The Medellín Cartel was founded and led by Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria, a Colombian politician, drug lord, and narcoterrorist who lived from December 1, 1949, to December 2, 1993. In the 1980s and early 1990s, Escobar's drug cartel controlled the cocaine trade into the United States, earning him the nickname "King of Cocaine" and making him one of the richest criminals in history. By the time of his death, his estimated net worth was US$30 billion, or $70 billion in 2022.
Escobar, who was born in Rionegro and grew up in Medellín, attended Universidad Autónoma Latinoamericana of Medellín for a short time but left before earning his degree. Instead, he started committing crimes, including stealing cars and selling counterfeit lottery tickets and cigarettes. He started working for different drug smugglers in the early 1970s, frequently kidnapping and holding people hostage.
Escobar created the initial smuggling routes from Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador via Colombia and ultimately into the United States in 1976. He also built the Medellín Cartel, which disseminated powder cocaine. Because of Escobar's penetration, the demand for cocaine increased exponentially, and by the 1980s, it was claimed that Escobar was responsible for 70 to 80 tons of cocaine being shipped into the United States each month from Colombia. He thereby became one of the wealthiest persons in the world very rapidly, but he was always at odds with competing cartels both at home and abroad, which resulted in massacres and the killings of major politicians, police officers, judges, and citizens.
Escobar, a member of the Liberal Party, was elected as an alternate member of the Chamber of Representatives in the 1982 Colombian legislative election. By doing this, he was in charge of community projects like building homes and football fields, which made him popular with the residents of the towns he visited. Nevertheless, Escobar's political aspirations were thwarted by the Colombian and American governments, who frequently pushed for his arrest, and it is generally assumed that Escobar planned the bombings of the DAS Building and Avianca Flight 203 in retaliation.
Escobar turned himself in to authorities in 1991 and was given a five-year prison sentence on a number of crimes. However, he and Colombian President César Gaviria reached an agreement that would prevent Escobar from being extradited and let him to be held in his own prison, La Catedral, which he had constructed himself. When officials tried to transfer Escobar to a more conventional detention center in 1992, he fled and went into hiding, sparking a national manhunt. The Medellín Cartel fell apart as a result, and Escobar was executed by Colombian National Police in his hometown in 1993, one day after turning forty-four.
Escobar's impact is still debatable; although many condemn the horrible nature of his actions, many Colombians see him as a "Robin Hood-like" character since he gave the impoverished access to numerous amenities. More than 25,000 people attended his funeral and grieved his murder. Hacienda Nápoles, his private estate, has also been turned into a theme park. His life has also been widely dramatized or used as inspiration for movies, TV shows, and musical compositions.
On December 1, 1949, Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria was born in Rionegro, Antioquia Department. He was a member of the ethnic minority known as the Paisa. His ancestors had Italian and Spanish ancestry, notably from the Basque Country. He was raised in poverty in the nearby city of Medellín as the third of seven children. His mother was a teacher, and his father was a modest farmer. Just before turning seventeen, Escobar dropped out of high school in 1966. He returned two years later with his cousin Gustavo Gaviria. Teachers at the time saw them as gangster thugs, polished by their rough lives on Medellín's streets. After more than a year, the two left school, but Escobar persisted. After forging a high school diploma, he attended college for a short time with the intention of becoming a criminal lawyer, politician, and eventually president, but he had to drop out due to financial constraints.
Together with his group, Escobar began his criminal career by stealing gravestones, sandblasting their inscriptions, and then reselling them. Escobar started stealing automobiles with gangs after quitting school. Escobar quickly turned to violent crime, hiring thugs to abduct people who owed him money and demand ransoms. Even after receiving the ransom, Escobar would occasionally rip up the cash letters. Businessman Diego Echavarria was his most well-known abductee; he was abducted and died in the summer of 1971, and Escobar was paid $50,000 in ransom by the Echavarria family. Escobar's gang gained notoriety for this abduction.
When the cocaine trade started to grow in Colombia in the middle of the 1970s, Escobar had been a part of organized crime for ten years. When Escobar returned from cocaine trafficking in Ecuador in May 1976, the Colombian Security Service (DAS) took notice of his quick rise and detained him. Escobar's car's spare tire contained 39 kg of cocaine, according to DAS agents. Escobar was released along with other detainees when he was able to bribe the second judge and replace the first judge in the case. Escobar's arresting agent was slain the next year. Escobar persisted in using the same tactics to intimidate and bribe Colombian police enforcement. "Silver or lead"—"money or death"—was the nickname given to his carrot-and-stick approach of paying Colombian public officials and political candidates, as well as deploying hitmen to kill those who refused his bribes. Both the Cali and Medellín cartels were able to bribe Colombian lawmakers while running campaigns for the Liberal and Conservative parties. Because many of the political candidates they financially supported were ultimately elected, Escobar and numerous other Colombian drug lords were able to exert influence at every level of the country's government. Despite being founded in the early 1970s, the Medellín Cartel grew after Escobar met a number of drug lords on a farm in April 1978. By the end of 1978, they had shipped almost 19,000 kg of cocaine to the United States.
Escobar soon organized new smuggling shipments, routes, and distribution networks in South Florida, California, Puerto Rico, and other parts of the United States as a result of the sharp rise in demand for cocaine in the country. About 350 kilometers (220 miles) southeast of the Florida coast, on the island of Norman's Cay in the Bahamas, he collaborated with Carlos Lehder, a co-founder of the cartel, to establish a new transshipment hub. In addition to building a refrigerated facility to store the cocaine, Escobar and Robert Vesco acquired the majority of the island's land, including a harbor, a hotel, residences, boats, and airplanes, as well as a 1-kilometer (3,300-foot) airstrip. His brother claims that Lehder was the sole owner of Norman's Cay and that Escobar did not buy it. This served as the Medellín Cartel's main smuggling route from 1978 until 1982. Escobar was quickly able to buy 20 square kilometers (7.7 sq mi) of land in Antioquia for many million dollars thanks to the huge earnings made by this route, and he constructed the Hacienda Nápoles on it. He built a lavish home with a private bullring, a sculpture garden, a lake, a zoo, and other facilities for his family and the cartel.
Escobar in the peak of his dominance ===
Escobar paid well for the employees of his cocaine lab and was active in Colombian philanthropy at the height of his dominance. Escobar invested millions to build some of the poorest areas in Medellín. He constructed schools, churches, hospitals, parks, football stadiums, and housing complexes. During the 1980s, Escobar also got involved in politics, helping to build the Liberal Party of Colombia. He was admitted to the Colombian Congress in 1982. Under Colombian law, even though he was simply an alternate, he was automatically entitled to parliamentary immunity and a diplomatic passport. At the same time, Escobar was slowly gaining notoriety and earning the nickname "Robin Hood Paisa" for his humanitarian endeavors. In one interview, he claimed that the bicycle rental business he started when he was sixteen years old was the source of his wealth.
From the first day of Congress, Rodrigo Lara-Bonilla, the newly appointed Minister of Justice, had turned against Escobar and accused him of criminal activities. Lara-Bonilla's subordinates looked into Escobar's 1976 arrest. Escobar was kicked out of the Liberal party a few months later by Luis Carlos Galán. Escobar retaliated, but in January 1984 he declared his political retirement. Lara-Bonilla was killed three months later.
Escobar had been attacking the Colombian court since the middle of the 1980s. The wanted Escobar asked the Colombian government to permit his conditional surrender without extradition to the United States in the fall of 1985 while he was bribing and killing a number of judges. Escobar then created and tacitly backed the Los Extraditable Organization, which seeks to oppose extradition laws, after the plan was first turned down. Later, the Los Extraditable Organization was charged with taking part in an attempt to stop the Colombian Supreme Court from investigating whether Colombia's extradition agreement with the United States was valid. It backed the far-left guerrilla group that, on November 6, 1985, stormed the Colombian Judiciary Building and killed half of the Supreme Court's justices. The previous extradition treaty was ruled unlawful by Colombia's Supreme Court in late 1986 because it was signed by a presidential delegation rather than the president. Escobar's triumph over the judiciary was short-lived, as Virgilio Barco Vargas, the new president, promptly extended his accord with the United States.
On August 18, 1989, Escobar ordered Luis Carlos Galán to be slain because he still harbored resentment toward Galán for removing him from politics. Then, in an attempt to kill Galán's successor, César Gaviria Trujillo, who escaped the plane and lived, Escobar put a bomb on Avianca Flight 203. The explosion claimed the lives of all 107 persons. The U.S. government started to get in immediately because the bombing also claimed the lives of two Americans.
La Catedral Prison ==== ====
The César Gaviria administration took action against Escobar and the drug cartels following the murder of Luis Carlos Galán. Escobar eventually agreed to a lower sentence and preferential treatment while in custody after the government bargained with him and persuaded him to turn himself in and stop all criminal activity. Escobar turned himself in to Colombian authorities in 1991, announcing the conclusion of a string of earlier violent activities intended to exert pressure on authorities and public opinion. Prior to his surrender, the recently ratified Colombian Constitution of 1991 had made it illegal to extradite Colombian nationals to the United States. Because it was believed that Escobar and other drug lords had swayed members of the Constituent Assembly to enact the bill, this measure was controversial. Escobar was imprisoned in La Catedral, his opulent private prison, which included a football field, a huge dollhouse, a bar, a waterfall, and a Jacuzzi. The government tried to transfer Escobar to a more traditional jail on July 22, 1992, as media reports of his ongoing criminal activity while incarcerated started to emerge. Escobar spent the rest of his life avoiding the police after using his influence to learn about the plan beforehand and successfully escape.
The Colombian police, the US government, and Escobar's adversaries, the Cali Cartel, all threatened him. By using U.S.-provided equipment, Colombian special forces were able to track down Escobar after he called his family and was discovered in a home in a middle-class neighborhood of Medellín on December 2, 1993. When police attempted to arrest Escobar, the altercation swiftly turned into a shooting match. In the process of trying to flee the roof, Escobar and a bodyguard were shot and killed. He was shot in the feet and torso, and one bullet killed him by striking him in the head. This raised questions regarding whether he was shot and died or if he committed suicide.
Following Escobar's passing and the Medellín Cartel's subsequent disintegration, the rival Cali Cartel took control of the cocaine market until the Colombian government assassinated or detained its leaders in the mid-1990s. In Medellín, Escobar's Robin Hood persona continued to have a strong hold. More than 25,000 people attended Escobar's funeral, and many there lamented his passing, particularly the city's impoverished, whom he had helped while he was still alive. Some of them pray to him for heavenly assistance since they view him as a saint. The Monte Sacro Cemetery is where Escobar was laid to rest.
The testimony of Virginia Vallejo ===
In the trial against former Senator Alberto Santofimio, who was charged with conspiracy in the 1989 assassination of presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galán, Virginia Vallejo, a television anchorwoman who had a romantic relationship with Escobar from 1983 to 1987, offered Attorney General Mario Iguarán her testimony on July 4, 2006. Iguarán admitted that the judge had chosen to end the trial on July 9, three weeks ahead of the planned closing date, even though Vallejo had gotten in touch with his office on July 4. It was thought to be too late.
Vallejo was transported to the United States on a special DEA airplane on July 18, 2006, for "safety and security reasons" because she had cooperated in high-profile criminal cases. RCN Television of Colombia broadcast a video on July 24 in which Vallejo accused Santofimio of encouraging Escobar to assassinate Galán, the presidential contender. 14 million people watched the film, which played a key role in the revived Galán assassination case. Santofimio received a 24-year prison sentence on August 31, 2011, for his involvement in the crime.
Participation in the siege of the Palace of Justice ====
Only Vallejo, one of Escobar's biographers, has provided a thorough account of his involvement in the siege of the Palace of Justice in 1985. She accused the army of being responsible for the deaths of over 100 persons, including 11 Supreme Court magistrates, M-19 members, and cafeteria staff, and claimed that Escobar had funded the operation, which was carried out by M-19. The case was reopened in 2008 as a result of her statements; Vallejo was called to testify, and the Commission of Truth in Colombia verified many of the incidents she had detailed in her book and testimonial. These incidents prompted more inquiry into the siege, which led to the conviction of a senior former colonel and a former general for the forced disappearance of those held following the siege. They were subsequently sentenced to 30 and 35 years in jail, respectively. Vallejo would later testify in the murder of Galán. She accused a number of leaders, including Colombian presidents Álvaro Uribe, Ernesto Samper, and Alfonso López Michelsen, of having ties to drug gangs in her book Amando a Pablo, odiando an Escobar (Loving Pablo, Hating Escobar).
When they couldn't find a country that would give them asylum, Escobar's wife (María Henao, now María Isabel Santos Caballero), son (Juan Pablo, now Sebastián Marroquín Santos), and daughter (Manuela) left Colombia in 1995. Maria continued to support her husband in spite of Escobar's repeated and persistent infidelity. To show their spouses how a lady should act, Cali Cartel members even played back their recordings of her talks with Pablo. Despite demanding and receiving millions of dollars in reparations for Escobar's war against her and her children, this attitude ultimately prevented the cartel from killing her and her children following Pablo's death. By personally promising that her son would not engage in the drug trade or pursue retribution against the cartel, Henao was even able to negotiate for her son's life.
The family fled to Brazil and then Mozambique before settling in Argentina. Before one of her business associates found out who she really was, Henao was a successful real estate entrepreneur living under a false identity, and she stole her profits. when being revealed to be Escobar's widow, Henao was detained for 18 months while her finances were examined when the local media was informed. She was eventually freed because investigators failed to connect her money to illicit activity. Henao fell in love with Escobar "because of his naughty smile [and] the way he looked at [her]. [He] was affectionate and sweet. A great lover. I fell in love with his desire to help people and his compassion for their hardship. We [would] drive to places where he dreamed of building schools for the poor. From [the] beginning, he was always a gentleman." María Victoria Henao de Escobar, now known as María Isabel Santos Caballero, still resides in Buenos Aires with her son and daughter. She and her son, Sebastián Marroquín Santos, were charged by Argentine federal judge Nestor Barral on June 5, 2018, with money laundering with two drug traffickers from Colombia. The judge ruled that assets worth around $1 million each might be seized.
The 2009 documentary Sins of My Father, directed by Argentinean filmmaker Nicolas Entel, follows Marroquín's attempts to ask the sons of Luis Carlos Galán, the assassinated presidential candidate in 1989, and Rodrigo Lara, Colombia's justice minister who was killed in 1984, for forgiveness on his father's behalf. The movie debuted on HBO in the United States in October 2010 after being screened at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. Under his given name, Marroquín released Pablo Escobar, My Father in 2014. The book offers a personal look at specifics of his father's life and discusses how his passing caused the family to fall apart. Marroquín intended for the book to be published in order to correct any errors about his father's travels in the 1990s.
Luz Maria Escobar, Escobar's sister, tried to atone for the drug lord's transgressions with a number of gestures. These include putting up a public memorial for his victims on the twentieth anniversary of his passing, leaving letters on their graves, and making public remarks in the media. In order to obtain a DNA sample to verify the purported paternity of an illegitimate child and eliminate any uncertainty regarding the identification of the body that had been interred alongside his parents for 12 years, Escobar's body was exhumed on October 28, 2006, at the request of some of his family members. Marroquín became enraged when RCN aired a video of the exhumation and accused his uncle Roberto Escobar and cousin Nicolas Escobar of being "merchants of death" for permitting the footage to run.
The property Hacienda Nápoles ===
Under a law known as Extinción de Dominio (Domain Extinction), the government donated the ranch, zoo, and castle of Hacienda Nápoles to low-income families following Escobar's passing. Four opulent hotels with views of the zoo encircle the site, which has been transformed into a theme park.
Escobar Inc. ===
Together with Olof K. Gustafsson, Roberto Escobar established Escobar Inc. in 2014 and filed for his brother Pablo Escobar's Successor-In-Interest rights in California, USA.
At Hacienda Nápoles, Escobar maintained a private menagerie with four hippos. They were left on the abandoned estate because it was thought that they would be too difficult to take and relocate following Escobar's passing. The animals had grown to 16 by 2007 and were now wandering the region in search of food in the adjacent Magdalena River. When two adults and one calf broke away from the herd in 2009, one of the adults (named "Pepe") was killed by hunters with permission from the local government after attacking people and killing cattle. Of the four hippos that Escobar originally had, 40 have been believed to exist at Puerto Triunfo, Antioquia Department, as of early 2014. Without control, the population number is projected to more than double over the next ten years, as of 2016.
Cocaine Hippos is a documentary about them that was made by the National Geographic Channel. There is no clear plan for what will happen to the creatures, but local environmentalists are fighting to safeguard them, according to a story in a Yale student magazine. Environmentalists disagreed about whether hippos were having a positive or negative impact, but locals and conservationists, especially those in the tourism sector, largely supported their continued presence, according to a 2018 National Geographic article. The Colombian authorities began chemically sterilizing the animals in October 2021.
According to former Colombian general Rosso José Serrano, Escobar plotted some of his most heinous acts at the six-story Edificio Mónaco apartment complex in the El Poblado district, which was destroyed by Medellín police on February 22, 2019, at 11:53 AM local time. Originally constructed for Escobar's wife, the building was destroyed by a Cali Cartel car bomb in 1988 and has been vacant ever since. As a result, it has drawn foreign tourists looking to view Escobar's physical legacy. In order to remember the thousands of cartel victims—including four presidential contenders and some 500 police officers—Mayor Federico Gutierrez had been advocating for the building's demolition and the construction of a park in its stead. In an attempt to demonstrate that the city had changed and had more to offer than the legacy left by the cartels, Colombian President Ivan Duque stated that the demolition "means that history is not going to be written in terms of the perpetrators, but by recognizing the victims."
Relationships and family ===
The 26-year-old Escobar wed the 15-year-old María Victoria Henao in March 1976. The duo eloped after the Henao family disapproved of their relationship because they thought Escobar was socially inferior. Manuela and Juan Pablo (now Sebastián Marroquín) were their two children. In her 2007 memoir, Amando a Pablo, odiando an Escobar (Loving Pablo, Hating Escobar), journalist Virginia Vallejo details her love affair with Escobar and the connections her lover had with prominent politicians, presidents, and Caribbean tyrants. Her novel served as the basis for the 2017 film Loving Pablo. Escobar is also said to have had a secret but intense relationship with Griselda Blanco, a drug distributor; a number of entries in her diary associate him with the monikers "Coque de Mi Rey" (My Coke King) and "Polla Blanca" (White Cock).
Escobar built or purchased a large number of homes and safe houses as he became affluent, with the Hacienda Nápoles being particularly well-known. The opulent home had a colonial home, a sculpture park, and an entire zoo with creatures from other continents, such as giraffes, hippopotamuses, elephants, and exotic birds. In addition, Escobar had intended to build a Greek-style fortification close by, but work on the citadel was never completed.
Under his own name, Escobar possessed a 6,500-square-foot (604-square-meter) pink waterfront estate in Miami Beach, Florida, located at 5860 North Bay Road. The US federal government took possession of the 1948-built, four-bedroom estate on Biscayne Bay in the 1980s. Christian de Berdouare, the owner of the fast-food restaurant Chicken Kitchen, later acquired the run-down property in 2014. In order to look for anything connected to Escobar or his cartel, De Berdouare would subsequently employ a documentary film crew and expert treasure hunters to examine the building both before and after it was demolished. Before it could be adequately inspected, they would discover strange holes in walls and floors, as well as a safe that had been stolen from its hole in the marble flooring.
About 35 kilometers (22 miles) from Cartagena, on Isla Grande, the largest of the 27 coral cluster islands that make up Islas del Rosario, Escobar possessed a sizable Caribbean retreat. A mansion, apartments, courtyards, a large swimming pool, a helicopter landing pad, reinforced windows, tiled flooring, and a massive but incomplete building to the side of the mansion were all part of the now-half-demolished compound, which is now overrun by flora and wild animals.
Numerous books have been written about Escobar, including the following:
Escobar (2010), authored by his brother Roberto Escobar, describes his rise to fame and eventual demise.
Roberto Escobar Gaviria (2016). I am Pablo Escobar's brother. Escobar, Inc. 978-0692706374 (ISBN).
Guy Gugliotta's 1989 book Kings of Cocaine recounts the Medellín Cartel's history, activities, and Escobar's position within it.
According to Mark Bowden's 2001 book Killing Pablo: The Hunt for the World's Greatest Outlaw, Escobar was slain and his cartel dismantled by Los Pepes, the Colombian military, and U.S. special forces and intelligence.
Andrea Rosenberg translated Juan Pablo Escobar's 2016 book Pablo Escobar: My Father.
In the background of the failing War on Drugs, Shaun Attwood's 2016 book Pablo Escobar: Beyond Narcos (ISBN 978-1537296302) recounts the tale of Escobar and the Medellín Cartel.
Stephen Murphy and Javier F. Peña, former DEA officers who were searching for Pablo Escobar in the 1990s, wrote Manhunters: How We Took Down Pablo Escobar (2019).
American-Made: Barry Seal's killer? Shaun Attwood's 2016 book Pablo Escobar or George HW Bush details Pablo's involvement as a suspect in the killing of CIA pilot Barry Seal (ISBN 978-1537637198).
Virginia Vallejo's 2017 book Loving Pablo, Hating Escobar was first released in Spanish by Penguin Random House in 2007 and has since been translated into 16 other languages.
Gabriel García Márquez's nonfiction work News of a Kidnapping (original Spanish title: Noticia de un secuestro) was published in English in 1997.
Escobar (2009) and Killing Pablo (2011), two significant feature films about Escobar, were announced in 2007. Information about them and other Escobar-related movies is provided below.
Cliff Curtis played Escobar in the 2001 American biographical picture Blow, which was based on George Jung, a Medellín Cartel member.
National Geographic's 2007 television program Pablo Escobar: The King of Coke includes archive material and stakeholder comments.
Because producer Oliver Stone was working on the George W. Bush film W, Escobar (2009) was postponed. (2008). Escobar's releasing date was still unknown as of 2008. Regarding the movie, Stone said: "This is a great project about a fascinating man who took on the system. I think I have to thank Scarface, and maybe even Ari Gold."
Joe Carnahan's 2011 film Killing Pablo was reportedly in development for a number of years. Mark Bowden's 2001 book of the same name, which was based on his 31-part series of essays on the topic in the Philadelphia Inquirer, was to serve as its basis. According to reports, Venezuelan actor Édgar Ramírez played Escobar, and Christian Bale played Major Steve Jacoby. The producer of Killing Pablo, Bob Yari, declared bankruptcy in December 2008.
In the romantic thriller Escobar: Paradise Lost (2014), a young Canadian surfer develops feelings for a girl who happens to be Escobar's niece.
Based on Virginia Vallejo's book Loving Pablo, Hating Escobar, Loving Pablo is a 2017 Spanish film starring Penélope Cruz as Virginia Vallejo and Javier Bardem as Escobar.
Mauricio Mejía played Escobar in the 2017 American action-comedy film American Made, which was largely inspired on Barry Seal's life.
Arturo Castro plays Escobar, a Weird Al admirer who kidnaps Weird Al's girlfriend, Madonna, in order to entice him to perform at his fortieth birthday party. Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (2022) is an American biopic parody that is largely based on the life of "Weird Al" Yankovic. Instead, Weird Al kills him.
The 2005 episode "Pablo Escobar – Hunting The Druglord" of the crime documentary series Mugshots on Court TV (now TruTV) featured Escobar.
In the fictional film Medellín, actor Vincent Chase (played by Adrian Grenier) plays Escobar in the 2007 HBO television series Entourage.
The Two Escobars (2010), directed by Jeff and Michael Zimbalist, is one of ESPN's 30 for 30 series films. It examines Colombia's 1994 World Cup run and the connection between sports and the nation's criminal organizations, particularly Escobar's Medellín drug cartel. The other Escobar in the movie's title is Andrés Escobar, a former Colombian defender who had nothing to do with Pablo and was shot and died a month after giving up an own goal that helped the Colombian national team lose the 1994 FIFA World Cup.
In the television series El cartel (The Cartel), produced by Caracol TV, Escobar is shot down by the hitmen of Cartel del Sur and is portrayed by an unidentified model. The show premiered on June 4, 2008.
Additionally, Caracol TV developed Pablo Escobar: El Patrón del Mal (Pablo Escobar, The Boss of Evil), a television series starring Andrés Parra as Pablo Escobar that debuted on May 28, 2012. The book La parábola de Pablo by Alonso Salazar served as its inspiration. Parra returns to his role in the first season of El Señor de los Cielos, A World of Passion, and Football Dreams. In order to avoid typecasting himself, Parra has stated that he will not reprise the role.
Tres Caínes, a television series produced by RTI Productions for RCN Televisión, debuted on March 4, 2013. Colombian actor Juan Pablo Franco, who played general Muriel Peraza in Pablo Escobar: El Patrón del Mal, plays Escobar in the opening episode of the series. In Surviving Escobar: Alias JJ, Franco plays the same character again.
A minor role of Escobar is played by an unidentified actor in the 2013 TV series Alias El Mexicano, which Fox Telecolombia created for RCN Televisión and debuted on November 5th.
On August 28, 2015, the Netflix original television series Narcos, which starred Brazilian actor Wagner Moura as Pablo, was released. The series tells the narrative of Escobar. On September 2, 2016, season two debuted on the streaming service.
The TV series En la boca del lobo, which was produced by Teleset and Sony Pictures Television for RCN Televisión, debuted on August 16, 2016. Fabio Restrepo, who played Javier Ortiz in Pablo Escobar: El Patrón del Mal, plays Escobar in the role of Flavio Escolar.
In 2016, Escobar appeared in an episode of the biography series Facing, which was televised by National Geographic.
The 68-minute documentary Countdown to Death: Pablo Escobar, which was directed by Santiago Diaz and Pablo Martin Farina, was made available on Netflix on January 24, 2018.
In 2021, the UK broadcast the documentary Killing Escobar. In 1989, Peter McAleese led a group of mercenaries hired by the Cali Cartel made an unsuccessful attempt to kill Escobar.
The Colombian actor Federico Rivera plays Escobar in the 2019 TV series El General Naranjo, which was produced by Fox Telecolombia and debuted on May 24.
American rapper E-40's 2013 single "Pablo" pays tribute to Pablo Escobar's legacy.
American rapper Kanye West's 2016 album, The Life of Pablo, was titled for the three Pablos—among them Pablo Escobar—who served as inspiration and symbolic representations for various parts of the record.
The official music video for Dubdogz's 2020 single "Pablo Escobar" (with Charlott Boss) has had over 5.6 million views.
The rap group Migos, headquartered in Atlanta, made parallels to Pablo Escobar, the Medellin Cartel, and the Netflix series Narcos in their 2018 smash single, Narcos, from their album Culture II.