Escobar: the Man, the Monster, the.. Good Samaritan?

A short list of my hobbies is as follows:

· Binge watching Netflix

I’ve logged hundreds of hours and finished entire seasons of shows in less than a day, so when Netflix announced the release of it’s new, original series, Narcos, of course I locked myself in my room and immediately finished off the first few episodes.

I fell for Narcos, and I fell hard.

This drama was so unlike the countless others that I’ve enjoyed because I knew that, for the most part, all of the action taking place was true. Pablo Escobar and his reign of terror on Colombia actually happened. The deaths, the bombings, the blood in the streets were reality for Colombians for quite some times. But so were donations, the food programs, the construction of soccer fields, parks, and housing for the homeless — all by Escobar. Whether it be true or not, Narcos even depicts Escobar as having literally handed out money in the streets.

The complexity and the complete polar opposites in actions were what so strongly compelled me to write on Escobar. Was he a bad man with good intentions, or a good man with bad intentions?

Escobar distinguished himself from the many other Colombian traffickers. How many drug dealers can you recall throughout history that have ran for AND been elected into office? Escobar was not your run of the mill, local drug dealer. He was a drug lord. His cocaine sales were so massive that they even landed him a seat on Forbes’s first-ever Billionaire’s List.

As told by Roberto Escobar, Pablo’s brother, the cartel spent roughly $2,500 a month on the rubber bands used to hold together their cash. To put things into perspective, that’s thirty grand a year. What would be considered the average salary for some is what the Medellin Cartel spent on office supplies.

But how did he make so much money?

It has often been said that it’s lonely at the top, and for Escobar it was more than likely especially lonely. Not because he had no close friends or family, as he was survived by a wife, a son, daughter, and a mistress, but because of the thousands of people he had killed to get there.

The Medellin Cartel was governed by one policy: “plata o plomo,” which in English would translate to “silver or lead.” Escobar believed that if he could not win someone over with a bribe, they could always be killed. Regardless of the means, he knew that in the end, he would always get his way. The cartel had its way with Colombian officials and law enforcement, as many were easily bought. Those who could not be bought were eliminated by hit men, such as the notorious Jhon Jairo Velasquez, also known as Popeye.

Though one might think that a drug lord’s biggest battle would be between competing cartels, Escobar had set his sights on a much bigger target. After a failed and short-lived political career and a battle against extradition, the subject of Escobar’s tactics became the Colombian government.

Escobar’s cartel was responsible for the murder of 600 police officers alone. That is not to mention the deaths of thousands of civilians, government officials and their families, the bombing of Avianca Flight 203 (a failed assassination attempt on Cesar Gaviria, a presidential candidate in favor of extraditing the traffickers), and the storming of the Colombian Supreme Court, believed to have been organized by Escobar.

So why would Colombians be so naïve as to have voted a man capable of all of these things into office? Escobar became a household name because of his activity in the drug trade. He was responsible for despicable actions, but there were still Colombians who adored him.

There were two sides to this complex man. To some his was feared for his gruesome actions, while others praised him for his charitable deeds.

The same man who had thousands killed at just a word donated millions to those in need.

Pablo Escobar was a modern, Colombian Robin Hood. When you’re earning hundreds of millions of dollars a week, at some point you realize that there’s only so much you can spend on yourself before you start giving it to others.

Escobar built soccer fields for Colombian youth, a zoo for the general public, and a housing complex for homeless Colombians who were living in garbage dumps, collecting trash and leftovers as food. Today, the housing complex is still standing, boasting a picture of Escobar’s likeness and bearing the name Barrio Pablo Escobar.

I’ve always thought of myself as a “glass half full” kind of person, the type that likes to believe that there is good in everyone. I guess this is why I found Narcos and Escobar’s story so enthralling. A lot can be said about Escobar. A lot of it is not good, but not all of it is bad either.

He was a monster at times, a ruthless monster. But he loved his country and his people. Some he killed, and others he saved. So while his story contains the stuff of nightmares, he was also a man — someone who lived, breathed, and at times felt compassion, just like the rest of us.