A Photo and Its Story
Pablo Escobar was the most powerful drug kingpin of all time— and one of the most ruthless men in South America: “El Patrón” was known for his cruel methods of torture, which claimed the lives of more than 3,000 people. But how would you feel if this infa
Fascinating pictures and the story behind them
$1.5 MILLION— EVERY DAY
In the 1980s there were few people on the planet more powerful than Pablo Escobar, aka “El Patrón.” The Colombian criminal controlled around 80% of the global cocaine trade. “There were times when my father made around $1.5 million per day,” says Juan Sebastián Marroquín Santos. All the money Escobar raked in enabled him to keep many secret lovers. Escobar’s children, Juan and Manuela, may have had other siblings, but they didn’t know that during their childhood. Reason: Once one of Escobar’s lovers became pregnant, he could easily have her killed. Coldly and without mercy. Just as easily as the boss of the Medellín Cartel could have hundreds of policemen, politicians, and prosecutors killed. Little Juan knows nothing of this. For him this man is simply a loving father, the one who reads him his bedtime story at night…
13 YEARS OF LONELINESS
Juan Pablo Escobar, as he was known before his father’s death, cannot have visitors or even go to school. He spends his childhood on the 8,650-acre Nápoles ranch near Bogotá. He is shielded from the outside world by 50 round-the-clock bodyguards. His father is rarely there. But his estate is equipped with features that rival those of an amusement park: life-size statues of dinosaurs, swimming pools, artificial lakes, and even a private zoo. “Around me were giraffes, elephants, and hippos— yet I was always alone. It was like being in a gilded cage for 13 years,” recalls Santos. At first he suspects nothing of his father’s dealings. But later on, when the teenager he asks his father about the rumors on TV of involvement with drugs and murders, Escobar starts calling him “my 14- year- old pacifist son.”
2 PHONE CALLS THAT CHANGE EVERYTHING
The conversation takes just a few minutes, then Pablo Escobar hears a crackle in the phone line. He breaks off the connection with his son, Juan. At this moment it’s clear to the drug lord that the police have intercepted the call. Seconds later the special forces unit of Colombia’s police storms the apartment. Escobar only manages to make it to the rooftop terrace, where his body is riddled with bullets on December 2, 1993. Shortly after the phone rings. It’s Juan. A calm female voice tells him that his father is dead. The young man cries for minutes. “For the country, it was a gangster who died. For me— it was my father,” Santos would later recall. At that moment a new life began for the 15-year- old.
3,000 SINS, ONE CONSCIENCE
Even before Escobar’s death, the family had received death threats. Now many of the relatives of the more than 3,000 murder victims want revenge. Santos and his sister and mother are housed in a hotel and guarded by 50 police officers and soldiers 24 hours a day. Soon after all three change their names and apply for asylum to almost every country in the world. Finally they secure a tourist visa for Argentina, where they can remain. Today Santos, now 38, fears his father’s difficult legacy above all else. To atone for his father’s crimes, he meets with the sons of two of Escobar’s most prominent victims. He asks for forgiveness of the relatives of the more than 3,000 other victims whom his father has on his conscience. Santos seeks to comprehend the suffering of the people— and to absolve himself of the sins of his father…