Perceptions of Colombia have changed a lot since I was a kid in the early 90s. It's much more peaceful now and while drugs may still be a problem down there, people are more likely to think of Shakira or Gabriel Garcia Marquez before they think of things like 'failed state' and 'narco-trafficantes.' Marc Bowden's fabulous book, Killing Pablo takes us back to one of the most infamous men at the heart of the violence that gripped the country: Pablo Escobar.
Bowden originally reported this story in a 31 part series for the Philadelphia Inquirer and in a documentary that ran on CNN- but it's equally as good in book form. Tracing the rise of Escobar from his childhood in Medellin, Colombia and his ruthless rise to power- at one point even almost taking a seat in the Colombian Congress, Escobar quickly became Public Enemy #1 and unleashed a campaign of terror and violence against Colombia as he fought extradition to the United States for a litany of drug-related crimes.
Yet he remained popular amongst many- 25,000 people attended his funeral. He was always quick to build schools, churches and soccer fields around his hometown with his excessive amount of drug money and although he yearned for legitimacy, Colombian society wasn't quite ready to accept a narco boss into the elite upper crust or let him get anywhere near the centers of power. When he responded by taking his fight directly to that state, it drew the ire of the Drug War fighting United States of America who soon became deeply involved in the hunt for Escobar and his eventual demise- probably more than people are aware of- Bowden included.
By the early 90s, Escobar was one of the most wanted men in the world and when he breaks out of a ridiculous prison (the Colombian Government secured his surrender but on terms way too generous to Escobar. La Catedral as his first prison was known was just that- pretty much a voluntary Club Med where Escobar stayed, complete with phone access so he could run his business from inside) and goes on the run, the hunt for him intensifies and that's really where this book takes off.
Bowden (if the name is familiar, it should be: he's the guy who wrote Black Hawk Down) constructs a beautifully intricate cast of characters- unveiling the Colombians and the Americans helping to hunt Escobar down and the struggles they had to overcome to do so. Escobar had informants throughout the government, especially in the police- which helped him stay a step ahead of his pursuers for a very long time indeed. But despite Escobar's ongoing violence- people began fighting back. A shadowy death squad nicknamed Los Pepes, operating outside the law began taking the fight directly to Escobar.
With his associates dying, his homes and businesses being destroyed by his enemies, the circle around Escobar drew ever tighter- even more so in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union, when the agencies across the US Government sought to prove their mettle in the Drug War to prove they still had worth in the changing post-Cold War world. As those tracking him got better and better, eventually, Escobar was going to make a mistake- and soon his pursuers had narrowed his location down to one particular neighborhood and after staying on the phone just a little too long with his son, they narrowed his location down even further and whether through blind luck or skill, someone visually identified him through a window and a shootout ensued in which he was killed.
Like Mark Kurlanksy, Marc Bowden is one of those authors that I've yet to have a bad experience with. Bowden builds his cast of characters gradually, setting the scene for the main event- in this case, the pursuit and capture of Pablo Escobar- who was at that time, one of the most wanted men in the world. As the pace in the hunt quickens, Bowden's writing follows suit until you get to the point where Escobar is having that one last conversations and the pace is fairly pulse pounding as his pursuers close in for the final time on the man that has eluded them for so long. By turns informative, fascinating and with all the twists and turns of a damn good Hollywood movie, Killing Pablo is a gripping read- made even more so by the fact that it's non-fiction instead of fiction.
Overall: Bowden has yet to miss in my book. Black Hawk Down was awesome- Killing Pablo is just as awesome (Guests of the Ayatollah and Worm are also on my must read list.) The man can write and knows how to construct an informative, gripping true-life story. **** out of ****
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