Escobar’s dark legacy lives on in Colombia city long after his death

MEDELLIN (Colombia): Twentyfive years after his death, Pablo Escobar’s legacy lives on in Medellin city, where he ran his cocaine empire with brutality and generosity.

But as officials prepare to demolish the mansion where the drug lord lived, in the neighbourhood that bears his name residents living in homes he built for them plan heartfelt tributes to mark the anniversary of his death today.

Escobar was killed in a rooftop shoot-out in Medellin on Dec 2, 1993 – a day after his 44th birthday, and five months after appearing on Forbes magazine’s list of the world’s richest people seven times in a row.

His eight-story mansion, the Monaco, a symbol of the decadence of the Colombian mafia in the 1980s and 90s, has fallen into disrepair.

Its frame is still scarred by Colombia’s first car bombing, in 1988, the start of a bloody war between rival cartels.

The hulking white building is slated to be demolished in February.

“The Monaco has become an symbol for some who defend crime and terrorism,” says Manuel Villa, the city hall secretary.

“We don’t want children saying they want to be Pablo Escobar.”

The mansion, a tourist attraction in Medellin’s upscale El Poblado neighbourhood, will be replaced by a public park dedicated to the people killed by “narcoterrorism” – the no-holds-barred cartel war waged in the 1980s and ‘90s.

Colombia remains deeply divided over the legacy of Escobar.

Angela Zuluaga was an unborn baby when Escobar hitmen killed her father, a judge, for issuing an arrest warrant against their boss.

Her mother was wounded in the October 1986 attack.

“Creating this space means we attempt to symbolically compensate those who have suffered from narcoterrorism,” she says.

According to Medellin officials, Colombia’s drug violence killed 46,612 people from 1983 to 1994.

Meanwhile, Luz Maria Escobar cleans the tombstone at her brother’s grave ahead of the anniversary.

Tearfully, she reads its inscription: “Beyond the legend you symbolise today, few know the true essence of your life.”

A young woman from Puerto Rico asks if she can give her a hug.

Luz Maria admits her brother made mistakes, but opposes the city’s plan to get rid of his home.

“Tearing down the Monaco isn’t going to demolish Pablo’s history,” she says.

Escobar is seen as the “Colombian Robin Hood” in the neighbourhood with his name, where he donated 443 houses to homeless people.

“To me, God is first, and then him,” says resident Maria Eugenia Castano, 44, as she lights a candle at an altar with Escobar’s photograph.

At the nearby El Patron beauty salon, stylist Yamile Zapata sums up the contradictions of the late cocaine king’s memory.

“Pablo will confuse you. If you want to look at the good side, he was very good.

“If you want to look at the bad, he was very bad.”