon himself to go in
the prison to negotiate with Escobar to
try to reassure him that he really was
just going to be transported to a
different prison one of the things when
bubbly escobar got very angry with him
and said this was a violation of his
agreement with the president and
basically took Mendoza captive inside
the prison Justice Minister Mendoza is
held at gunpoint inside Escobar's living
quarters while Mendoza was being held
captive in the prison
Pablo's men kept threatening to kill him
as the standoff continues through the
night president Kaviri a calls in the
Colombian Special Forces time was
passing unlimited in the early morning
hours they assaulted the prison
Mendoza in the confusion is corralled by
one of the Special Forces sergeants that
threw him to the ground and basically
sat on it and then directed him on how
to run out of the line of fire and
managed to escape with his life that was
convenient I'm furious because I did not
understand I do not today several hours
later Janet called again and said there
there has been a real fiasco the whole
operation was a failure had escaped
escaped it's not the correct word he
walked out of the person he controls the
guards he controlled everything I think
he had like 12 of his best assassin
stayed with him and they all escaped
that night
the Americans associated with this
mission were delighted that Pablo had
escaped because while he was in prison
they hadn't been able to go after him at
all now that he was free it opened up
the possibility of targeting him again
and killing him
well we related because the hunt was on
again and when you were gonna get him
president kuvira makes a plea to the
u.s. embassy
gabby dia had said to me you know i
don't know what restrictions you've been
operating under under the in this
country up to the present time but i'm
telling you right now we need your help
there are no restrictions I asked for
food combination of the US seen bees
money we needed to find this Gabbar
he asked ambassador Busby for a military
help and the first thing that occurred
to Busby was Delta Force he made a
request to Washington to bring Delta
Force to Columbia to help lead and train
the Colombian forces to go after
we got some assets into the country we
got a lot of very very competent people
that came to Columbia literally within
hours all kinds of groups were there the
unit the agency center spike all provide
support for the Columbian command I
always believed that we had a very very
good shot at finding Escobar in the
early going
he was the crown jewel he is what we
wanted
Delta Force places two operators at luck
not a drop
while centra spike would put their ears
on the target
Delta Force would put their eyes on it
centra spike and Delta Force were able
to pinpoint Escobar's location literally
days after he'd escaped from prison by
the time the Colombian forces act on the
American intelligence
Pablo has vanished in order to be
successful with Pablo I had to be very
time sensitive because if we got
intelligence that Pablo Escobar was a
location X last night chances are he
wasn't there anymore as Escobar's trail
grows cold a decision is made to reform
the original search bloc this time it
will have the full support of the United
States law enforcement intelligence and
counterterrorism agencies
Pena and Murphy went to live in Maine
for the task force I mean they that's
that was their second home this search
block was now more organized had more of
a focus had more intelligence had better
equipment to start the second search for
Escobar with corruption and fear
permeating the Columbian forces there's
one clear choice for commander of the
new search bloc you're not him I did not
ask to be reassigned to the head of the
operations but the fuga but would he
escape from like a that was this
represents an opportunity to finish the
job there's one of the few Colombian
police officers that was not afraid of
Pablo Escobar and he was completely
obsessed with getting power so a
decision was made to to bring Colonel
Martinez back they spent the latter part
of 1992 basically training Martinez and
his men to be more effective basically
to be a proxy Delta Force in this effort
to get Escobar the search bloc
immediately begins launching daring
raids throughout many
it was very stressful I mean it's one of
the most stressful or yours dangerous
points in my life you got to remember
that we were going after probably one of
the world's most dangerous persons
through his lawyers and the press
escobar desperately tries to reclaim his
deal with the government but this time
there will be no deal we all the times
say he can only give up we not gonna
thinking anything and it was very clear
to everyone involved that the intention
was no longer to arrest Pablo to bring
him to justice or put him in prison at
this point they were just looking for
him killer
1992 despite the full cooperation of the
American forces in the hunt for Pablo
Escobar the drug boss remains at large
and protected by his powerful midian
cartel Escobar was the head of a very
large criminal organization so he
employed not just gunman and hitmen and
criminals but also bankers and lawyers
and accountants he had an infrastructure
in Medellin so we started targeting
other members of his organization we
began to systematically cut away all of
his support mechanisms all of his
infrastructure we built up a large body
of intelligence put together
organization charge down to the lowest
lieutenant in his organization Escobar
responds by putting a price tag on the
head of midian police officers he was
killing regular police officers nothing
to do with the search logs the regular
police officer on the beat every day
there were funerals for police when they
were killed the night before
Pablo is able always to stay one step
ahead of the search bloc because he had
a lot of friends and informants both in
the community and also within the search
bloc itself there was a lot of
information that was being intercepted
which suggested a lot of people on the
take if you didn't take the money he
will shoot you Plata or Roma you know
you want a bullet or he want some money
we knew that we could be infiltrated the
managing cartel members we're constantly
looking for someone they could bribe
monetarily it became apparent to the
Americans and to the Colombians
searching for Escobar that the tactics
they were using were never going to be
successful
in the days after Escobar's escape from
his private prison in July of 1992 the
DEA had toured the site in search of any
intelligence that they could possibly
use against the drug lord we went
through the prison where he had lived
found great intelligence just great
information one of the things that they
noticed about Escobar as they examined
his living quarters and his memorabilia
was how much his life revolved around
his family and his children
I was always of the opinion that we
should watch his family track his family
because he had the reputation of being
an absolutely ruthless murderous man but
the man who really had great regard for
his family for his wife and his two
children
ambassador Busby shared his thoughts
with the Colombian authorities I talked
to the Colombians about that and said
you know I think that this will make him
uneasy and perhaps he'll stick his head
up and we'll be able to save January
30th 1993
a 220-pound car bomb explodes in front
of a book store in downtown midday
it killed scores of people many of them
children's shopping for school supplies
and I think it was really the point at
which the gloves came off in the search
for Pablo Escobar
in the subsequent days more bombs go off
in Colombia this time however the bombs
are targeting Pablo's family
a bomb blows up a 12-story apartment
building owned by Pablo's mother
soon another Escobar house is decimated
an organization calling itself lost
Epis came out of the woodwork a
mysterious entity begins targeting
Pablo's organization and even his family
for outright assassination
[Music]
los pepes which stood for in its acronym
people persecuted by Pablo Escobar
suddenly burst on the scene targeting
and assassinating anyone who is
associated with Escobar he'd had the
earmarks of a psychological operation of
some sort but it got very quickly beyond
that and it became a murderous blood
people being killed by the Pepe's almost
every night they ran the whole gamut of
crimes so in reality los pepes were just
as ruthless as Escobar's anybody who had
any connection with Escobar was either
killed arrested or running for their
lives personally I thought he was gonna
taste of his own medicine let's just
call another flank you have to worry
about the police you know never did
stuff like this I mean he was always
worried about the police but now he had
los pepes
playing outside the rules they started
to play dirty just like yesterday bar
they were killing as many as five and
six people a day they would assassinate
these people and leave signs hanging
around the neck of the body sign los
pepes y los pepes is exterminating your
sky bar support structure the search
bloc takes down some of Pablo's top
lieutenants such as Tyson Munoz the
search bloc raided the apartment
cornered Tyson and killed him in the
proverbial gun battle with the Colombian
police the confrontation was pretty much
inevitable
because this people weren't gonna be
taking a life in my opinion the police
did not want to take him alive either
because that we also justice don't work
in Colombia the way they do in the
United States
despite an official prohibition many of
the American forces are rumored to be
participating in the search bloc raids
Delta Force operators in the DEA agents
very frequently went along on these
raids and often led them we couldn't
stand back and feed this in them this
information about a potential Escobar
hideout and expect them to go out and
participate in all the dangerous
activities while we sat in the rear you
know and drink our coffee and wait for
him to come back and report to us so
javi and I decided ourselves that we
would be involved in these operations
right there on front lines with the guys
running and kicking the doors going and
participating right alongside the
Colombian national police with Americans
funding training and possibly even
participating in search bloc raids
concern grows over a possible connection
between the search bloc and the death
squad most piteous there were
allegations on the part of Pablo that
los pepes and Martinez or one of the
same I was very much afraid of somehow
DEA being contaminated about what was
going on out there there's been
accusations that members of the book it
was Kayla provided information los pepes
did I receive that no did I ever see any
indication that that happened no could
it happen sure it could happen you know
there's 600 guys in that operation
it's still something of a mystery who
los pepes were and that's obvious
because the los pepes were basically
murdering people one of the few to admit
to participating in the killings his
Escobar's former ally Carlos Castillo
los pepes is an organization they rose
supported by the outer defenses yes
particularly by my brother Carlos
Castillo and his brother Fidel were some
of the original paramilitary units
created to fight against the guerrillas
when Escobar began executing members of
his own organization inside his private
prison look at I draw the survivors
began to secretly ally themselves with
Pablo's paramilitaries against the drug
lord pablo escobar azusa Casas
killed most of his friends and allies
and his spouse I think there were
relatives survived that lunatic and then
the drug trafficker said was sick and
tired of this guy we're going after him
and they created the purpose and they
attacked him exactly the way he used to
work against society and against them
let's go demos Kevin was through we
realized that he was a monster that we
had to fight against no matter what so
when they turned against him
they knew the inner workings of his
organization they knew who the people
were where the money was los pepes
reportedly received support from Pablo's
chief business rival the Cali cartel
the Cali cartel was more than happy to
help los pepes of the search bloc where
the Colombian government go after
Escobar because he was their primary
rival and by eliminating the Medellin
Cartel it just made for more lucrative
business for them
Colonel Martinez in the us-backed search
bloc are rumored to be cooperating with
los pepes CRO Martinez was at this point
even though he denies it I think was
willing to work with these elements from
the underworld because for him the
battle with Escobar had become very
personal well yeah that was having
fellows Porter's colada you could say
that s colada affected all of us who
when things started to get really ugly
when los pepes began killing people
wholesale it was clear to the Americans
working in Bogota that this was out of
bounds and if word got back to
Washington that the United States effort
was connected in any way to these death
squads then Washington would basically
pull the plug on American involvement
this threw something into the game which
which really could have brought
everything to a grinding halt mark
Bowden's killing Pablo cites classified
cables outlining the American concerns
about los pepes
while the United States embassy in
Bogota maintain the pretense that there
was no connection whatsoever between
Colonel Martinez's search bloc and los
pepes
I came across the DDA's cable traffic
back and forth from Bogota to Washington
which documents the knowledge of DEA
agents that los pepes were intimately
involved with the search bloc ambassador
Busby himself wrote a rather lengthy
cable to Washington where he details the
fact that their own intelligence showed
that there was a connection between los
pepes and the search bloc in fact the
Ambassador Busby had gone to president
Gaviria to complain about this and to
demand that this connection cease and
desist I had several meetings on him one
of them you I want you to say
very member of the police that we don't
that this is not an instruction that
this is not the policy that with which
of them be involving that days after the
various orders to the police was peppe's
issue a press communique announcing they
are officially disbanding and in effect
for a period of time los pepes did cease
and desist so it was obvious that they
understood that that there was a
connection between the police and los
pepes
the officials moved to distance
themselves from the vigilante group as
Pepe's continued their bloody campaign
los pepes were the first tactic employed
against Escobar that was immediately
effective in short order everybody
associated with Escobar his family
members as lawyers as bankers as
accountants were either running for
their lives or dead or under arrest and
and very quickly Pablo began to find
that his protective shell was
disintegrating we confronted there still
are stairs there were a lot of killings
during this confrontation we could see
that the impact that they were having
was incredible because they were playing
without any rules
officially the United States was not
involved in the efforts of los pepes at
all but if you look at what they were
doing in Colombia at the time it's clear
that they were working hand-in-hand with
less Pepe's whether they intended to or
not it was very evident that they were
having tremendous success in this
mapping the United organization and
obviously we were trying to do the same
thing karunas that I say here there was
a strategy Padilla white beggar self
aligned by the United States which each
one being what each one corresponding by
February of 93 most peppe's have killed
dozens of Escobar's associates and
members of his extended family so Pablo
is now terrified that los pepes are
going to kill his wife and children I
got a phone call almost a frantic phone
call from the Minister of Defense who
said Escobar's wife and children and an
entourage of twelve or fourteen people
all right that will negate our Airport
and they have visas to go to the United
States and they're going to leave the
country if you succeeded in getting his
family out of the country there would be
no inhibitions on him and there was no
telling what he might do
the Escobar family and their bodyguards
are met at Rio Negro Airport by US DEA
agents they were stopped at the airport
in Bogota and stripped of their visas
who's going to tell me to give Escobar's
families visas back nobody so they're
effectively keeping the bait the bait
being a family in position in the
country while los pepes apply the
pressure against Escobar
Pablo's response to the Americans block
would be swift and deadly April 1993
with his family prevented from fleeing
Colombia and forced back into the hands
of the death squad los pepes cocaine
King Pablo Escobar exacts his revenge
Pablo's response was to set off a 300
pound bomb in Bogota that leveled a city
block
[Music]
one of the predictions that we can made
was that
as we began to tighten the noose last
warning
things would get more violent that he
would react and he certainly did I think
we had nine bombs emoticon space of
about two months hundreds of people
[Applause]
los pepes responded by kidnapping and
murdering Pablo's chief lawyer Guido
Parra and when they killed Parra they
also took his teenage son and murdered
him - they hung signs around their neck
that said what do you think of the
exchange for the bombs Pablo and signed
them los pepes
[Music]
despite allegations that Colonel
Martinez is cooperating with los pepes
he has kept on as commander of the
search bloc Carl Martinez stood up and
did the job that had to be done nobody
else wanted to do it a lot of people
were afraid to do it
Colonel Martinez realized that the fight
between him and Pablo Escobar was a
fight to the death
and at the end either he or Pablo
Escobar was going to be dead with
centrist bite finding no sign of Pablo's
voice on the airwaves for months Colonel
Martinez requests the support of a
Colombian ground surveillance unit the
Colombian national police were having a
lot of success with a small unit that
operated portable direction finders in
collaboration with centra spike and
Colonel Martinez requested that this
unit come to Medellin Martinez receives
the unit but he insists on sending one
of its members back home to Bogota she
superiors send him to me on two
occasions and in both occasions I send
him back because he bears my name the
problem was that his own son was one of
the men working in this unit the music
it was right knew that my equipment
would work and we could get good results
in Medellin pero but he was always or
assistant to my work in in managing for
my safety el ecco Cascadia cholera and
he insisted that he wanted to be
involved in the search for Pablo Escobar
it had become a personal as well as
familial problem that was effectiveness
hugo jr. was determined to be with the
unit and get pablo escobar before he
could he could get him where his sisters
or brothers or his mother she didn't but
ago going after a lot of talking we came
to the conclusion that I could stay he
met again
we could get no more rest until we
captured with Escobar's family under
police watch in midday Eden
Pablo's own son becomes his father's
frontman he talked to Juan Pablo just
about every day by radio phone and Juan
Pablo became the one person who he
trusted we could communicate with to do
his bidding with the government while
Pablo strategizes with his son
Colonel Martinez son tries to pinpoint
the transmission
I was very sure that I would find
obvious quwata with this equipment as
the hunt for Escobar gets new life
rumors continue to cloud the search bloc
known members of the Medellin Cartel are
seen meeting with search bloc officers
outside the search bloc base including a
notorious assassin
an individual that we knew only has Don
Bernardo at that time and I'll admit we
did interview him the Colombian national
police brought him as an as an informant
and he provided information about
Escobar's news associates it was one of
those things that happened in in a dirty
war there were lots of informants I
can't say you know they were part of
those papers or not but there were
informants among those working as a
secret informant for the Colombian
police is Carlos Castillo for two knows
I provided information to the police
they never knew I was Carlos Castillo
we're not afforded the luxury of having
informants who are priests blokey Davis
que was the good guys the narcotics
traffickers were the bad guys
Washington also becomes concerned about
a possible connection between los pepes
and Delta Force the tactics being
employed by los pepes were basically the
same tactics that Delta Force was in
Colombia teaching to the search bloc
there had been a lot of comments that
the Pepe's were using like tactics from
what I had heard they're just ruthless
there's no tactics man that's they did
select people anyway they were very
efficient in Washington the fear was not
just that members of the Colombian
search bloc who had been trained by
Delta Force were in fact moonlighting as
members of los pepes
but that Delta Force operators
themselves might be participating in
these hits November 12 1993 the CIA
briefs the Pentagon on suspicions of a
connection between Delta Force and los
pepes a decision is made to pull all
American forces from Colombia
I did get word and then we were going to
be told that our military users were
going to be pulled out and I certainly
didn't want that to happen
ambassador Busby was then able to go to
work with his connections in the White
House to counterman the Joint Chiefs in
order to remove the people from Colombia
and they stayed as Busby Byers the
search bloc precious time surveillance
teams continue to crisscross midday in
late November of 1993 the search bloc
with the help of centra spike was able
to pinpoint Pablo's location to a
hilltop think outside Medellin
intelligence had been received that
indicated that Escobar was hiding in a
small house located on the side of a
mountain out in the rural areas assault
forces hit the house the first ended the
Pablo wasn't there the fact Pablo had
been talking on the radio but he would
walk up into the woods a short distance
from the house so that you have a better
line-of-sight communications with his
son Juan Pablo in Medellin so when the
search bloc descended on the farmhouse
Pablo is actually up in the woods search
bloc examined the farmhouse where Pablo
would staying and it was apparent to
them that the drug kingpin was living
under increasingly strange circumstances
virtually his entire organization the
Medellin Cartel was totally destroyed
one of the few remaining links to
Pablo's Empire is his son Juan Pablo the
Escobar family was staying in a
apartment in Medellin and los pepes
we're sort of picking off people who
worked before the family so they were
pretty terrified Pablo is really
desperate his family is literally in the
hands of his enemies
we always had his family under watch 24
hours a day so he could never touch our
families because if he does his family
would also perish he was always worried
about his family security because that
is were the papers concentrated of their
attack efforts his family
November 27 1993 scheming with his son
Juan Pablo Escobar makes a secret
arrangement to evacuate his family to
Germany and word of this of course gets
back to the embassy because centra spike
is listening to all of Pablo's
communications we learned that they were
traveling on a Lufthansa flight from
Bogota to Germany so the United States
government was to work with the
Colombian government to assure that the
German authorities will not allow the
Escobar families into that country
Escobar's families refused entry into
Germany and flown directly back to
Colombia they put them up in hotel
tequan dama which is a large hotel
complex in Bogota it's actually owned by
the Colombian national police and so
well publicly they claim to be
protecting Pablos family the way that
Pablo saw it was that his family had now
fallen into the hands of the very people
who were likely to kill them sure enough
it wasn't a baby before
Escobar called when he made the first
phone call I thought okay who's he's
finished once again their efforts to get
out of the country had been stopped
that's when he started making mistakes
when fabolous Khobar begins to make
phone calls to the utility Kingdom and I
thought it was time we placed everybody
in the state of alert they called the
presidential palace in an effort to
speak to president Gaviria threatening
to wage all-out war against the state
unless they released his family and
allowed them to leave Colombia to a safe
haven he started calling everybody and
that's where he made a mistake of
staying in one place too long and at
this critical moment the government of
Colombia announces that they're going to
remove the protective detail from around
the Escobar family I mean it was not
fair to have so many Colombians at Grace
and at the same time having this plan
with nothing to lose at this point just
to ratchet up the pressure on escobar
los pepes made a public announcement
that they were going to resume their
murderous campaign against him if we
must we were closing in on s4 we make
him get to a point where he had to
abandon his bodyguards and he was
reduced to hideout almost alone
with the exception of Pablo's family
every resident of the hotel was fled for
fear of being caught in the crossfire
between Pablo Escobar the search bloc
and the Pepe's death squad fear is so
palpable that little Manuela who was
then 8 years old was overheard walking
the halls in the empty hotel singing a
little Christmas carol to herself that
she'd changed the words - in the words
that she was singing were los pepes are
going to kill my father my mother and me
[Music]
December 1993 on the run and at war with
the state of Colombia Pablo Escobar
tries to protect his family from the
vigilante death squad los pepes
he's desperate to get his family out of
Colombia so he has to continue making
phone calls to the hotel tech madama
while Pablo is on the phone talking
centra spike is listening in and they
fix his location to a neighborhood in
Medellin called Los Olivos Colonel
Martinez positioned a lot of his men in
parking lots in that neighborhood so
they would be poised and ready to move
the next time Pablo came up on the radio
Hugo Martinez jr. and the rest of the
search bloc wait for another Escobar's
phone call every time Pablo got on the
radio telephone with his son Hugo Jr
would be cruising the streets in his
telemetry van trying to zero in on the
precise location of the phone call my
father was very clear saying that the
operations cannot go on if Pablo was not
talk to me desperate for a way out
Pablo turns to his son Juan Pablo Pablo
woke up in the morning of December 2nd
the day after his 44th birthday and had
spaghetti for breakfast and then
immediately got on the phone with his
son Juan Pablo Escobar agrees to answer
a phone interview to his son he
instructs his son to accept a list of
questions from journalists with the
intention of giving interviews that will
play on the heartstrings of the
Colombian public the fact that the
government is using his wife and
children as bait
Juan Pablo asks his father for some
coaching on how to answer the questions
he also warned Pablo that there were a
lot of questions so this conversation
might take a long time who tells one
problem that they'll get back on the
phone a few hours later this of course
gave the tip-off then to colonel
Martinez and his men that they could be
waiting and in position for the phone
call that was going to happen later in
the day indeed he call again
we were already located in a house near
the zone from where he first got emails
you know immediately started tracking
his signal the search bloc followed him
out into the city he's looking at a
little monitor that has a line stretched
across it and as he in the line either
contracts or expands depending on
whether he's getting closer or getting
further away and initially he locates it
in a building where he thinks problem
must be speaking
and the search bloc launches a raid on
this building but immediately upon
launching the raid hugo jr. realizes
that he's made a mistake i read the
instruments wrong they went inside and I
realized he was still talking and I was
very surprised I had to look again at
the instruments and I found out that
there were things that produced an error
in the reading the signal is bouncing
off of water in a little canal running
down the side of the street when I
realize this and made the subtractions
we all changed immediately so he radios
to the search bloc that he's made a
mistake and he races off thinking that
the troops will then get back in their
vehicles following but in fact no one
hears him so hugo jr. and his driver are
driving off by themselves hunting down
this signal it manages to drive right
down the correct Street in Los Olivos
where Pablo is staying
he started talking again and I followed
the signal to the point where the
equipment showed me the exact location
he was in like turn around and pacify
the front again and we've already in my
hand I put my hand out of the windows
and started pointing at the window in
the second floor in a moment Oh Sonia
Lana at the same time that I was
pointing I observed a silhouette of the
powers car with the phone in his hand
you know stars I was listening and he
looked through the window - Marcin we
saw each other nothing he calls me and
tells me I have located him with a zero
margin of error furthermore but I mean
he tells me I'm looking at him and
Colonel Martinez immediately tells him
don't go anywhere okay control him I
tell them that they should wait for the
search blow event it's been occasionally
they had to confront him be poised to do
so it is and so Hugo went around to the
back of the building and some of the men
with him staked out the front door
Pablo's karate school
we promised Coweta was very calm you see
that we did not see him trying to make
any statement it is copied it's a good
news very still it says piranhas well
maybe waiting for life to help him again
but this time he was almost commit this
ago
Hugo Aguilar's team reaches the scene
and immediately makes the assault
Pablo hadn't noticed anything peculiar
and was still talking on the phone with
his son Juan Pablo when the explosive
charge went off on the door downstairs
we began going up the stairs it wasn't
from Escobar said there is something
going on here I'll call you back through
the window he went in for the Ebisu
Escobar's lone bodyguard limo is the
first to reach the window there was some
others kawar came out of the house he
jumped and he hit in our direction
shooting Limone attempted to race across
the rooftop apparently shot on his way
of course was momentum carried him right
off the roof and he landed on the grass
behind the garage then focus go out up
here we got to bouncing he sends Pablo
began trying to inch his way out along a
wall that bordered the rooftop looking
for some Avenue
Laperriere he was starting to the police
with such rage and shooting communion in
the house when he was against the wall
we were not able to get a line of fire
to heat up started walking to the front
and since the roof was up we started
seeing more of his body
that's when the firing stopped I look
and I saw him lying on the roof core
healed radio I took the radio and said
on about Colombia my Pablo Escobar is
there the world's most powerful criminal
was dead
but just how Pablo Escobar died would
remain clouded in mystery
[Music]
December 2nd 1993
drug lord Pablo Escobar is gunned down
five years they just killed Escobar but
he just killed him and it's all over the
press oh I was happy I was lady I became
static I ran around our office space you
know say Bob was dead I traveled to the
location with DEA agent Steve Murphy
I was given the opportunity to go down
on the roof to view the body to visually
confirm that it was Escobar and he
climbed to the rooftop and began taking
pictures members of the search bloc
posing around the body with rifles like
big-game hunters Murphy then gave the
camera to the search bloc and they took
pictures of him posing with Escobar's
body
photos of an American agent posed over
the dead body caused an uproar in
Colombia where many were unaware that
Gringo's were in on the hunt it is true
that we Americans provided a lot of
assistance to the Colombians we
certainly did that but in the last
analysis and success was Colombians it
was a Colombian operation I'm starting
to finish colonel Martinez Colonel
Aguilar those guys are truly great
heroes in Colombia history okay I
believe I have four from a great service
to my country
at the end I consider a victory for the
world while there was no question that
Pablo was marked for death how he died
remains a subject of conjecture the
official version of Pablo's death is
that he came running out from that wall
across the rooftop with a gun in each
hand you know screaming at the police
and swearing at them as they as they
gunned him down El tiro de the la
pistola
the shot from my gun was the one the
perforated his heart
and the one from the ar-15 battle went
through one of his ears and came out
through the other ear that is why we
were able to end the story of how
fabulous combat powers go on it may be
true but Pablo's usual modus operandi
and these circumstances was not to stand
and fight but to flee and so it seems
more likely to me that Pablo hearing the
door being broken down in his house
would have tried to jump out the back
window and run away what makes sense to
me is that Pablo was trying to run away
across the rooftop when he was hit he
was shot three times one of the bullets
hit him in the leg one of them hit him
in the torso and the third went right in
his right ear it's definite that the
bullet that went in his right ear killed
him what makes more sense to me is that
the bullets that hit his leg and his
torso would have knocked him down
certainly and that the final shot that
killed him was most likely administered
by somebody standing right over top of
him
I would not I mean I would not put it
past the cop going out there and just
say hey we're gonna make sure this guy's
dead I think he was shot at plus they
wanted to make sure he was dead
whoever it was knew he wasn't to be
taken alive
there have been a lot of accusations
that there was a coup de Gras shot after
Escobar was down I saw no indications of
that it's always possible that someone
made a great shot like that from a
distance but the Colombian national
police had tremendous incentive to kill
Pablo Escobar nobody wanted to see him
arrested again and besides that Escobar
in the course of this manhunt it killed
scores of the of the policemen who were
searching for him so there was a
tremendous amount of anger and hatred in
these men searching for him so it makes
more sense to me that Escobar was
knocked down by a few bullets from a
distance and that he was finally killed
with a coup de Gras some believe that
the final blow was actually delivered by
an American within the Delta Force
community that's sort of a legend about
Escobar's death which holds that he was
killed by Delta Force he was not so much
in victory for Delta the victory for the
whole Special Ops community
Delta Force would would have known
Pablo's general location at the same
time that the search bloc did and would
have had an opportunity to place snipers
in that neighborhood when Pablo came
running out on the rooftop given the
marksmanship of the Delta sniper it's
not beyond the possible that that an
American from a distance put that bullet
in Escobar's right ear
I think the most likely explanation is
that Escobar was killed by the Colombian
national police by the search bloc they
had every capability and every desire to
see Pablo Escobar's dead themselves
there were no Americans involved in it
that was the Colombian national police
taking care of business the legacy of
the los pepes death squad has cast an
even darker shadow in the history of the
hunt there's ample evidence today that
the search bloc and los pepes worked
hand-in-hand and of course the whole
Colombian search bloc was a creature of
the US government essentially because
they were funded and trained and led by
US Special Forces the members of central
spike who have interviewed said this
there was never any doubt in their mind
that there was a direct connection
between the information that they were
collecting and the information that los
pepes were acting upon so there's very
little question in my mind that the
effort to track down Escobar was a
collaboration between the United States
government the Colombian national police
and los pepes
I never saw any evidence that it was a
Colombian government operation it was it
was a bloodbath
they truly were Martinez to say that
there was no clue that I mean there was
no connection there you know I mean he
can say whatever he wants to but there
was a connection and in my opinion the
greatest damage cost to the Medellin
Cartel and the Pablo Escobar and his
organization was done by the los bebés
the Pepe's were not a factor in what we
were there to do but were they a factor
in getting Pablo yeah big-time
today Pablo's place as the world's king
of cocaine has been taken over by the
Marxist rebel movement known as FARC
FARC guerillas are responsible for over
70% of the cocaine that reaches the
streets of America like Pablo Escobar
they've waged a campaign of terror
against the Colombian State
the FARC has inherited a lot of the
methods that Escobar used the car bombs
the kidnappings the terrorism the
terrorist similar civilian so in that
sense they're looking very much alike
unfortunately for Colombia as America
supports Colombia and its war against
the FARC guerrillas they may once again
share a dark ally of the AUC their
emotion project we exist to fight the
fiery yes because the estate is not
strong enough to fight them themselves
as Colombian Carlos Castagna has
admitted that he was born on the early
members of los pepes
he of course has gone on to become one
of the right-wing paramilitary leaders
in Colombia with the tacit support of
the Colombian army the AUC has waged a
dirty war against the FARC allegedly
massacring thousands of civilians deemed
sympathetic to the FARC guerrillas he's
regarded by many Colombians as a hero
but also by many as a violent criminal
there's a real close relationship
between the Colombian Army and the AUC
in the same way that there was a
relationship between the los bebés and
the police you know everything like los
pepes
the AUC has officially been denounced by
the US and placed on its list of
terrorist organizations but I suspect
that just as in the case with los pepes
the paramilitary units will continue to
do what they've always done because
ultimately it's going to benefit the
United States government and the
Colombian government in their war
against the guerrillas I think they're a
necessary evil as long as they're the
enemy of my enemy they're gonna stay
alive and functional
as Colombia and America square off
against the worst enemies they've ever
faced
most peppe's provide a keen example of
the central dilemma of modern so-called
discretionary warfare the issue of the
los pepes it's one of the central
ethical issues involved whenever you use
military force and that is how far are
you willing to go to succeed when you
make the decision to go to war you've
essentially decided that the situation
is beyond the bounds of normal law and
order the people are terrorists but they
have a good Network it's very difficult
to capture them I mean the US has seen
that recently with bin Laden when a
person has a clandestine organization
it's not it's not easy you're facing an
enemy who's trying to kill you
and those kind of circumstances the
ultimate goal is to succeed is to win
not to necessarily play by the rules
in fact sometimes the circumstances will
force you to play by the same kinds of
tactics that your enemy is using in
order to prevail
[Applause]
while most Colombians have lived with it
for their entire lives most Americans
have only recently known the reality of
terror I think that Americans have to
steel themselves to the reality of war
that if you're going to war you have to
face up to the ugly facts about what war
is
[Music]